Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid predicted that Senate Democrats would nuke the filibuster next year if Republicans try to block a Supreme Court nominee.
“They mess with the Supreme Court, it’ll be changed just like that in my opinion,” Reid told Talking Points Memo.
Reid used the “nuclear option” in 2013, when Democrats changed Senate rules to stop Republicans from filibustering executive branch and lower-court nominations. Senate Republicans cried foul, accusing Reid of “breaking the rules to change the rules” because Democrats changed the filibuster rules with a simple majority vote, even though Senate rules require that a proposed rule change receive two-thirds support in the Senate to pass.
Reid won’t be leading the Senate next year — with his retirement, that job falls to New York Democrat Chuck Schumer — but he’s confident that his colleagues will use the nuclear option again if they retake the Senate and then face a Republican filibuster.
“I really do believe that I have set the Senate so when I leave, we’re going to be able to get judges done with a majority,” Reid said. “And, it’s clear to me that if the Republicans try to filibuster another circuit court judge, but especially a Supreme Court justice, I’ve told ’em how and I’ve done it, not just talking about it. I did it in changing the rules of the Senate. It’ll have to be done again.”
