WASHINGTON – Today during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) delivered an opening statement criticizing Democrats for attempting the first-ever successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video of his remarks can be found here.

“If they're going to oppose Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States, they will never vote and never support a nominee of this President.”

“We essentially made this presidential election on November the 8th a referendum on which of the candidates do you want to pick the nominee to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Scalia. And the American people answered that question and said they preferred President Trump to make that selection as opposed to a potential President Hillary Clinton.”

“Judge Gorsuch is an outstanding choice by the President and, given the circumstances, indirectly by the American people. I'd urge my colleagues to recognize those obvious realities and support the nominee. Failing that, I'd encourage them at least to the give this nominee an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.”

“If Judge Gorsuch is unacceptable to our Democratic colleagues, there will never be a nominee by this President that you will find acceptable. Never. How did we get started with filibusters of judges?”

“It was an innovation of our colleagues across the aisle back after the 2000 election.”

“That's how we got started down this path of filibustering judges. It was our Democratic colleagues, after the election of 2000 when they wanted to stop the nominees of George W. Bush from becoming confirmed. What was the next iteration of that? Well, after they cooked up this idea in 2013, they found it to be an impediment to their desire to pack the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“This was probably the least hard-working Circuit in the country, yet they sought to pack the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals for no other apparent reason other than to rubber-stamp President Obama's administrative state.”

“I disagree with those who somehow say this is the end of the Senate as we know it. This is a restoration of the status quo ante, before our Democratic colleagues erected this artificial 60-vote requirement.”

“I am proud to say that this good man, and this good judge, who has offered himself to serve our country on the United States Supreme Court, will be confirmed by the end of this week. And he should be.”

Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, is a member of the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees.