Neil McGill Gorsuch of Colorado received Senate confirmation Friday, April 7, as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court. He will replace Justice Antonin Scalia who died more than a year earlier in February of 2016. President Obama had nominated Merrick Garland for Scalia’s seat, but the Republican dominated Senate refused to confirm him. This, no doubt, colored the Democratic perceptions of Gorsuch. Gorsuch was only confirmed after the Senate changed the rules to facilitate his confirmation after the first Democratic filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee in American history.
Prior to the change in rules, the Senate needed 60 votes to close debate (cloture) on all presidential nominees. But in 2013 the Democrats, with Supreme Court support, changed the rules of cloture so that only a simple majority was required to confirm all presidential nominees except for the Supreme Court. This made it difficult for the Republican minority to oppose many of President Obama’s nominees because Democrats dominated the Senate back then. Now Senate Republicans used a similar tactic to turn the tables on the Democrats and forced the change of procedure to a simple majority for cloture on a Supreme Court nominee. The rule can be changed by a mere majority vote.
Prior to the change, Senate Democrats filibustered the vote in an attempt to delay closure of the debate (cloture) on Gorsuch’s confirmation, but when the Republicans opted to use the so-called “nuclear option” to change the rules, Democrats got some of their own medicine. They could hardly oppose the change because they had done it themselves previously.
The Senate voted 54-45 to confirm Gorsuch to the Supreme Court for life. At 49 years of age, Gorsuch will likely be around for a long while and could significantly impact the trajectory of the court.
For the past 10-plus years on the 10th Circuit, Gorsuch has developed a reputation as a strict “textualist” and “originalist” — like Scalia, someone who reads statutes and the Constitution literally and seeks to interpret them through the eyes of their authors.
“I fear very much that (Gorsuch) will be part of an extreme right-wing majority that will attack workers’ rights, women’s rights and environmental protection as well as make our political system less democratic,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Democratic candidate for president.
Changing the rules is dangerous. Once the change is made, and a new party is elected to power, they will use the new process for their own ends. Gradually, the nation’s lawmakers will make the Senate and the Supreme Court more political than it already is.
Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. said the Republicans’ rules change will make the Senate and the Supreme Court more partisan places. “As a result, America’s faith in the integrity of the court and their trust in the basic impartiality of the law will suffer,” he said. “Those are serious things for this republic.”
As the two main U.S. parties have become more polarized, it will make an even more crucial impact. Political elites and others know that people get tired of their leaders and eventually replace them with an individual from another party with an opposite view. After the Senate’s rules changed to eliminate the minority party’s power, “the president no longer needs to garner support from any Democrats,” said John Malcolm, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “Republicans may be more emboldened to nominate more judges that have a conservative track record.
In just a few short years, the lack of bi-partisan collaboration and political extremism has made it easier for the ruling party, whether Republican or Democrat to push its extreme agenda more successfully. No doubt the enemy of souls will use this to bring America to the brink of national apostasy.
If President Trump gets to replace any of the three elderly members of the Supreme Court, it could swing much further to the right.
The rightward swing of the United States is laying the foundation for the reaction to the liberal over-reach, which could easily lead to religious laws, once large disasters fall upon the inhabitants of the United States and are perceived as divine judgments. Will Judge Gorsuch help prepare for the fulfillment of the following statement?
“Satan will excite indignation against the humble minority who conscientiously refuse to accept popular customs and traditions. Men of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile to take counsel against the people of God. Wealth, genius, education, will combine to cover them with contempt. Persecuting rulers, ministers, and church members will conspire against them. With voice and pen, by boasts, threats, and ridicule, they will seek to overthrow their faith. By false representations and angry appeals, they will stir up the passions of the people. Not having a “Thus saith the Scriptures” to bring against the advocates of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply the lack. To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for a Sunday law… On this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5 pages 450-451.