Excellent take on Supreme Court politics--Well worth a read

[Va Lefty]

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/neil-gorsuch-wont-fill-the-vacancy-on-the-supreme-court-1791875408

"But if the Republicans are willing to kill the filibuster today, they would be willing to kill the filibuster next time around, and to force through an extremist on a narrow majority vote. That is how the Republican Party plays Supreme Court politics now.

And Gorsuch is a loyal Republican operative. If he were the neutral, bipartisan, sterling judge he’s supposed to be, he would never have accepted Trump’s invitation to usurp another neutral, bipartisan, sterling judge. He had a rare chance to defend principle and the Constitution, and he refused it.

So Neil Gorsuch cannot take Merrick Garland’s place. He can take a lesser seat, on a lesser Supreme Court, as the illegitimate final agent of an illegitimate process. If he deserves to be on the Court, he deserves to be on the court by a 52-48 party-line vote, held over the ruins of the filibuster. Every decision he signs will come with an “(R)“ next to his name. That’s the job he chose, and that’s the job he’ll get."