FINAL ROUND OF DEBATES ON GORSUCH | Two Misleading Statements Senators Keep Making | BENNET PLAYING THE LONG GAME
April 3, 2017
ONE STEP CLOSER
|Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee takes us one step closer towards what is supposed to be a serious showdown over the nomination of JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH. The committee moved toward a vote and its 20 members began a final round of debate over the nominee. The Republicans hold a 11-9 majority on the committee and are expected to vote in support of the nomination.
SORRY I AIN'T SORRY
|Sunday, SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL once again defended his decision to block the nomination of JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” McConnell said, “If the shoe had been on the other foot, they wouldn’t have filled a Republican president’s vacancy.”
NEVER SAY DI
|The ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, says she plans to vote against the confirmation of JUDGE GORSUCH.
THE TIDES OF CHANGE
|“A third Democratic senator announced his support on Sunday for PRESIDENT TRUMP’S Supreme Court pick, JUDGE NEIL M. GORSUCH, though Republicans still face the difficult task of gaining enough Democratic votes to confirm Judge Gorsuch without potentially having to change longstanding Senate practice. The senator, JOE DONNELLY of Indiana, is among a group of 10 Democratic senators who represent states that voted for Mr. Trump and who are up for re-election in 2018. So far, two others — Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — have announced their support for Judge Gorsuch.” Michael Schmidt and Noah Weiland of The New York Times report.
MICHAEL BENNET IS IN A BIND
|Seung Min Kim with POLITICO reports that SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET is riding the struggle bus over the SCOTUS confirmation process. “The centrist Coloradan is under siege like no other Senate Democrat in the battle over Neil Gorsuch — trapped between significant home-state pressure to back the Denver-bred judge and a scorching liberal base urging Democratic senators to filibuster President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee.” In private, Bennet has been trying to convince his Democratic colleagues that Gorsuch’s nomination isn’t the one to get all worked up about — it’s the next vacancy under PRESIDENT TRUMP that really matters.
PLAYING THE LONG GAME
|This morning, SENATOR BENNET declared that he will not be joining his Democratic colleagues after all. The Colorado Democrat will not block the nomination of NEIL GORSUCH noting, “Changing the Senate rules now will only further politicize the Supreme Court.”
LET REALITY SINK IN
|Jennifer Rubin with The Washington Post reminds us what losing the filibuster would really mean for the Supreme Court and the future of governance. She writes, “There are real and significant dangers for the Senate and the Supreme Court once the filibuster — and the threat of filibuster — disappear. Two come immediately to mind.”
BROUGHT THAT OLD THING BACK
|“Wondering when Supreme Court nominations became so politically contentious? Only about 222 years ago — when the Senate voted down GEORGE WASHINGTON’S choice for chief justice.” That’s Mark Sherman with The Associated Press reminding us that even though this year’s SCOTUS “brouhaha” feels like a cutting edge political drama, Supreme Court fights are nothing new.
LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE
|Find out from Amber Phillips with The Washington Post what two, big misleading statements senators can’t stop making in the battle over NEIL GORSUCH’S nomination.
THE GOVERNMENT ALMOST GONE
|In The New York Times, Emily Bazelon and Eric Posner consider the government Gorsuch wants to undo, contemplating how his judicial philosophy undermines modern government. They argue, “In strongly opposing the administrative state, JUDGE GORSUCH is in the company of incendiary figures like the White House adviser STEVE BANNON, who has called for its ‘deconstruction.’ The Republican-dominated House, too, has passed a bill designed to severely curtail the power of federal agencies.”
ON THE ROAD
|Speaking at her alma mater Princeton University over the weekend, JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR avoided any talk about the man who could possibly be her newest colleague on the bench. She did, however, nod to HILLARY CLINTON’S loss in the presidential election. She expressed regret at Clinton’s missed opportunity to break the glass ceiling and be the first woman president. “That’s still an issue that permeates our society,” Sotomayor said.
ONLY IN NEW YORK
|Speaking of JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, she seems to be in a New York state of mind with visits planned to three upstate New York colleges this week. Today she’ll be at Albany Law School, and tomorrow she’ll be at the Sage Colleges and the University of Albany.
SCOTUS VIEWS
Do Democrats really want to provoke an unprecedented showdown over Gorsuch?
Marc A. Thiessen“Maybe one day, after both parties have had to live with the consequences of the nuclear option, there will be a broad consensus to go back to the way things were. But for now, it seems, Democrats seem hellbent on provoking a nuclear showdown. The choice is theirs.”
Mitch McConnell's Nuclear Trigger Finger
The Washington Post“No one should fall for Republicans’ trickery. Democrats are right to embrace their principled opposition to Judge Gorsuch and remember that however Mr. McConnell chooses to respond, it will be his decision alone. Going nuclear, or changing Senate rules to make a Supreme Court confirmation possible with a simple majority, would be a hugely disproportionate response to reasonable Democratic opposition and will expose Mr. McConnell’s much-ballyhooed “institutionalism” as the fraud it has always been.”
Neil Gorsuch got where he is because of a form of affirmative action
The Washington Post“Race-based affirmative action is visible and divisive, but it offers no more advantages to its beneficiaries than the invisible helping hand that folks such as Gorsuch received. I don’t begrudge him for taking advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves to him as he was pursuing a legal career. He has shined as a legal star after receiving those benefits.”
OTHER NEWS
Ballot Selfies Allowed as U.S. Supreme Court Rebuffs New Hampshire
Bloomberg“Voters in New Hampshire are free to take selfies with their election ballots and post the photos online after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive a state ban on the practice.”
Company Exposure to Human-Rights Suits Gets U.S. Supreme Court Look
Bloomberg“The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to use a case stemming from Middle Eastern terrorism to decide whether victims of overseas atrocities can use a two-century-old federal law to sue corporations for complicity.”