Partisan Spin on Gorsuch Vote
As the Senate considers Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, senators on both sides have engaged in partisan spin over the number of votes required to approve his nomination:
- Sen. Bernie Sanders falsely claimed the Senate “requires 60 votes for a Supreme Court nomination.” It requires 51 votes. Sanders is referring to the 60 votes needed to pass a cloture motion to end a filibuster, and cloture votes on high court nominations are rare.
- Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy left the false impression that “every current Supreme Court Justice cleared” a 60-vote threshold. Justice Clarence Thomas did not receive 60 votes. In that case, there was no cloture vote, and Thomas was approved 52-48.
- Republican Sen. John Barrasso claimed “every Supreme Court vote … for over 200 and some years, has been an up-or-down vote.” That’s misleading. Although rare, Supreme Court votes were preceded by cloture votes four times. One cloture motion failed.
- Republican Sen. John Thune said there’s “never been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee.” There was, however, a successful GOP-led filibuster of President Lyndon Johnson’s nominee for chief justice. Southern Democrats helped defeat that cloture motion.
The is schedule to vote April 3 on at the request of the Democrats. The Republican-controlled committee is expected to approve the nomination at that time and send it to the full Senate for a final vote, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says will happen by .
