The Democrats probably will not be able to stop the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch for SCOTUS.
They probably not be able to get this paused as the question of Trump’s legitimacy as a president because he IS under FBI investigation — and by Republican’s own metric that calls a legitimacy of a presidency into question but IOKIYAR.
McConnell has already trotted out the nuclear option if Democrats try to filibuster this nomination. He does not caring that allowing this to continue and even seating him on the court puts the whole legitimacy of the Supreme Court of the United States under question in the minds of at least half of America.
The only thing that seems to matter is party before country so the nomination will go ahead, to hell with the damage done — because he and the Republicans have already done damage to the court by not even treating the Merrick Garland nomination with enough respect to allow hearings. They could have all voted “No,” but that they would not allow hearings shows that they were already willing to damage and did damage the court.
Killing the filibuster would not be a line too far for them. So Democrats may want to hold their fire on that. This might not be the hill to die on to lose the filibuster. Though it will certainly show that Democrats went to the mat for the integrity of SCOTUS.
What they can do is walk out. They’ve already shown Neil Gorsuch MORE respect and courtesy than was shown to Merrick Garland. They’ve already shown Trump more respect and courtesy than was shown to Barack Obama.
They MUST all vote “NO” on Neil Gorsuch.
And WE must make it clear that anyone who doesn’t vote NO (not absent or abstain but NO) will be primaried.
And then as Republicans have been trying to do since election day, to rewrite history, we must never let them forget why this is. We cannot and should not ever refer to Neil Gorsuch as Justice Neil Gorsuch should he be elected to SCOTUS. Just like there are many of us who will never put the word “president” in front of Trump’s name, THIS IS A STOLEN SEAT and as such he should be known as and referred “Justice Stolen Seat” by liberals for all time.
Garland's nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the 114th Congress. The nomination remained before the Senate for 293 days, more than twice as long as any other Supreme Court nomination. President Donald Trump, a Republican, instead nominated Neil Gorsuch on January 31, 2017. — Wikipedia
Yes at any other time Merrick Garland’s nomination would have expired on January 3, 2017- but this is not like any other time. The only person who should have been nominated to fill this seat after inaugaration should have been Merrick Garland. He should have been given a hearing. Again all the Republicans had to do was vote him down, and then Trump could have nominated Gorsuch.
Yes all theater but it was all Republicans had to do eliminate this issue in the first place: delay Garland’s hearing until the last 150 days of Obama’s presidency, slow walked the hearings and then vote “no.” But they didn’t.
Merrick Garland’s nomination to SCOTUS has now been blocked 371 days — and it will be considered blocked every day he is not given a hearing for Scalia’s seat, until the day Judge Garland shuck’s off his mortal coil.
They did this. They damaged the court 371 days ago and there’s no kumbyah call for civility to repair it other than to give Merrick Garland a hearing for this seat. Which was not done - they should never be allowed to re-write history about this.
The court’s institutional integrity completely rests on public confidence in the court. It’s not like other positions. The court, if it is under a cloud, under a shadow of some sort, there’s nothing the court can do to get that back. And so this is a different institution from other institutions of government in so far as all of these questions about the legitimacy, this stolen seat now being filled by a stolen presidency. The rest of the Republic can recover from this. You know what doesn’t recover, the court. The court really does institutionally suffer when public judgment about the court’s legitimacy is in doubt. It’s different from other institutions and that really up the stakes here in a way that is beyond fatuously quoting Ted Cruz. It really hurts the court. — Dahlia Lithwick, The Rachel Maddow Show, 3/21/2017