Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination
On January 31, 2017, soon after taking office, President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Neil Gorsuch for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed Antonin Scalia, who had died almost one year earlier. Then-president Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Merrick Garland to succeed Scalia on March 16, 2016, but the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate did not vote on the nomination. Majority leader Mitch McConnell declared that as the presidential election cycle had already commenced, it made the appointment of the next justice a political issue to be decided by voters. The Senate Judiciary Committee refused to consider the Garland nomination, thus keeping the vacancy open through the end of Obama's presidency on January 20, 2017.
Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination
January 31, 2017
April 7, 2017
Approved by the U.S. Senate
11
9
Reported favorably
55
45
First cloture motion failed, but the second cloture motion succeeded due to the passage of the "nuclear option”
54
45
Confirmed
When nominated, Gorsuch was a sitting judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, a position to which he had been appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006. Democratic Senators launched a filibuster against Gorsuch's nomination to block his confirmation. However, Republicans invoked the "nuclear option", eliminating the filibuster with respect to Supreme Court nominees.[1] The Senate ultimately confirmed Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court by a 54–45 vote on April 7, 2017 (all Republicans and three Democrats voted in his favor). Ten days after his confirmation, Gorsuch heard his first case as the 101st associate justice of the Court, in Anthony Perry vs. Merit Systems Protection Board.[2]
Background[edit]
On February 13, 2016, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly.[3][4] His death triggered a protracted political battle that did not end until the Senate confirmed Gorsuch's nomination in April 2017.
Political commentators at the time widely recognized Scalia as one of the most conservative members of the Court, and noted that then-President Barack Obama had an opportunity to name a more liberal replacement, a move that could alter the Court's ideological balance for many years into the future.[5] The president ultimately nominated Merrick Garland on March 16, 2016. His confirmation would have given Democratic appointees a majority on the Supreme Court for the first time since the 1970s.[6] Republican Senate leaders, citing the fact that the vacancy arose during Obama's final year as president, declared that the Senate would not even consider a nomination from the president.[7]
Garland's nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the 114th Congress, 293 days after it had been submitted to the Senate.[7] As a result of the nomination's defeat, Scalia's seat remained vacant until after Donald Trump's January 20, 2017 presidential inauguration.[7] Only the 15th time in U.S. Senate history that a Supreme Court nomination had lapsed at the end of a session of Congress,[8] many Democrats reacted angrily to the Senate's refusal to consider Garland, with Senator Jeff Merkley describing the vacant seat as a "stolen seat".[9] However, Republicans such as Senator Chuck Grassley argued that the Senate was within its rights to refuse to consider a nominee until the inauguration of a new president.[10]
Nomination[edit]
Potential candidates[edit]
During the 2016 presidential campaign, while Garland remained before the Senate, Trump released two lists of potential nominees. On May 18, 2016, Trump released a short list of eleven judges for nomination to the Scalia vacancy.[11] In September 2016, Trump released a second list of ten possible nominees, this time including three minorities.[12]
Both lists were assembled by the Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation.[13] Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society played a major role in the creation of the second list, which included Gorsuch.[14][15] The Trump administration also considered nominating Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the seat, who were later nominated and confirmed after the retirement of Anthony Kennedy in 2018 and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, respectively.[16]
After winning the presidential election, Trump and White House Counsel Don McGahn interviewed four individuals for the Supreme Court opening, all of whom had appeared on one of the two previously-released lists.[13] The four individuals were federal appellate judges Tom Hardiman, Bill Pryor and Neil Gorsuch, as well as federal district judge Amul Thapar, all appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush[13] While Pryor had been seen by many as the early front-runner due to the backing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, many evangelicals expressed resistance to him, and the final decision ultimately came down to Gorsuch or Hardiman.[13] Hardiman had the support of Trump's sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry,[13] but Trump instead chose to nominate Gorsuch.[17]
Announcement[edit]
President Trump announced the nomination of Gorsuch on January 31, 2017. The nomination was formally received by the Senate on February 1, 2017, and was subsequently referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.[8] At the time of his nomination, Gorsuch was described as solidly conservative, but likely to be confirmed without much difficulty.[18][19][20] Richard Primus of Politico described Gorsuch as "Scalia 2.0" due to ideological similarities,[21] and a report prepared by Lee Epstein, Andrew Martin, and Kevin Quinn predicted that Gorsuch would be a "reliable conservative" similar to Scalia.[22]
According to The Washington Post, Trump considered rescinding Gorsuch's nomination, venting angrily to advisers after his Supreme Court pick was critical of the president's escalating attacks on the federal judiciary in a private February meeting with Democratic legislators.[23]
Announcement of nominee
Confirmation hearing witness testimony