iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — In a historic moment, the Senate on Friday voted 54-45 along party lines to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court as the 113th justice, marking the end to a bitter, partisan battle in the Senate.

Gorsuch, 49, who served as judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, was nominated to the bench by President Trump in January.

The nation’s highest court now has its full complement of nine justices for the first time since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. </s> WASHINGTON — Judge Neil M. Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate on Friday to become the 113th justice of the Supreme Court, capping a political brawl that lasted for more than a year and tested constitutional norms inside the Capitol’s fraying upper chamber.

The moment was a triumph for President Trump, whose campaign appeal to reluctant Republicans last year rested in large part on his pledge to appoint another committed conservative to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. However rocky the first months of his administration may have been, Mr. Trump now has a lasting legacy: Judge Gorsuch, 49, could serve on the court for 30 years or more.

“As a deep believer in the rule of law, Judge Gorsuch will serve the American people with distinction as he continues to faithfully and vigorously defend our Constitution,” the president said.

The final tally was 54-45 in favor of confirmation.

The confirmation was also a vindication of the bare-knuckled strategy of Senate Republicans, who refused even to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Merrick B. Garland, saying the choice of the next justice should belong to the next president. </s> U.S. Supreme Court nominee judge Neil Gorsuch smiles in reaction to a question as he testifies during the third day of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. on March 22, 2017. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg/File Photo)

Neil Gorsuch, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, is due to be sworn in on Monday morning with a formal appearance at the White House, marking the biggest triumph so far for the new administration.

The lifetime appointment reinstates the nine-seat court’s 5-4 conservative majority, fulfilling an important Trump campaign promise.

“He will be a great Justice,” Trump said in a Twitter post on Saturday. “Very proud of him!”

Gorsuch, 49, was the youngest Supreme Court nominee since Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1991 picked Clarence Thomas, who was 43 at the time. Gorsuch could be expected to serve for decades, while Trump could make further appointments to the high court to make it even more solidly conservative because three of the eight justices are 78 or older.

Gorsuch, whom the Senate confirmed on Friday, will take his judicial oath at 11 a.m. EDT in a Rose Garden ceremony. It will be administered by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch clerked as a young lawyer.

Gorsuch will become the first justice to serve alongside a former boss.

At 9 a.m. EDT, Gorsuch is due to take his separate constitutional oath, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court .

The Senate, which last year refused to consider Democratic former president Barack Obama’s nominee to the court, on Friday voted 54-45 to approve Colorado-based federal appeals court judge Gorsuch. The vote brought to an end to an almost 14-month battle over a vacancy created by the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.

Once sworn in, Gorsuch can prepare for the next round of oral arguments, starting on April 17, at the court, whose current term ends in June.

He will also participate in the justices’ private conference on Thursday to consider taking new cases. Appeals are pending on expanding gun rights to include carrying concealed firearms in public, state voting restrictions that critics say are aimed at reducing minority turnout, and allowing business owners to object on religious grounds to providing gay couples certain services.

Gorsuch could also play a vital role in some cases on which his new colleagues may have been split 4-4 and therefore did not yet decide. Those cases may have to be reargued in the court’s next term, which starts in October. </s> Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 21, 2017. The Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to become the newest associate justice on the Supreme Court Friday, April 7.

WASHINGTON — The Senate has confirmed Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, bringing a contentious 14-month partisan battle to a close after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

The vote was 54-45 on Friday. The victory gives President Donald Trump's 49-year-old nominee a lifetime spot on the court and his party a much-needed political win after failing to pass legislation on health care and other issues.

The final confirmation vote came after Senate Republicans rewrote the chamber's rules, voting to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster threshold on Supreme Court nominees. The change allowed the Senate to proceed to the final vote with a simple majority.

Democrats opposed Gorsuch in part because Senate Republicans blocked former President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, last year. </s> The US Senate has confirmed Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch in a victory for President Donald Trump.

