Ayotte on guiding Gorsuch through bitter SCOTUS hearing process
After months of private meetings and public hearings, Neil Gorsuch, J.D. ’91, was sworn in this week as the 113th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in 2006 by President George W. Bush, M.B.A. ’75, Gorsuch was confirmed by a 54-45 vote in the U.S. Senate last Friday that was cast almost exclusively along party lines. Senate independents and most Democrats, still smarting over Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee of last year, Judge Merrick Garland ’74, J.D. ’77, filibustered Gorsuch’s nomination. That move prompted Republicans to change Senate rules so that Supreme Court nominees need only a majority of 51 votes to be confirmed, rather than the traditional 60. Guiding Gorsuch through the confirmation process on Capitol Hill was Kelly Ayotte, who was a U.S. senator from New Hampshire from 2011 until January....