It’s been more than a year since the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in February of 2016. With almost a year left in his tenure as president, Barack Obama moved to fill the position and was blocked by house Republicans regardless of what party his nomination belonged to. Now, the tables have turned as Democrats have the opportunity to do the same towards Donald Trump’s replacement pick, Judge Neil Gorsuch. However, with Democrats having already confirmed Neil Gorsuch once before, is the SCOTUS pick a sure thing?
Is Neil Gorsuch’s Confirmation Already A Sure Thing?
With Republicans already controlling the majority in Congress and the Senate, confirming Trump’s picks has been fairly easy to this point. In fact, with the exception of Secretary of Labor pick Andy Puzder, who withdrew from consideration after it became obvious he wouldn’t receive the necessary votes to be confirmed, all of Trump’s picks have been confirmed — including Secretary of Education pick Betsy DeVos, who was confirmed by a historic tie breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence.
Can the Supreme Court pick be any different?
Democrats have the opportunity to filibuster, and draw out the hearing until it’s dead. And Republicans want to avoid that if at all possible. But will they actually do that? A lot of Democrats, while not agreeing with the views of Judge Gorsuch, support his integrity as a Supreme Court Justice.
So how did day one go?
In short, as expected. Republicans rallied around Gorsuch while Democrats focused on the refusal of Republicans to even meet with President Obama’s SCOTUS pick, Judge Merrick B. Garland, But Democrats claim to be taking the high road and at least meeting with Gorsuch, which bodes well — at least initially — for a confirmation.
Republicans would love to get 8 more votes from Senate Democrats, which is a very real possibility. Especially considering that 10 Senate members are up for reelection in states which Trump won. or
The fact is, it doesn’t matter if they get the Democratic votes or not. If Gorsuch can’t secure the 60 votes needed for confirmation, Republicans could just change the rules and elevate Judge Gorsuch to Justice Gorsuch on a simple majority vote.
Watch this video from PBS NewsHour to see excerpts from Neil Gorsuch’s first confirmation hearing:
Gorsuch has a better-than-even chance of becoming Justice Antonin Scalia’s replacement. If so, one thing traders should know about him is that he believes in a hands off approach to government, with a record suggesting a bias towards corporate interests. If Gorsuch takes the vacancy, expect corporations to be the big winner here.
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