Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Goes "Nuclear" On Judge Gorsuch Vote

Sen. Mitch McConnell

From Huffington Post:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his fellow Republicans pulled the nuclear rules trigger Thursday, ending filibusters for Supreme Court nominees after Democrats blocked President Donald Trump’s conservative pick, Neil Gorsuch.

Democrats had argued that Gorsuch, a Colorado federal appeals judge, was simply too conservative, and were nearly united in opposing a cloture vote to end debate on the nominee. Opposing cloture amounts to a formal filibuster, which takes 60 votes to break. With just a few Democrats joining the chamber’s 52 Republicans, McConnell’s only way to confirm Gorsuch was to change the rules.

He began by launching a string of procedural moves to allow a Senate majority to change longstanding rules with a simple majority, or 51 votes.

What this means is, now and moving forward, all Supreme Court nominees will only need 51 votes to be confirmed.

While this serves the Republicans now, at some point in the future the Dems will have the majority. And the shoe will be on the other foot.