Washington: President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, elevating a conservative in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia to succeed the late jurist and touching off a brutal, partisan showdown at the start of his presidency over the ideological bent of the nation’s highest court.
Trump announced his selection during a much-anticipated ceremony that unfolded in prime time at the White House. He described Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge based in Denver, as “a man who our country really needs, and needs badly, to ensure the rule of law and the rule of justice.”
“Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan support,” Trump said, standing beside the judge and his wife, Louise, as White House officials and Republican lawmakers looked on. “It is an extraordinary resume — as good as it gets.”
But Democrats — embittered by Republican refusals for nearly a year to consider President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Scalia and inflamed by Trump’s aggressive moves at the start of his tenure — promised a showdown over Gorsuch’s confirmation.
Joined by liberal groups that plotted for weeks to fight Trump’s eventual nominee, leading Democrats signalled they would work to turn the Supreme Court dispute into a referendum on the president and what they contend is his disregard for legal norms and the Constitution. Conservatives and business groups cheered Gorsuch, calling his record distinguished and his qualifications unparalleled.
The announcement came at a particularly tumultuous moment in an extraordinarily chaotic beginning to Trump’s presidency. Just a day earlier, he dismissed the acting attorney general for refusing to defend his hard-line immigration order that started a furore across the United States over what critics condemned as a visa ban against Muslims.
“Now, more than ever, we need a Supreme Court justice who is independent, eschews ideology, who will preserve our democracy, protect fundamental rights and will stand up to a president who has already shown a willingness to bend the Constitution,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement.
“The burden is on Judge Neil Gorsuch to prove himself to be within the legal mainstream and, in this new era, willing to vigorously defend the Constitution from abuses of the executive branch and protect the constitutionally enshrined rights of all Americans,” Schumer said.
He said he would insist that Gorsuch meet the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to overcome a filibuster for his confirmation to move forward. That would either require eight Democrats to join the Senate’s 52 Republicans to advance the nomination or force Republicans to escalate a parliamentary showdown — as Trump has already urged them to do — to change long-standing rules and push through his nominee on a simple majority vote.
Republicans and conservative groups signalled they relished a war over Gorsuch’s confirmation.
“I hope members of the Senate will again show him fair consideration and respect the result of the recent election with an up-or-down vote on his nomination, just like the Senate treated the four first-term nominees of Presidents Clinton and Obama,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader. He noted that the Senate confirmed Gorsuch without opposition to his current seat on the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Carrie Severino, the chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative group that immediately started a $10 million (Dh36.7 million) campaign to defend Trump’s nominee, said the coalition would mount intensive campaigns in crucial states to “force vulnerable senators to choose between obstructing and keeping their Senate seats.”
If confirmed, Gorsuch would become the 113th justice and take a seat held not only by Scalia but also by Justice Robert H. Jackson, perhaps the finest writer to have served on the court. As an Episcopalian, Gorsuch would be the only Protestant seated among five Catholics and three Jewish jurists. He would restore the 5-4 split between conservatives and liberals on the court, returning the swing vote to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, whose rulings have fallen on both sides of the political spectrum.
At 49, Gorsuch is the youngest nominee to the Supreme Court in 25 years, underscoring his potential to shape major decisions for decades to come. In choosing him, Trump reached for a reliably conservative figure in Scalia’s mold but not someone known to be divisive.
Trump, who recognised Scalia’s wife, Maureen, in the audience as he announced his choice, heaped praise on the “late, great” jurist, saying his “image and genius was in my mind throughout the decision-making process.”
Gorsuch said he was humbled by his “most solemn assignment.”
“I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great country,” he said. He also praised Scalia as “a lion of the law.”
The announcement reopened the bitter wounds that dominated the political battle last year over Obama’s nominee for the seat, Judge Merrick B. Garland. Republicans refused even to consider — much less support — his nomination in the thick of a presidential campaign.
A Colorado native who was in the same class at Harvard Law School as Obama, Gorsuch is known for his well-written, measured opinions that are normally, although not exclusively, conservative. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and was a Supreme Court law clerk to Justices Byron R. White and Kennedy.
