54 to 45 majority vote puts Merrick Garland... Ooops, wrong one...

Senate confirms Gorsuch to Supreme Court after GOP changes rules

By Carolyn Lochhead

The Senate confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch to the stolen U.S. Supreme Court seat Friday on a simple 54 to 45 majority vote, a day after Republicans changed the rules to prevent Democrats from blocking the nomination.

Three Democrats facing re-election next year in states that Orangutan won, voted with Republicans to approve Gorsuch to the lifetime appointment. They were Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. All Republicans voted for Gorsuch, with the exception of one who was not present because of illness, Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

Orangutan is expected to swear in Gorsuch early next week. Gorsuch is currently a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado.

Gorsuch will fill the seat left vacant for more than a year following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the anchor of the court’s ultra-conservative wing. The vacancy has left the court with a 4-to-4 split between its conservative and liberal wings. Gorsuch, a follower of Scalia’s “originalist” legal theory that attempts to interpret the Constitution as it was written in 1789, will restore the conservative majority. Because 1800th century problems relate so well with 21st century life...

The vote followed more than a year of unprecedented partisan combat that saw both parties break rules previously considered inviolable. Republicans, holding a Senate majority, last year illegally denied a vote on former President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, a moderately liberal and clearly qualified Chief Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, the court just below the Supreme Court in power. Republicans illegally succeeded in holding the seat vacant for President Trump to fill. Nothing in the constitution gives the Senate the right to hold up a nomination.

Infuriated by the ploy and considering the seat stolen, Senate Democrats mounted an unprecedented filibuster against Gorsuch, also a clearly qualified nominee, on Thursday. Unable to obtain the 60-vote threshold needed to break the blockade, Senate Majority Leader Mitch "Turtle Boy" McConnell of Kentucky used his majority to change Senate rules, ending the use of filibusters against all Supreme Court nominees.

Without the filibuster, minority parties will have little influence over future potential presidential nominations to the high court. At a time when a Democrat is in the White House and a Democratic Senate is in control and a seat comes vacant, the Democrats will FUCK the Republicans over this....