Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called out Democrats — and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in particular — for raising “grave concerns” about Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court when his appointment to federal bench sailed through the chamber in 2006 without a hitch.
“Judge Gorsuch was confirmed [by the Senate] in exceptionally fast time for a court of appeals nominee — just two months,” McConnell said Thursday in remarks on the Senate floor. “So you have to wonder if this nominee was so non-controversial that a roll call wasn’t even required, what’s happened in the last 10 years?”
Democrats, including Schumer, didn’t raise a concern during Gorsuch’s 2006 committee hearing and none cast “a single negative vote,” he pointed out.
“What could justify these grave concerns he claims to have now?” McConnell asked.
Schumer responded that the Supreme Court over the last decade has drifted “increasingly” into a corporate-oriented body that is not representing the interests of the “average working person.” In addition, he said, the Trump administration in just its first weeks is already testing the limits of the law and “the very fabric of our Constitution” with its executive orders placing a temporary halt on immigration and travel from seven Muslim-majority nations.
For those reasons, Schumer said, Gorsuch faces a “special burden” to be “an independent jurist … someone who approaches the court without ideological blinders … and has the strength of will to stand up to the president” when he acts outside the Constitution’s limits.
The New York Democrat also stressed the need for Gorsuch’s nomination to attract bipartisan support and reach the 60 Senate votes necessary to overcome a procedural hurdle or a filibuster.
“Bipartisan support is essential and should be a pre-requisite,” he said. “That’s what a 60-vote threshold does … it produces a mainstream candidate.”
