Senate Republicans are set to vote on changing procedural rules to ensure the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
Triggering the so-called “nuclear option” would prevent Senate Democrats from blocking the 60-vote majority needed to confirm judge Neil Gorsuch.
Republicans control the Senate chamber 52 to 48, but do not have enough votes to seal Mr Gorsuch’s nomination debate.
His confirmation would preserve a conservative majority on the top court.
The showdown begins on Thursday as Senate Democrats and independent allies deploy a tactic called a filibuster to prevent Mr Gorsuch’s confirmation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to respond by removing the long-standing filibuster requirement for Judge Gorsuch and replacing it with a simple majority in the 100-member upper chamber.
The fall of bipartisanship – Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington
With the bang of a gavel, the nuclear option – that dramatic term for doing away with the ability of a minority of senators to block confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee – has been exercised.
Pundits and politicians may lament that Thursday’s actions mark the end of comity and bipartisanship in the Senate. The reality, however, is that the Supreme Court nominee filibuster power was already dead and vigorous partisanship reigns supreme. This week just made it official.
That’s why both sides long ago began apportioning blame for this move. Democrats point to the Republican Party’s unprecedented decision last year to refuse to consider Barack Obama’s court nominee, Merrick Garland. Republicans counter that the Democrats struck the mortal blow by abandoning the filibuster for lower court and executive nominees in 2013.
Given the sweeping power of the Supreme Court – it touches on every facet of American life – the stakes have become too high for little things like tradition and consensus-building to merit consideration.
Thursday was about the exercise of raw power. Republicans had the votes, and they wanted – they needed – their man on the high court to preserve their conservative majority. On Friday they will get him there.
The controversial “nuclear option” would affect future Supreme Court nominations as well, which some lawmakers say could set a dangerous precedent and erode minority-party rights in the Senate.
“I fear that someday we will regret what we are about to do. In fact, I am confident we will,” said Republican Senator John McCain.
“It is imperative we have a functioning Senate where the rights of the minority are protected regardless of which party is in power at the time.”
Many Democrats say Mr Gorsuch, 49, has shown he favours corporations ahead of workers.
And resentment still simmers over Mr McConnell’s decision last year to deny considering former President Barack Obama’s choice for the high court.
Mr McConnell instead left open the seat to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the hope of filling it with a conservative nominee.
Invoking the “nuclear option” would pave the way for Mr Gorsuch’s final confirmation vote on Friday, allowing him to participate in the last set of cases to go before the Supreme Court this term.
Democrats also used the “nuclear option” in 2013, when they removed filibusters against executive branch and judicial nominees for lower courts in order to ram through then-President Barack Obama’s appointments.
However, they left the filibuster in place for Supreme Court nominees.
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