Here’s what you need to know about the new Supreme Court Justice.

Why is there a new Supreme Court judge?

There are nine judges who sit on the Supreme Court, and they hold the position for life.

Gorsuch is replacing Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.

When will he assume the position?

Gorsuch will be sworn in as the 113th justice on Monday in separate ceremonies at the court and the White House.

Justices take two oaths, one required by the Constitution and the other set by federal law.

Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the constitutional oath to Gorsuch in a private ceremony in the justices’ conference room.

Then Justice Anthony Kennedy will ask his former law clerk and new colleague to take the second oath in a public ceremony at the White House.

What happened to the filibuster?

Senate Republicans re-wrote filibuster rules, known as invoking the “nuclear option”, in order to get Gorsuch through.

The nuclear option allowed Gorsuch to be nominated with a simple majority – he was confirmed 54 to 45 in the 100-seat Senate.

Why was there so much arguing?

In part Democrats opposed the nomination because Senate Republicans blocked former president Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland last year. The seat earmarked for Garland is now going to Gorsuch, after Trump was made President. </s> Neil Gorsuch testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court during a hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2017.

Gorsuch says he’s made no promises for rulings

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is telling senators that he keeps “an open mind for the entire process” when he issues rulings.

“No such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge”: Gorsuch

Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court pick, said on Tuesday he would have no trouble ruling against the president because there’s “no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge.”

Gorsuch: No difficulty ruling against any party

In his second day of confirmation hearings, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch says he has no trouble ruling against anyone, even President Donald Trump, if that’s what the law requires.

Judge Neil Gorsuch gave his opening statement on Monday, the first day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “If I am confirmed, I will do all my powers permit, to be a faithful servant to the constitution and laws of this great nation,” Gorsuch said. </s> On Monday April 10, Justice Neil Gorsuch of Colorado’s 10th District Court was sworn in as the 113th Supreme Court Justice, restoring the court’s conservative-liberal balance. The swearing in of a Supreme Court justice involves the administration of two oaths. Chief Justice Roberts administered the Constitutional Oath in a private ceremony attended by Gorsuch’s family. The Judicial Oath was delivered at a ceremony in The White House Rose Garden. The Rose Garden ceremony was especially poignant because Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered the oath. Early in his career, Judge Gorsuch served as a clerk for Justice Kennedy. Justice Gorsuch is the first Supreme Court justice in history to serve alongside a justice for whom he previously clerked.

“I cannot tell you how honored I am today to have my mentor Justice Kennedy to administer the judicial oath, a very beautiful oath, as he did 11 years ago,” Gorsuch said. “This process has reminded me how outrageously blessed I am.”

Judge Gorsuch joins the Supreme Court after a vacancy of over a year which occurred with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. “To the Scalia family, I won’t ever forget that the seat I inherit today is that of a very, very great man,” Gorsuch said. Justice Gorsuch who describes himself as a “textualist” shares the “originalist” view of the Constitution espoused by Justice Scalia.

Gorsuch’s 54-45 confirmation vote, which was made possible through Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell deploying the so called “nuclear option” which enabled confirmation through a simple majority instead of the previous threshold of 60 votes, follows months of a contentiousness between Republicans and Democrats who were upset that President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland never received a hearing.

Despite the right-left divide surrounding the Gorsuch nomination, today’s ceremony in the Rose Garden was a proud moment for President Donald Trump. “I’ve always heard that the most important thing that a president of the United States does is appoint people — hopefully great people like this appointment — to the United States Supreme,” Trump said. “And I got it done in the first 100 days.”

Leonora Cravotta is the Program & Talent Director for Red State Talk Radio, the Co-Host for the Scott Adams Show, a political radio talk show, and a syndicated writer for conservative publications. </s> President Donald Trump has nominated federal appeals judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

The 49-year-old Gorsuch has served on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver since 2006, after being appointed by President George W. Bush. He once worked at the Supreme Court as a law clerk.

