Merkley claims Republicans have ‘stolen’ court seat

(Update: Adding Wyden comments on Senate floor)

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., released the following statement after Senate Republicans invoked the so-called “nuclear option” to change Senate rules in order to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court:

” Today , Senate Republicans completed the judicial coup they launched last February. For the first time in our nation’s history, a Supreme Court seat has been stolen. In doing so, they have deeply damaged the integrity of the Senate and the Supreme Court itself.

“Let’s be clear: the Republicans already detonated the nuclear option when Majority Leader McConnell announced within hours of Justice Scalia’s death that the Senate majority would refuse to consider any nominee put forward by President Obama. What we saw today was the continued fallout from that nuclear option, and it will only lead our nation further down the path of division and partisanship.

“The primary driver of the majority’s decision to steal the Senate seat was to sustain the flow of dark money that is corrupting our elections. The deed is done. McConnell and his team have put a knife into the heart of our ‘We the People’ republic.”

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Thursday he will vote against confirming Judge Neil Gorsuch to become a Supreme Court justice, due to Gorsuch’s deeply troubling record on secret law, torture, and individuals’ rights, including Oregon’s death with dignity law.

“Senators must always ensure the Supreme Court does not repeat the destructive errors of yesteryear, enshrining disenfranchisement and discrimination and denying equal protection of the law based on prejudice and political agendas,” Wyden said in a Senate floor speech.

“The only way to prevent this abuse is to appoint judges who recognize the judiciary stands as a bulwark against any retrograde attempt to infringe upon our inalienable rights.

“There is no respect for individual rights and liberty to be found in a viewpoint that allows for secret law to justify torture, that consistently favors the powerful over the powerless, or that tramples on the rights of suffering Americans to determine the courses of their own lives,” Wyden said. “That is Judge Gorsuch’s record.”