[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 4, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2188-S2189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Neil Gorsuch

  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, today I am joining my colleagues on the 
floor with a bit of confusion, a bit of disappointment, and, frankly, a 
lot of questions. I am referring to the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as 
the next Supreme Court Justice.
  As a Senator, one of the most consequential votes I will cast is a 
vote to confirm a U.S. Supreme Court nominee. It is a lifetime 
appointment to our Nation's highest Court.
  I recently spoke with some students back in Montana, some FFA 
students. The average age 17, 18 years old. God willing, Neil Gorsuch 
may serve on the Court for 30 or more years. These FFA students' 
children and perhaps even grandchildren will be part of Neil Gorsuch's 
time on the Court, given that he likely will serve for three decades or 
more.
  As it stands today, the Senate is on the precipice of confirming Neil 
Gorsuch to be our next U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice. However, 
as the news has been reporting, as our Twitter feeds are overflowing 
with information, it looks as though my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle are caving to the pressures of the far left, and they are set 
to unleash an unprecedented filibuster.
  I have met with Judge Gorsuch. I watched his confirmation hearings. 
What I have seen and what most Americans agree--Judge Neil Gorsuch has 
been incredibly transparent, he has been accessible, and he is the 
right man for the position. He is mainstream. He is a westerner. He is 
committed to judicial independence. He has a brilliant legal mind--that 
is without dispute. He is exceptionally qualified. In fact, the 
American Bar Association unanimously rated Judge Gorsuch as ``well 
qualified.'' That is its highest rating.
  He has met with nearly 80 Senators. Prior to his hearing, he provided 
the Judiciary Committee over 70 pages of written answers about his 
personal record. He provided 75,000-plus pages of documents, including 
speeches, case briefs, opinions, and written works going as far back as 
his college days. The White House archives produced over 180,000 pages 
of email and paper records related to Judge Gorsuch's time at the 
Department of Justice.
  Judge Gorsuch sat for three rounds of questioning, totaling nearly 20 
hours, in committee. As the American people watched Judge Gorsuch 
before that committee, they saw an exceptionally qualified nominee for 
the highest Court in the land, someone who was bright, who was kind. I 
would argue that Judge Gorsuch's mind, his intellectual capacity, is 
only exceeded by his heart. This is a kind and independent jurist.
  When he came before the Judiciary Committee, this was the longest 
hearing of any 21st-century nominee. He answered nearly 1,200 questions 
during his hearing, which is nearly twice as many questions posed to 
Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, or Ginsburg. He was given 299 questions for 
the record by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee--the most in 
recent history of any Supreme Court nominee. Judge Gorsuch did all of 
this with the utmost integrity and with transparency and humility. Yet 
here we are, with Democrats engaged in unprecedented obstruction, 
refusing to give Neil Gorsuch an up-or-down vote.
  The Senate has only ever employed a cloture motion for a Supreme 
Court nominee four times in modern history. We voted on cloture when 
Justice Alito was nominated in 2006. We did the same in 1968, 1971, and 
1986. In 1991, Clarence Thomas was confirmed on a 52-to-48 vote, and in 
2006, Samuel Alito was confirmed on a 58-to-42 vote. In fact, when 
President Obama was in the White House, Republicans did not filibuster 
a nominee. This body confirmed Sonya Sotomayor in 2009 by a vote of 68-
to-31 and confirmed Justice Kagan by a rollcall vote of 63-to-37 in 
2010. We did not filibuster.

  Let me remind folks that cloture is in place to stop debate, not to 
stop a vote. Cloture was put in place to speed the Senate up, end 
debate, and move to a vote, not to stop a vote. It was never intended 
to be a stall tactic or something to obstruct this body.
  This bears repeating. Cloture was put in place to speed up the 
process, to prevent obstruction.
  This Chamber has never had a partisan filibuster to a Supreme Court 
nominee. Let me say that again. This Chamber has never had a partisan 
filibuster to a Supreme Court nominee.

[[Page S2189]]

  So here we are today, with no other option but to invoke this so-
called nuclear option to put an eminently qualified individual on the 
U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Gorsuch is the definition of a mainstream 
judge. In more than 2,700 cases in which he has participated in the 
Tenth Circuit, 97 percent of them have been decided unanimously; in 
fact, he was in the majority 99 percent of the time. Yet Senate 
Democrats would rather play politics and place the demands of extreme 
liberal interests over ensuring regular order.
  Let's talk about what we are and what we are not doing. We are in the 
Senate, a Chamber I am honored to serve in, representing more than 1 
million Montanans. We operate on a set of Parliamentary criteria based 
on things that have happened before. Therefore, we are going to 
establish a new precedent; we aren't changing the rules. This isn't 
happening for the first time. Let us remember that in November of 2013, 
Senate majority leader Harry Reid established a new precedent of how 
many votes are necessary on executive branch nominees, with the 
exclusion of Supreme Court picks.
  What is even more shocking to me is that over the past few weeks, 
through the hearing process, through the debate and discussions about 
Judge Gorsuch on the floor, and with support from across my State of 
Montana--let me just name some of those organizations and people in 
support of Judge Gorsuch: the Montana Chamber of Commerce; four of 
Montana's Tribes--the CSKT, the Crow Tribe, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck; 
the Montana Farm Bureau, Judge Russell Fagg of the 13th judicial 
district, Judge Jeffrey Langton of the 21st judicial district, Judge 
John Larson of the 4th judicial district, State senator Nels Swandal, 
retired judge of the 6th Judicial District; the Montana NRA members; 
the Montana Grain Growers Association and the Montana Wool Growers 
Association; the Montana Stockgrowers Association; our attorney general 
in Montana, our auditor in Montana, our speaker of the Montana House. 
This is a very mainstream group of Montanans, leaders back home who are 
in support of Judge Gorsuch. Yet my colleagues are rejecting the will 
of the American people, rejecting the will of Montanans, filibustering 
this nomination, and not even allowing for an up-or-down vote.
  The American people deserve a Supreme Court Justice who upholds the 
rule of law and will follow the Constitution. The American people 
deserve a Supreme Court Justice who doesn't legislate from the bench. 
The American people deserve Judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the U.S. 
Supreme Court.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be allowed to 
speak for up to 3 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.