After Republicans voted to lower the threshold needed to overcome the filibuster to 51, Gorsuch - who was nominated by Trump to fill the seat made vacant by the death previous year of Justice Antonin Scalia - appeared on track to be confirmed Friday for the lifetime seat.
The Senate change, affecting how many votes a nominee needs to advance to a final confirmation vote, will apply to all future Supreme Court candidates as well.
Republicans on 6 April overcame a ferocious Democratic effort to prevent a vote by resorting to a Senate rule change known as the "nuclear option".
Democratic leaders hit out at their counterparts' actions, with minority leader Chuck Schumer insisting that "the responsibility for changing the rules will fall on the Republicans and Leader McConnell's shoulders".
Had the Senate confirmed Obama's nominee Merrick Garland, the court would have tilted to the left for the first time in decades. This tally includes all 52 Republicans along with three moderate Democrats from states Trump won last November: West Virginia's Joe Manchin, North Dakota's Heidi Heitkamp, and Indiana's Joe Donnelly.
Judge Neil Gorsuch testifies during the third day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, on March 22, 2017 in Washington.
Arkansas Attorney General Works to Dismantle Roadblocks to Executions
This followed Friday's legal developments including a temporary restraining order issued on the drugs used during the executions. McKesson claimed Arkansas improperly used medical credentials to obtain the vecuronium bromide and wants the product returned.
They disposed of long-standing rules to prohibit a procedural tactic called a filibuster against Supreme Court nominees.
Gorsuch's confirmation gave a boost to Trump, showing he can get important agenda items through a Congress controlled by his fellow Republicans after the House of Representatives last month failed to pass healthcare overhaul legislation.
Wyden has said his opposition to Gorsuch, a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, stems from his judicial record, and particularly his stance against physician-assisted suicide.
Senator Mike Enzi writes, "I congratulate Judge Neil Gorsuch on his confirmation to the highest court in the land".
"He's going to make an incredible addition to the court", Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. "It will make the cooling saucer of the Senate considerably hotter, and I believe it will make the Supreme Court a more partisan place". Trump himself predicted to reporters aboard Air Force One that "there could be as many as four" Supreme Court vacancies for him to fill during his administration.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a senior Republican, warned of the implications of lowering the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees, thereby eliminating any role for the minority party in ratifying the selection. And yet in many ways the showdown had been pre-ordained, the final chapter in years of partisan warfare over judicial nominees.
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