Democrats Need To Confirm Neil Gorsuch

As of this writing, just two Senate Democrats—Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of South Dakota—have said that they will vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Over thirty other members of the caucus, including the Minority Leader, have indicated their opposition to Gorsuch, and the remainder (about a dozen) remain uncommitted, at least publicly.

For comparison’s sake, five Republicans ultimately voted to confirm Elena Kagan, the most recent Democratic nominee to the Supreme Court, in 2010. The previous year, nine Republicans voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor. As both votes occurred when Democrats still held close to sixty seats in the Senate, neither nomination was ever in any serious jeopardy.

The days when strongly conservative or liberal nominees to the Supreme Court, such as Antonin Scalia or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, could be confirmed with near unanimity are clearly over. But the fact remains that there is an empty seat on the Supreme Court which must be filled, and Democrats are not likely to see a more qualified, respected, or thoughtful judge than Neil Gorsuch be nominated to fill the vacancy. The Democratic caucus, egged on by liberal activists, is obviously betting that a general policy of resistance will have a big payoff in 2018.

The reason Republicans blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination last year was simple: it was a presidential election year, and whoever won the election should get the opportunity to fill the vacancy. It was an idea built over decades of Senate tradition, by Republicans and Democrats alike. Do those Democrats now blocking Gorsuch, who last year argued so strenuously that there could be no vacancies on the Court, now want Scalia’s seat left vacant until 2020?

Neil Gorsuch is an outstanding nominee, highly qualified, has no skeletons in his closet, and has proven through both his testimony and written opinions that he serves the law and the Constitution, at the expense of any personal agenda. Democrats can ask for no better from any nominee to the Supreme Court, much less a Republican nominee.