If approved by the Senate, Gorsuch would take the seat left vacant since Justice Antonin Scalia died last year. Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama's nominee for the seat, saying the choice should go Obama's successor.

He would be the youngest justice since Clarence Thomas joined the court in 1991 at age 43.

Trump made the announcement Tuesday in a prime-time address from the White House. </s> WASHINGTON — Judge Neil Gorsuch will be the 113th justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, confirmed on a 54-45 vote a little before noon Friday.



Gorsuch was confirmed on the 420th day since Justice Antonin Scalia died.

The nearly 14 months that have passed since presented countless unexpected — and some expected — developments, leading to Friday’s vote that will send a conservative appellate judge from Denver to Washington.



The confirmation is a major victory for President Trump, who nominated Gorsuch for the position, and for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose unwavering refusal to move on former President Obama’s nominee kept the seat open.

Gorsuch, who clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy in the early 1990s, worked in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush before being nominated by him, in 2006, to a vacancy on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit — a move that sent him back to Denver, where he was born and raised.

The Supreme Court public information office announced on Friday that Gorsuch will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts at a private ceremony at the court at 9 a.m. Monday morning. A public ceremony will follow at the White House, where Kennedy will administer the oath.

A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School with a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University in England, Gorsuch will be the only justice on the court from outside the coasts — although most of his two decades from when he started undergrad until when he joined the Tenth Circuit was spent on the East Coast, in Washington, New York City, or Boston.

On the Tenth Circuit, Gorsuch developed a reputation as a conservative judge, a good colleague, and a strong writer. One of Gorsuch’s fellow Tenth Circuit judges, Judge Harris Hartz, told BuzzFeed News in March that Gorsuch is hard-working, polite, and “someone who’s willing to change his or her mind and capable of changing your mind.”

Among his most noted cases are his positions in favor of strong protection for religious liberty in both the Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor cases involving the contraception mandate under the Affordable Care Act.



When Scalia died, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell almost immediately said the Senate would not consider any nominee put forth by Obama.

A month later, Obama nominated the widely respected chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, Merrick Garland — but McConnell, aided by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, refused to move the nomination forward. Obama continued to press for Republicans to consider his nominee, but to no avail.

In May, Trump did the unexpected and announced a list of eleven judges who he would consider for to replace Scalia if he were to be elected. Gorsuch was not among the 11 names.

Then, in September, Trump added another 10 names to the list — including Sen. Mike Lee and, more importantly, Judge Neil Gorsuch.

While Hillary Clinton presented no list of her own, most expected her to win the election, meaning either that Garland would be confirmed in the lame-duck period in the Senate after the election or that Clinton would put forth Garland or another nominee once she took office.

Of course, that didn’t happen. Trump won the presidential election, stuck to his list, and, on Jan. 31, Trump nominated Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.

It was one of the rare moments when the president — who was in Florida at Mar-a-Lago as the Senate voted on Friday — was front in center in the nomination process.

After nearly 20 hours of questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee in March, Gorsuch’s nomination came to full Senate — where Democrats, still angry about the treatment of Garland, filibustered the nomination on Thursday. As promised, however, McConnell successfully moved to change the rules of the Senate to require only a simple majority vote to end debate on Supreme Court nominations.



All of which led to Friday’s confirmation vote, over which Vice President Mike Pence presided.

Gorsuch said that January night that the president had entrusted him with “a most solemn assignment” in nominating him for the high court.

“Standing here, in a house of history and acutely aware of my own imperfections, I pledge, if I am confirmed, I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great country,” he said.

Gorsuch will now have the opportunity to do that — and quickly. The current Supreme Court term remains in progress, with oral arguments yet to be heard in a handful of cases, including a case out of Missouri about whether excluding a church from participating in a specific type of governmental program can violate the Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause.
Neil Gorsuch is confirmed as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by a 54–45 vote in the United States Senate after invocation of the "nuclear option".