Senate votes to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court
The Senate on Friday morning voted to confirm President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, after Republicans voted Thursday to end the filibuster. Gorsuch was confirmed in a 54-45 vote, with all Republicans voting in the affirmative alongside three Democrats: Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), and Joe Donnelly (Ind.). Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) was the only senator to miss the confirmation vote.
Gorsuch's addition to the bench restores the Supreme Court to nine members for the first time since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Gorsuch is expected to join the judges April 17 for the end of the 2016-2017 session, and could be a deciding vote if the court considers the constitutionality of President Trump's executive order on travel from six majority-Muslim countries.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suit
Speed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments law
Speed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'
Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security law
Speed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitution
speed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidence
Speed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulations
Speed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriage
Speed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published