Can Trump push through his choice for top judge?
US President Donald Trump has nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by Antonin Scalia, who passed away last year. The seat had remained vacant for eleven months because the Republicans blocked the Democratic Party's candidate in the Senate. The Democrats won't take this lying down, the press predicts, even though many view Gorsuch as a decent choice.
Political battle will escalate
The climate between Republicans and Democrats is so toxic that the controversy over Neil Gorsuch's appointment as Supreme Court justice is likely to drag on, the Irish Times fears:
“Now comes a partisan fight, made all the more heated by Republicans’ sustained, steadfast refusal to hold hearings on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland last year and by Democrats' horror over so much of what the Trump administration has done so far. While Gorsuch isn’t as divisive a choice as others Trump might have made, that may not matter. The relationship between Trump and Democrats is deteriorating so far so fast that every battle could wind up being an all-out war.”
Gorsuch could have been Bush's or Reagan's choice
It could have been worse, legal expert Ricardo Leite Pinto comments in Jornal Económico:
“The nomination of Neil Gorsuch is not entirely bad news, above all compared to other decisions made this week. … As expected this is a conservative jurist whose way of thinking resembles that of the deceased judge Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch may be someone who interprets the constitution very literally and therefore may not be inclined to favour the rights of homosexuals, 'affirmative action' [measures against discrimination] or the legalisation of abortion. But in the past his views haven't always led him to make conservative decisions. In short, this is a man who could also have been selected by Bush or Reagan.”