Democrats have votes to block Gorsuch temporarily from U.S. Supreme Court

Democrats on Monday amassed enough support to block a U.S. Senate confirmation vote on U.S. President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, but Republicans vowed to change the Senate rules to ensure the conservative judge gets the lifetime job.

The Senate judiciary committee voted 11-9 along party lines to send Gorsuch's nomination to the full Senate, setting up a political showdown between Trump's fellow Republicans and the opposition Democrats that appears likely to trigger a change in long-standing Senate rules to allow his confirmation.

Before the vote, Senator Christopher Coons became the 41st Democrat to announce support for a procedural hurdle called a filibuster requiring a super-majority of 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to allow a confirmation vote.

Coons said that he had decided to oppose the president's nominee over concerns that include his vague answers in his hearing.

Coons's opposition will prevent Republicans from reaching the 60 votes they need to move Gorsuch over procedural hurdles to a final Senate vote.

Determined to confirm him despite Democratic objections, Republicans will likely change Senate rules later this week to reduce the threshold from 60 to a simple majority.

Republican Senate leaders insist Gorsuch will be confirmed on the Senate floor on Friday regardless of what the Democrats do, even if they have to change long-standing Senate rules.

Coons told fellow members of the judiciary committee it would be "tragic" if Republicans change Senate rules to end the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. "The principles that have defined the Senate are crumbling, and we are poised to hasten that this week," Coons said.

Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein, the committee's top Democrat, and Mark Warner, not a member of the panel, also announced opposition to Gorsuch on Monday and support for a filibuster.

If the Democrats mount a successful filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would be expected to force a confirmation vote by having the Senate change its rules and allow for a simple majority vote for confirmation of Supreme Court justices, a move sometimes called the "nuclear option" that Trump has urged.

Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat high court's conservative majority, fulfilling one of Trump's top campaign promises. Trump in January nominated Gorsuch, a conservative appeals court judge from Colorado, to the lifetime job as a justice.

Gorsuch was nominated to fill a vacancy created by the February 2016 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Mainstream jurist

Democratic Senator Michael Bennet, who represents Gorsuch's home state of Colorado and introduced the nominee during his confirmation hearing, said he would oppose the filibuster effort but did not take a position on whether to vote in favor of the judge.

The committee's chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley, defended Gorsuch as a mainstream jurist worthy of confirmation despite the complaints of many Democrats, and that "there isn't a whole lot of mystery" that the panel will approve the nomination.

Feinstein said this was not a "routine nomination," noting that the Republican-led Senate last year flatly refused to consider Democratic former president Barack Obama's nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland to fill the same high court vacancy.

"There was simply no reason that the nomination of Judge Garland could not proceed, other than to deny the then-president of the United States, President Barack Obama, the ability to fill the seat," Feinstein said.

'Dark money'

Feinstein criticized Gorsuch's rulings in cases involving a fired truck driver and an autistic child and faulted his actions as a lawyer in Republican former President George W. Bush's Justice Department regarding detainee interrogation techniques critics called torture.

Feinstein also said she was disturbed by the millions of dollars of "dark money" from anonymous donors backing advertising and political advocacy by conservative groups to help Gorsuch win confirmation.

In addition to Gorsuch, the judiciary committee will be considering two other nominations Rod Rosenstein to be deputy attorney general and Rachel Brand to be associate attorney general. If confirmed, they will be the No. 2 and No. 3 officials at the Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

• ANALYSIS | Filibuster could be shortsighted
• What you need to know about the Gorsuch hearing