US Senate confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, to the lifetime post would restore the court's conservative majority and enable Donald Trump to leave a lasting imprint on America's highest judicial body even as he regularly criticises the federal judiciary.
Accusing Democrats of "hurtling toward the abyss," the US Senate's top Republican said on Tuesday he would start the clock ticking toward a vote to thwart their bid to block confirmation of President Donald Trump's conservative Supreme Court nominee.
Democrats plan to use a procedural hurdle called a filibuster requiring a super-majority of 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to end debate on Neil Gorsuch's nomination and move to a final confirmation vote by a simple majority. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's motion would lead to a vote, due on Thursday, to try to end the filibuster against Gorsuch.
Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, to the lifetime post would restore the court's conservative majority and enable Trump to leave a lasting imprint on America's highest judicial body even as he regularly criticises the federal judiciary. McConnell lacks the numbers to kill the Democratic filibuster. But he is expected to move immediately after that vote to another one to change long-standing Senate rules by a simple majority to bar filibusters against Supreme Court nominees.
Republicans have said regardless of what the Democrats do, Gorsuch will be confirmed on Friday. Republicans hold a 52-48 Senate majority. The nation's biggest business lobbying group, the US Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday it had sent letters to all 100 senators urging Gorsuch's confirmation, calling it a vote of high importance to the organization. Conservative advocacy groups separately have pursued a multimillion-dollar campaign backing Gorsuch.
The proposed Senate rule change has been dubbed the "nuclear option," and the Republican president has urged McConnell to do it. "Democrats are now being pushed by far-left interest groups into doing something truly detrimental to this body and to our country," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "They seem to be hurtling toward the abyss this time, and trying to take the Senate with them. They need to reconsider."
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, leading the filibuster effort, said it was the Republicans who bear responsibility for the crisis. He noted that the Senate, under McConnell's guidance, refused in 2016 to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama's nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland to fill the same high court vacancy that Trump has selected Gorsuch to fill.
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 "United States (US), Donald Trump, US Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, Mitch McConnell, Barack Obama")
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