Democrats Must Filibuster Gorusch And Force GOP To Nuke The Filibuster

I don’t really want to spend a lot of time on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Gorsuch will be horrible for women and workers and will just be another rubber stamp. I’m not interested in his judicial philosophy or specific rulings because we all know he’s just another judicial hack, just based on his support for the Hobby Lobby decision.

But I do want the Democrats to filibuster Gorsuch and, if the GOP nukes the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, that will be just another democratic norm they will have destroyed. Nothing new there as they’ve been doing that for nearly the last three decades. Someday, Democrats will have the Presidency and control of the Senate. When that happens, we should all remember Merrick Garland and stack the Court so that there will be at least one more Democratic appointee than Republican. That may require 11 justices. It may require 13 justices. But we should ram them through with the 50 vote threshold just like the Republicans will ram through Gorsuch after they nuke the filibuster. And then reverse every important Supreme Court decision made with Gorsuch on the bench.

Remember Merrick Garland. Never forget.

For now, I don’t want anything to deflect attention away from the lawlessness of Trump and this administration. The Emoluments Clause violations, the potential violation of law in targeting terrorists’ families, the firing of the Attorney General, the attacks on the press and on any dissent within federal agencies, the violation of separation of powers by secretly using Congressional staff, and cabinet nominees that brazenly lie to Congress, those are the issues to be focusing on now. Democrats should make it easy on themselves and say very little about Gorsuch and then vote, en bloc, against him. Meanwhile, stay focused on the constitutional crises Trump is creating.