The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
April 7, 2017

Senate Deploys "Nuclear Option," Paving Way for Gorsuch Confirmation
--------------------------------------------------------------------

On Capitol Hill, Senators voted along party lines Thursday for a
historic rule change that will allow Supreme Court justices to be
confirmed by a simple majority. The 52-48 vote ended a Democratic-led
filibuster aimed at blocking Neil Gorsuch's confirmation, clearing the
way for a Senate vote today on President Trump's pick for the Supreme
Court. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc Connell said the move
was necessary to break a stalemate.

Sen. Mitch Mc Connell: "Our Democratic colleagues appear poised to block
this incredible nominee with the first successful partisan filibuster in
American history. It would be a radical move, something completely
unprecedented in the history of our Senate."

Mc Connell's comments came more than a year after he led his Senate
colleagues on a campaign to refuse to even consider President Obama's
pick for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. Democrats quickly condemned
the move by their Republican colleagues to end the filibuster in Supreme
Court confirmations-the so-called nuclear option. This is Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

Sen. Chuck Schumer: "The nuclear option means the end of a long history
of consensus on Supreme Court nominations. It weakens the standing of
the Senate as a whole, as a check on the president's ability to shape
the judiciary. In a post-nuclear world, if the Senate and the presidency
are in the hands of the same party, there's no incentive to even speak
to the Senate minority. That's a recipe for more conflict and bad blood
between the parties, not less."

A final confirmation vote for Neil Gorsuch is set for today. He's
expected to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, replacing Justice
Antonin Scalia nearly 14 months after Scalia's death.


.