Noah Feldman, Columnist

Justice Gorsuch Ushers In a New Era

Republicans' obstructionism pays off with the Senate now holding unprecedented power over Supreme Court nominees.

April 7, 2017 at 5:15 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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Forget Robert Bork. The confirmation of Neil Gorsuch after the rejection of Merrick Garland marks the new high-water mark in the overt, partisan politicization of the U.S. Supreme Court. After the Democratic Senate rejected Bork 30 years ago, President Ronald Reagan got to choose another appointee. After the Republican Senate refused to vote on Garland last year, President Barack Obama was denied the same chance.

We’ve entered a brave new world, in which the party that controls the Senate can now control court appointments. If the Democrats win the Senate while Donald Trump is president, there’s no way they’ll confirm any of his nominees, no matter how long he has left in his presidency. And Republicans, who invented the rules of this new game, won’t confirm Democratic Supreme Court nominees so long as they control the Senate.