WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump's nominee Judge Neil M. Gorsuch was confirmed Friday for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, filling a 14-month vacancy after a dramatic Senate showdown that risked long-lasting repercussions to both institutions.
The confirmation will deliver a much needed political victory to Trump, whose administration is struggling in its first 100 days to make progress on many campaign promises amid infighting in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
The Senate confirmed Gorsuch for the seat that had been vacant since the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Republican-led Senate had refused last year to consider former President Barack Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, fueling partisan rancor and Democratic opposition to Gorsuch.
The 49-year-old Gorsuch is a respected conservative on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. He is expected to bring a "textualist" approach to the court, relying on an exact reading of legal language.
Since he is replacing Scalia, a conservative icon, the ideological tilt of the bench is not likely to shift. He will restore a 5-4 majority that Republican appointees have held on the court for years.
"He's going to make an incredible addition to the court," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "He's going to make the American people proud."
Democrats had staged a highly unusual filibuster to block the nominee. Republicans responded by changing long-standing Senate rules to allow filibusters of Supreme Court nominees to be broken with 51 votes rather than the previous 60.
Gorsuch pledged in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee not to be partisan in his approach to the law. "There is no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge," he said.
But Democratic senators worry Gorsuch will now join other conservatives in pushing for restrictions on abortion, voting rights and affirmative action. They made clear the battle over his confirmation may loom for some time.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, said the new justice _ like McConnell, who led the rules change to push through the confirmation _ "will enter the history books with asterisks by their names."
The vote in many ways became a referendum on Trump's new administration, as outside groups mobilized thousands of voters and millions of dollars to influence senators on both sides.
Pressure mounted for Republicans to produce a victory for the White House as the administration faced the embarrassing defeat of a health care overhaul and court battles over its travel ban.
Democrats also endured enormous pressure to resist to the president's pick from constituents eager to see the party confront Trump at every turn.
One Democratic senator complained that Republicans high-fived one another after this week's vote, but the outcome is certain to fuel an already toxic political environment in the Senate. It threatens to diminish the Senate's long-standing ability to protect minority views by requiring a nod to bipartisanship to reach the 60-vote hurdle for nominees, and it chips away at the chamber's check on the executive branch.
Now Trump and future presidents will be free to choose nominees for the courts and other executive positions without needing much consent from the minority, opening the door to more hard-edged and partisan appointments.
Some senators fear the filibuster will one day be eliminated for legislation, further eroding long-standing practice that separates the Senate from the House, where majority rules. Many fear it will further damage what they say is a broken institution.
Gorsuch is expected to be sworn into office next week, and will make history upon his arrival. The affable, silver-head father of two will be the first former Supreme Court law clerk to ascend to the court and serve alongside his former boss. Gorsuch was a clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1994.
The Harvard-educated Gorsuch is no stranger to Washington. His mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford, was former President Ronald Reagan's first Environmental Protection Agency director.
