Sen. Jeff Flake to Democrats: Don't filibuster Supreme Court nomination

• Sen. Jeff Flake, Judiciary Committee member, argued against a Democratic filibuster of Neil Gorsuch
• Flake argued Gorsuch is qualified to serve on the Supreme Court and deserves an up-or-down vote
• Senate Democrats have signaled they will filibuster, likely forcing a showdown over the tactic
• Many Democrats remain angry that Senate Republicans blocked the 2016 nomination of Merrick Garland

Sen. Jeff Flake on Monday appealed once more to Senate Democrats to not try to block President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch,

The Senate is expected to vote on Gorsuch later this week, but Democrats have the votes to filibuster the nomination. That scenario likely will prompt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to trigger the so-called nuclear option and eliminate the traditional procedural tactic for Supreme Court nominations.

The filibuster empowers the minority party in the 100-member Senate by requiring a 60-vote threshold for approval instead of a 51-vote simple majority.

"Later this week, we'll likely be forced with the prospect of changing the rules," Flake, R-Ariz., told fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the influential panel that vets Supreme Court nominees. "I think we shouldn't be here."

The Judiciary Committee later voted 11-9, along party lines, to move the Gorsuch nomination to the full Senate for consideration.

Flake noted that, in the past, even controversial Supreme Court nominees such as Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas were at least afforded Senate floor votes and were not filibustered. However, Democrats are still angry that McConnell and the Senate Republicans last year refused to even give a hearing to Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's choice to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died Feb. 13, 2016. The Republicans argued that because Obama was in the final year of his presidency, voters in the presidential election should decide who got to fill the seat.

Flake pointed to his 2015 vote to confirm Loretta Lynch as Obama's attorney general even though he didn't agree with her political philosophy.

"I can tell you, it wasn't popular with my base and it still isn't," Flake said. "I hear about it just about every day, that I voted to confirm her. ... But I thought she was qualified and, absent extraordinary circumstances, the president ought to get his or her nominees — at least ought to get a floor vote."

Flake added that he wished the Senate could "change the behavior of senators" rather than change the filibuster rule, "but I think we are where we are."

Flake has been a big supporter of Gorsuch, the federal appeals-court judge from Colorado, since Trump announced the nomination.

"I think that he's a good man, he's lived a good life, he's certainly qualified, and I hope that we can advance him for an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor," Flake said.