Cornyn: Democrats Grasping for Reasons to Justify Gorsuch Filibuster

Today on the Senate floor, I addressed the attempt by Senate Democrats to launch an unprecedented partisan filibuster of Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Excerpts of my remarks are below, and video of my remarks can be found here.

Our Democratic colleagues trotted out the same old, tired arguments we've heard time and time again about Judge Gorsuch. In the end though, none of those arguments hold water and, of course, many of them aren't even about him. Instead these arguments reveal how our colleagues across the aisle are grasping for reasons to justify an unprecedented partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court justice.

When I heard that Judge Gorsuch had participated in 2,700 cases on a three-judge panel and 97 percent of them were unanimous, that told me something special about this judge. It takes hard work to build consensus on a multi-judge panel.

That's the kind of judge America needs right now in the Supreme Court. And that's why, later on this week, on Friday, Judge Gorsuch will be confirmed.

Unfortunately, Senator Schumer will be making history in urging his Democratic colleagues to engage in a partisan filibuster against a Supreme Court justice.

Judge Gorsuch is about as good as you get when it comes to a nominee. He's exactly the type of person we should hope to see nominated to the Supreme Court.

Senator Schumer, the present Democratic leader, and others, cooked up a new procedural hurdle for President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, and we remember what happened after that. It became almost routine for our Democratic colleagues to filibuster President Bush's nominees.

But the next major development occurred in 2013 when President Obama really wanted to see the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the primary Circuit Court that reviewed administrative decisions, he really wanted to see more of his Democratic nominees on that court. And so in a new and unprecedented fashion, Senator Harry Reid changed the cloture rules once again, so-called the Reid Rule.

I look forward to confirming Judge Gorsuch later this week. He is a fine man and a very good judge and has exactly the sort of record we would want to serve on the Court.