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Top Senate
Democrat Chuck Schumer said Thursday he will oppose the confirmation of
President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick. Schumer, during a speech from the
Senate floor on the final day of hearings for nominee Neil Gorsuch, said he
"was unable to sufficiently convince me he'd be an independent check"
on Trump. The senator accused Gorsuch of having a "deep-seated
conservative ideology."
Republicans
"will have to earn 60 votes for the confirmation," otherwise, Schumer
said, they will need to "change the nominee." Democratic Senator Bob
Casey of Pennsylvania joined Schumer in announcing his opposition to the
Gorsuch nomination, citing "serious concerns about Judge Gorsuch's rigid
and restrictive judicial philosophy."
Republican
leaders need to secure at least eight Democratic votes to pass the Gorsuch
nomination, or they will need to trigger the so-called "nuclear
option" to change the rules and allow the vote to pass with just a simple
majority. A U.S. Senate panel considering the nomination heard testimony
Thursday from lawyers, advocacy groups and other federal judges in the final
stage of his confirmation hearing.
After Thursday,
it will be up to the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on whether to send the
nomination to the full Senate. The panel spent this week questioning Gorsuch. A
committee made up of members of America's top lawyers group gave Gorsuch a
"well-qualified" rating after contacting nearly 5,000 people around
the country with knowledge of his qualifications.
Nancy Scott
Degan of the American Bar Association said during testimony Thursday that the
rating is based on integrity, professional competence and temperament. She also
noted that the high rating isn't given out frivolously. "The scope of our
investigation was deep and broad," Degan said. "We do not give the
well-qualified rating lightly."
Gorsuch was
tapped by Trump to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of
Justice Antonin Scalia more than a year ago. During last year's campaign, Trump
promised to nominate jurists who are committed to overturning Roe v. Wade, the
linchpin for one of the most ferociously contested social issues in America.
During
Wednesday’s session, Gorsuch described a landmark 1973 pro-abortion rights
decision as "the law of the land." "The Supreme Court of the
United States has held in Roe v. Wade that a fetus is not a person,"
Gorsuch told the Senate Judiciary Committee, explaining the ruling that
legalized abortion. "That’s the law of the land. I accept the law of the
land."
A day earlier,
Gorsuch described Roe v. Wade as legal precedent, but added that precedents can
be overturned. Over two days of testimony, Democrats repeatedly pressed Gorsuch
on what they see as his pro-corporate record as a federal appellate judge.
Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse argued that corporations
wield too much power in Washington, given their unlimited ability to make
financial contributions to political campaigns, thanks to a Supreme Court
decision known as Citizens United.
Gorsuch
responded that, rather than looking to the courts to rein in corporate
influence, lawmakers could do the job themselves. "There's room not just
for litigation, Senator, but legislation [as well]," the nominee said. Whitehouse
replied that a Congress beholden to corporate interests will never do as
Gorsuch suggests.
"Here's the
problem. ... Once you let certain political interests achieve the kind of
dominance that Citizens United has let them get, they can start to exert
disproportionate control over Congress, and now Congress can't do that any
longer because there is no longer a fair playing field," Whitehouse said.
Whatever
objections Democrats may have, blocking Gorsuch from the high court will prove
difficult. Republicans are in the majority and have the votes to approve him in
committee and send his nomination to the full Senate. Once there, Republicans
can change Senate rules to eliminate Democrats' ability to block a final vote
through the filibuster.
VOA’s Joshua
Fatzick contributed to this report.