{"id":6290,"date":"2017-02-01T10:16:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T18:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/?p=6290"},"modified":"2017-02-01T10:16:05","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T18:16:05","slug":"senate-should-confirm-gorsuch-to-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/6290\/senate-should-confirm-gorsuch-to-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Should Confirm Gorsuch to Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

President Donald Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch. Photo via Wikipedia.<\/p><\/div>\n

By\u00a0Ralph E. Stone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

February 1, 2016<\/p>\n

The Senate should confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court if he is found to be qualified. \u00a0I understand the Republicans refused to even consider\u00a0Merrick Garland,\u00a0Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, even though Obama had ten months left on his term at the time. \u00a0I also understand had Hillary Clinton become president, the Republicans indicated no nominee of hers would\u00a0be confirmed either.<\/p>\n

However, I disagree with playing the same game with Trump’s nomination of Gorsuch. \u00a0Once Gorsuch is fully vetted and found qualified, he should be confirmed without a\u00a0filibuster and without resort to the \u201cnuclear option.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0His conservatism should not be a disqualifying factor. \u00a0Consider that Gorsuch was unanimously confirmed to the court of appeals in 2006.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0nuclear\u00a0or constitutional\u00a0option, by the way,\u00a0is a parliamentary procedure that allows the U.S. Senate to override a rule or precedent by a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of by a supermajority of 60 votes. Either way, Gorsuch will very likely be confirmed.<\/p>\n

Trump was going to nominate a conservative and Gorsuch is a better choice than others he could have nominated. Gorsuch\u2019s confirmation will bring the Supreme Court back to four conservatives, not a majority of five.<\/p>\n

More importantly, a less than full Supreme Court of nine justices impedes the smooth functioning of the court; the Supreme Court should not be a partisan institution. \u00a0Perhaps, the Democrats should take the high road on this nomination; it will give them more credibility when they oppose clearly objectionable nominees like DeVos, Bannon, and Sessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate should confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court if he is found to be qualified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":6291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1319,19,17],"tags":[2764,2848,278],"class_list":["post-6290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","category-opinion","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-neil-gorsuch","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate Should Confirm Gorsuch to Supreme Court - Fog City Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/6290\/senate-should-confirm-gorsuch-to-supreme-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate Should Confirm Gorsuch to Supreme Court - Fog City Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Senate should confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court if he is found to be qualified.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/6290\/senate-should-confirm-gorsuch-to-supreme-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fog City Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fogcityjournal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-01T18:16:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/plugins\/2017\/02\/Neil_Gorsuch.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ralph E. 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