POLITICS/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE/NEIL GORSUCH: “Four Senate Democrats announced Monday [4-3-17] they plan to oppose Neil Gorsuch, bringing the Democratic caucus to the 41 votes needed to sustain a filibuster against the Supreme Court nominee.
The announcement sets Republicans up to change Senate rules — referred to as the ‘nuclear option’ — to lowering the threshold of advancing Supreme Court nominees to just 51 votes from 60.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-9 along party lines to advance Gorsuch’s nomination to the full Senate.
With Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California, Mark Warner of Virginia and Patrick Leahy of Vermont all saying Monday they could not support Gorsuch, Democrats reached the 41 votes they needed to prevent the advancement of Gorsuch’s nomination under current chamber rules.
‘I am not ready to end debate on this issue, so I will be voting against cloture unless we are able as a body to finally sit down and find a way to avoid the nuclear option and ensure the process to fill the next vacancy on the court is not a narrowly partisan process, but rather an opportunity of both parties to weigh in and ensure we place a judge on the court who can secure support from members of both parties,’ Coons said at the Senate judiciary committee hearing on Gorsuch’s nomination, becoming the 41st senator to say he will take part in the filibuster.”
-Ashley Killough and Ted Barrett, “Senate Dems reach filibuster threshold on Gorsuch setting up ‘nuclear option’ change,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 3, 2017 09:44pm