Opinion: Why Democrats would be foolish to force Republicans to ‘go nuclear’ on Gorsuch

To the editor: A Democratic filibuster of Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court would be a colossal blunder. It would accomplish nothing and give the Republicans everything they want. (“Senate heads for ‘nuclear option’ if Democrats filibuster Gorsuch nomination,” March 30)

Gorsuch will be confirmed regardless, and Democrats need to keep their powder dry for the next time. In a short two and a half years, the 2020 race will be in full swing. If another vacancy comes up then, Republicans will conveniently forget what they did to Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s stonewalled nominee to the court.

That is when the Democrats need to filibuster, when it might make a difference.

Yes, the Republicans shamefully stole Garland’s seat, and they must be punished. But provoking them to use the nuclear option would allow them to steal the next seat too. You don’t punish people by giving them what they want.

Bob Deen, Altadena

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To the editor: It makes more sense not to permit a newly inaugurated president to name a new justice in the first weeks of his term than to deny the same right to a president in his eighth year.

I say full filibuster ahead. The issue of the horrible wrong done by the Senate through most of 2016 needs to be kept on the front burner.

John Manning, Huntington Beach

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