# Schumer Urges Filibuster to Block Gorsuch Confirmation
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [March 23, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845 "2017-03-23T16:45:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 24
### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/461 "2017-04-04T15:07:55Z")
> [@tim314](#):
>
> Out of curiousity, do you have a reason to prefer an age limit to, say, a fixed 20-year term?
>
> Supreme Court Justices really ought to get Secret Service Protection comparable to what the President and Vice President get. A quick web search turned up an article from 5 years ago saying they don’t – not sure if that’s changed at all since then.
They get something. I ran into RBG in an airport once and she had two big dudes with earpieces. They might have been marshalls or something.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/462 "2017-04-04T15:12:55Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#):
>
> That’s a remarkably narrowly tailored amendment.
>
> IMO, if such an amendment had been in effect for Garland, the Republicans would have just voted Garland down, and any future such appointments.
There were 54 senate Republicans in the 114th congress. At least half a dozen of them would have voted to confirm Merrick Garland.
We’ve been over this. This is the reason he wasn’t given hearings and a vote.
> [@](#):
>
> Democrats have made the lack of hearings and a vote into a big deal, but they didn’t matter in any substantive way. The Republicans controlled the Senate, and there’s nothing the Democrats could have done to force them to accept an Obama nominee if they wanted to run out the clock.
Sure, unless they wanted to maintain their majority. They had just achieved majority in the last election and they could have lost it just as easily in 2016 if they didn’t have the advantage of running against someone like Hillary.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/463 "2017-04-04T15:13:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> They get something. I ran into RBG in an airport once and she had two big dudes with earpieces. They might have been marshalls or something.
They are entitled to protection from the Marshals Service when traveling _outside_ DC.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/464 "2017-04-04T15:14:08Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> So you want us to wait another 45 days for Justice Gorsuch? Or are you imagining that the cloture vote counts as “voted on by the full Senate”?
>
> ETA: Actually, it was more than 45 days ago that Trump _nominated_ Gorsuch, right? He’d already be a SCOTUS Justice if this amendment were in effect.
Would he be sitting on Garland’s lap?
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/465 "2017-04-04T15:16:08Z")
> [@Falchion](#):
>
> I would think the problem with this is plan is that there are currently 126 federal judicial vacancies. (There were 107 when Clinton took office; 81 when Bush took office; and 57 when Obama took office).
>
> There are somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 Senate confirmable positions in the administration. (I don’t vouch for any of these numbers)
>
> Wouldn’t you just nominate hundreds of people at a time and figure there would be no way for the Senate to keep up?
In other countries the leadership puts all their preferred candidates up in one vote and the undesirable candidates in another and do the really important ones separately.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/466 "2017-04-04T15:18:12Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> If it was a fixed shorter term, like 9 years, then probably not, but 20 years is too long, IMO. Average tenure right now is probably 20-30 years, and I think it should be drastically reduced, such that filling vacancies is routine business, and each vacancy only means a few years rather than a few decades of a partisan advantage on the court.
If they get evenly spaced out the partisan advantage only exists so long as we keep electing president’s from the same party. Having one nomination in every congress seems better than letting a two term president obtain a majority of the court by the first year of his second term.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/467 "2017-04-04T15:21:31Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> It would need a Constitutional amendment, which is difficult. I’m not sure if increasing the size would be any easier (wasn’t FDR blocked by the courts when he tried?).
> [@CarnalK](#):
>
> The size of the court is set by legislation. FDR was blocked by the Senate refusing to even vote on his court packing legislation.
IIRC there was something called a “switch in time that saved nine”
When FDR won his third term as POTUS, congress was going to accede to his court packing plan when all of a sudden one of the justices on the court switched their vote on the New Deal and FDR no longer needed to pack the court.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/468 "2017-04-04T15:22:50Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> So you want us to wait another 45 days for Justice Gorsuch? Or are you imagining that the cloture vote counts as “voted on by the full Senate”?
>
> ETA: Actually, it was more than 45 days ago that Trump _nominated_ Gorsuch, right? He’d already be a SCOTUS Justice if this amendment were in effect.
I wouldn’t count cloture votes. From time of nomination to time of swearing in, any opposition to a nomination has 45 days (or whatever number is better, nothing sacred about 45) to put it to a vote in the full Senate or stop it.
> [@Falchion](#):
>
> I would think the problem with this is plan is that there are currently 126 federal judicial vacancies. (There were 107 when Clinton took office; 81 when Bush took office; and 57 when Obama took office).
>
> There are somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 Senate confirmable positions in the administration. (I don’t vouch for any of these numbers)
>
> Wouldn’t you just nominate hundreds of people at a time and figure there would be no way for the Senate to keep up?
