I was planning to write about how President Trump’s Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch sailed unscathed through the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings last week.
So much for my best-laid plans.
The truth is Gorsuch did cruise through the first three days of intense questioning. Predictably, his answers were praised by Senate Republicans and pilloried by Senate Democrats on the committee. Witnesses from outside the committee also testified for and against Gorsuch.
What impressed me most about Gorsuch’s performance during the hearings was his emphasis on the importance of integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament as the key ingredients that should determine whether a judge or justice is fit to serve.
In my view, Judge Gorsuch personifies those key ingredients. More importantly, the American Bar Association recently gave him their highest rating, “well-qualified,” based on its evaluation of his “integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament.”
Witnesses, Democratic, Republican, and independent, who testified in favor of Gorsuch, echoed the ABA’s praise for him, and offered their own accolades for him as a good man who respected all litigants who appeared before him in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. They urged the Senate to confirm his nomination to the Supreme Court as soon as possible.
Despite Judge Gorsuch’s impeccable credentials to serve on the Supreme Court, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., became his chief detractor and inquisitor, aided and abetted by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.
Together with other like-minded Democrats on the committee, Schumer and Franken chose to “cherry pick” a handful of cases from Gorsuch’s ten-year record of judicial service to portray him as a friend of the high and mighty-and a foe of the low and weak who came before his court.
On Thursday, Schumer, who is also Senate Minority Leader, announced he would vote against the nomination of Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. He also said he would lead a filibuster of President Trump’s high court nominee.
To foil a filibuster, Republicans would have to muster a “super majority” of 60 votes: 52 GOP senators and at least 8 Democratic senators. If they fail that way, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is likely to invoke the so-called “nuclear option”-- an attempt to change the Senate rules to bar filibusters for Supreme Court nominees. If that succeeds, Gorsuch could be confirmed by a simple majority of 51 votes.
President Trump has already asked Sen. McConnell to use the nuclear option if Democrats try to block Gorsuch’s confirmation.  
Heaven only knows how this high court drama will unfold in the next few days or weeks. However, one thing is certain: the Senate’s decision to confirm or reject Judge Gorsuch’s nomination will echo far beyond the current conflict between Democrats and Republicans on President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee.
Retired Army Col. Thomas B. Vaughn can be reached at tbvbwmi@blomand.net.