WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Earlier today President Donald Trump announced his two SCOTUS picks. He summoned his candidate for the Supreme Court to the White House Tuesday, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, a federal appeals court from the Denver-based 10th Circuit.
Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump was “excited” for the Tuesday night announcement, a dramatic reveal for a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court by a president who prizes showmanship above tradition.
Judges Gorsuch, 49, has a strong conservative records. A third appeals court judge, William H. Pryor Jr. of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, has also been reported to be in the running; there was no word on whether he, too, would be on hand at the White House. Pryor’s outspokenness about overturning Roe v. Wade and other controversial remarks when he was Alabama’s attorney general made even his confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit a years-long ordeal.
Gorsuch was confirmed a decade ago to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver on a voice vote, and Hardiman was approved unanimously by the Senate for a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia.
Judge Gorsuch is not expected to have a comfortable ride to the bench. Democrats believe the SCOTUS nomination by President Barack Obama should have ran its due course through hearings.
Democrats are furious that a Republican-led Senate refused to hold even a single hearing on the man then-President Barack Obama nominated to fill the seat of the late justice Antonin Scalia, who died almost a year ago. Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination lapsed with the new Congress.
Democrats believe the SCOTUS seat has been “stolen,” and some have pledged to try to block a vote on Trump’s nominee, no matter who it is. “I won’t be complicit in this theft,” Sen. Jeff Merkley wrote in an email to supporters. “There is only one person in America who is a legitimate selection: Judge Merrick Garland.”
Groups in support of Trump’s picks are getting to work as well. The conservative Judicial Crisis Network will launch a campaign within minutes of Trump’s Tuesday announcement, the first phase of a $10 million effort on behalf of the nominee.
Information from The Washington Post contributed to this report.