The Senate confirmed 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch for a position on the Supreme Court Friday, April 7, filling the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia more than a year ago.
The 54-45 vote in favor of the conservative jurist came after Senate Republicans used the “nuclear option,” changing Senate rules in order to stop a Democratic filibuster, clearing the way for the vote on Gorsuch, according to Agri-Pulse.
Major farm groups had supported the nomination, including the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).
After the vote, AFBF President Zippy Duvall said Gorsuch “has demonstrated time and again that his only goal is to faithfully apply the Constitution and the laws as written by Congress. This is essential to America’s farmers and ranchers as cases affecting their very ability to produce food and fiber reach the nation’s highest court.”
Future considerations by the Supreme Court important to American agriculture include issues related to the Waters of the U.S. rule and critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act.
“Chief Justice Roberts has repeatedly reminded us of the limits of judicial power and judges’ vital role as neutral arbiters. ‘Nobody,’ Roberts said, ‘ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.’ But a great umpire is exactly the person we want to see when we go to court. Justice Gorsuch is that umpire,” Duvall said. “His confirmation renews our trust that the nation’s highest court will restore constitutional limits to a government that has too often run roughshod over them.”