Senate Confirms Gorsuch As Supreme Court Justice In Party-Line Vote

Neil Gorsuch gets comfortable. Image by Getty Images

By Josefin Dolsten April 7, 2017

(JTA) — The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Jewish groups reacted along ideological lines to Friday’s confirmation, which came after Republicans invoked the “nuclear option” allowing them to lower the threshold of Senate votes needed for Gorsuch’s nomination to a simple majority of 51. Gorsuch had initially failed to garner the 60 votes normally required following a Democratic filibuster on Thursday.

Trump’s nomination in January of Gorsuch, who is known to favor protections of religious belief in the public square and for business owners, elicited mixed reactions from Jewish groups.

The Reform movement said in January that it was “greatly troubled” by his record, citing concerns about his stances on civil rights, separation of church and state, religious freedom, women’s rights and LGBTQ rights. Meanwhile an Orthodox Union official described Gorsuch’s record as “encouraging” and said his rulings “show a jurisprudential approach that venerates religious conscience and pluralism in American society.”

Following Gorsuch’s confirmation, the social justice group Bend the Arc Jewish Action said the Senate had “made a serious and deeply troubling error” in invoking the nuclear option.

“This vote, which is yet another example of the Republican willingness to undermine critical democratic institutions in support of Donald Trump’s radical agenda, will mean new threats to workers’ rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and the rights of all Americans,” the group’s CEO, Stosh Cotler said in a Friday statement.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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