That is a very good point. But somehow they find the time to confirm an entire cabinet within two months of nomination. Perhaps there could also be a limit on the number of appointments pending.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/469 "2017-04-04T15:29:59Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Why, specifically, is rejecting a qualified nominee by voting after being sure the vote will go the way you want it so dramatically better than simply not voting?
>
> Specifically.
From where are you deriving this certainty? because if it was in fact certain, they would have held the vote, right? Or are there political consequences for voting against a qualified nominee that some senators wanted to avoid. Or are there at least a few senators with scruples that would have gone ahead and confirmed Garland and told McConnell to go fuck himself?
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/470 "2017-04-04T15:31:20Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> I agree it’s more cowardly. But I don’t agree that that’s a substantial difference.
>
> And I don’t agree it’s against the spirit of the Advise and Consent Clause. The Senate made clear it was refusing consent.
No, Mitch McConnell made it clear he was refusing consent. The senate did not speak.
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### Author:  [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/471 "2017-04-04T15:39:27Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> They get something. I ran into RBG in an airport once and she had two big dudes with earpieces. They might have been marshalls or something.
They’re protected by the Supreme Court Police (not the U.S. Marshal Service), which got pretty broad nationwide powers after Byron White (I think) was attacked while giving a speech. (I think it was White because, as a former NFL player, he took the hit and laughed it off). They were also in the news when Breyer got mugged a few years back, but he was out of country somewhere.
I don’t know how it works on a day-to-day basis. The few times I’ve run into a justice it was at a speech or seminar and they had very visible security.
> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> That is a very good point. But somehow they find the time to confirm an entire cabinet within two months of nomination. Perhaps there could also be a limit on the number of appointments pending.
There are 24 people in the Trump Cabinet (at least two of whom are not senate confirmable). That’s easy to do in 2 months.
(There was also complaining about the Senate pushing people through too quickly, without time to review their disclosures. A 45 day limit would incentivize foot dragging).
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/472 "2017-04-04T15:41:01Z")
> [@CarnalK](#):
>
> It is blowing me away how many Dems here seem to think a filibuster/nuclear option is some great victory. Or even a meaningful moral victory in defeat.
Maybe some view it that way, but I presume others view it as a necessary tactic, i.e. the other team has decided that a good way to win is to hit your goalie, something that previously had been avoided by an unspoken agreement. If they aren’t penalized for it, they’ll just do it again in future, so the only effective response is to hit theirs.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/473 "2017-04-04T15:43:15Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#):
>
> It would be, if it had any chance of success. It doesn’t. Thus it is just a tantrum.
You don’t have children, do you? Tantrums have a much higher chance of success. This is not a tantrum. This is almost purely symbolic but its important for Democrats to show resolve.
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### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/474 "2017-04-04T15:44:33Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#):
>
> Apparently failures motivate and energize Democratic voters 🙂
Did Obamacare motivate and energize Republican voters? Getting something shoved down your throat can leave a bad taste in your mouth.
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### Author:  [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/475 "2017-04-04T15:49:04Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> You don’t have children, do you? Tantrums have a much higher chance of success. This is not a tantrum. This is almost purely symbolic but its important for Democrats to show resolve.
I have kids, yes. I know a tantrum when I see one 🙂
And although I am not 100% in it, I really try not to have their tantrums be successful.
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### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/476 "2017-04-04T15:49:19Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> When FDR won his third term as POTUS, congress was going to accede to his court packing plan when all of a sudden one of the justices on the court switched their vote on the New Deal and FDR no longer needed to pack the court.
Were they? The legislation was held in committee for months by the Democrat chairman. Many of his own party were uncomfortable with the obvious power grab.
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### Author:  [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/477 "2017-04-04T15:50:57Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> Did Obamacare motivate and energize Republican voters? Getting something shoved down your throat can leave a bad taste in your mouth.
I don’t know about generic “Republican voters” but those silly futile votes against Obamacare did not motivate or energize me in the least.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/478 "2017-04-04T15:51:38Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#):
>
> Apparently failures motivate and energize Democratic voters 🙂
I’ve explained it many times – IMO, this is the best route (and the best possibility for electoral success) that the Democrats could hope for in these circumstances. But feel free to continue with the equivalent of “suck it, loser”, if you want.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/479 "2017-04-04T15:52:40Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#):
>
> I don’t know about generic “Republican voters” but those silly futile votes against Obamacare did not motivate or energize me in the least.
Republican voters were pretty damn energized in 2010. Was that because they had had a string of successes? Or because they strongly disapproved of what was happening?
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### Author:  [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schumer-urges-filibuster-to-block-gorsuch-confirmation/782845/480 "2017-04-04T15:53:34Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Republican voters were pretty damn energized in 2010. Was that because they had had a string of successes? Or because they strongly disapproved of what was happening?
Because of strong disapproval, of course. But what does that have to do with futile gestures in Congress?
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