Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced his expected plans to vote “no” on Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court and promised that Republicans would have to overcome a Democratic filibuster in order to seat him.
“I have come to a decision after careful deliberation. I have concluded that I cannot support Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court,” the New York Democrat said Thursday.
Schumer went on to say that Gorsuch will have to overcome a “cloture vote” and “earn his confirmation.”
The Democratic leader was referencing a planned Democratic filibuster that will require Republicans to persuade eight Democrats to vote in favor of his nomination in order to reach the 60-vote threshold required to shut down a filibuster.
Schumer said Republicans pushing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to change the Senate rules to allow a simple, 51-vote majority to confirm high court nominees are misguided.
Instead, he said, Republicans should find a new nominee that can attract enough votes to reach the 60-vote threshold.
“If this nominee cannot earn 60 votes — a bar met by each of President Obama’s nominees and President Bush’s nominees, the answer is not to change the rules, it’s to change the nominee,” he said.
Former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., when he was serving as majority leader in 2013, went “nuclear” and changed Senate rules to allow simple majority votes on all presidential nominations except Supreme Court appointments.
