Judge Neil Gorsuch was officially confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice Friday morning, capping off an intense week of Senate drama that culminated in the so-called “nuclear option.”
The 54-45 vote marks the first major win for the Trump Administration, which has struggled in recent weeks to handle Congressional affairs. Just before Gorsuch went in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a healthcare bill, meant to replace Obamacare, flopped in the House.
Gorsuch’s vote wasn’t on party lines, as most expected. Sens. Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin all voted to confirm the judge to the bench, defying their party. All three are up for re-election in 2018, all in heavily purple states that voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election – and where Chuck Schumer’s decision to stall the nomination process likely wasn’t very popular.
Their votes weren’t met with warmth from their left-leaning colleagues.
Unfortunately for the Women’s March, challenging any of the three in a Democratic primary is probably a recipe for losing the seat to Republicans. Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly have to stay moderate to stay in office.
As for Gorsuch, he’s now the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside a former boss, Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he clerked as a young man. Kennedy will swear him in in a ceremony at the White House on Monday, and Gorsuch will have a week to wrap up his affairs in Colorado and pack up his office, before he officially dons his robe, shakes hands with the other eight Justices and takes his seat on the SCOTUS bench.
And while Gorsuch will surely leave a lasting impression on the court, his confirmation hearings will also leave a lasting impression on the process itself. Now that Republicans have triggered the so-called “nuclear option” for Supreme Court nominees, future vacancies will likely be filled without bipartisan consultation.
Trump is expected to fill at least one more seat on the court, Kennedy’s own. The Justice is said to want to retire at the end of this term or the next.