iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Jeff Merkley has been holding the Senate floor and talking for 14 hours, railing day against Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s nominee to serve on the Supreme Court.
Merkley, D-Ore., has spent much of his time going through Gorsuch’s record on the bench and talking about the importance of appointing moderate judges to the highest court in the country.
Many Democrats say they believe Gorsuch is too radical in his strict interpretations of the Constitution to serve on the Supreme Court.
They point to cases where he sided with employers over employees and ruled in favor of allowing private companies to gain religious exceptions from providing contraception insurance coverage to employees.
“I’m here at 4:20 in the morning because so much is at stake in terms of the legitimacy of the court,” Merkley said in the wee hours as he stood on the floor surrounded by a few charts helping keep him to stay on track.
Around 6:28 a.m., Sen Dick Durbin, D-Ill., arrived in suit and tie to offer some backup to Merkley. He asked his colleagues questions and the two bantered.
Democrats have the votes to keep debate going under current rules and expect to make a show on the Senate floor this week. For now, 60 votes are needed to end debate, or what’s known in Senate parlance as a cloture vote, but Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has vowed to change Senate practice so that the confirmation would proceed with only a simple 51-vote majority.
Changing the rules like McConnell is expected to do has been dubbed the “nuclear option,” and even some Republican senators do not like the idea. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters Tuesday that anyone who thinks it is good for the Senate long term is “a stupid idiot.”
When Democrats had the majority in 2013, then-Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also invoked the nuclear option, changing the 60-vote threshold to 51 for cabinet appointments and judicial nominations below the Supreme Court level.
While Merkley’s marathon speech was a galvanizing factor for progressives overnight who oppose the Gorsuch nomination, it has no procedural effect because he is not delaying any Senate floor action from moving forward with the next vote not expected for more than 24 hours.
“The cloture vote will still be on Thursday,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart tweeted overnight.
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