After the Republicans adjusted the rules in their favor, the Senate voted Friday to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch, 49, will become the 113th justice to the highest court in the land and will serve a lifetime appointment, which means he’ll be messing shit up for possibly the next 30-40 years.
The Supreme Court now has a full complement of nine judges for the first time since February 2016, when Justice Antonin Scalia died. The GOP had refused to vet or vote for Judge Merrick Garland, whom President Barack Obama nominated to replace Scalia the following month, according to ABC News.
Gorsuch was confirmed mostly along party lines, 54-45, after Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) voted yes on Gorsuch’s nomination. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) did not vote.
Gorsuch’s nomination was controversial from the onset. First, he was nominated by President Vladimir TrumPutin, whom no one trusts. Many Democrats were still tight over Garland being passed over, as they should be, and noted that Gorsuch was super conservative.
On Thursday, Democrats planned to filibuster to try to delay Gorsuch’s confirmation, but Sen. Mitch McConnell invoked the “nuclear option,” which changed “Senate rules from needing 60 votes to a 51-vote simple majority on Senate confirmation cloture, or debate,” ABC News reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took a victory lap after learning that Gorsuch had been approved. He called it “a proud day,” and thanked Donald Trump as “the man who made this moment possible by sending us this outstanding nominee.”
“I want to congratulate Judge Gorsuch on this significant achievement. We look forward to observing his good work in the years to come,” McConnell said, ABC News reports. “The confirmation process was certainly a significant undertaking.”
Read more at ABC News.