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Utah's Republican senators voted with their party Thursday to hasten the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by bulldozing longstanding filibuster rules.
Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, who both sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, previously condemned abandoning these rules when a Democratic majority in the Senate voted in 2013 to do the same for lower-court nominees and presidential appointments under President Barack Obama.
"They have in the most disingenuous way done long-term institutional damage for short-term political gain," Hatch said at the time. "This majority wants everything to go their way, and will do anything to make that happen."
Hatch — a longtime supporter of the filibuster — indicated Thursday that he laments replacing the required 60-vote threshold to approve of Supreme Court nominees with a simple majority.
But, he said, it had to be done.
"While I regret that this step had to be taken, those of us that want judges that apply — not invent — the law cannot afford to play by a different set of rules from our opponents," Hatch said in a statement.
The seven-term senator called the Democratic filibuster to stop the vote on Gorsuch a partisan effort to "pack the federal courts with judges that trample the law to serve a left-wing political agenda."
"Given that Democrats have already used the nuclear option before and had telegraphed their willingness to do so again for future Supreme Court nominees, I voted to change the rules to ensure Judge Gorsuch's confirmation in the face of this unprecedented obstruction," he said.
Sen. Mike Lee was also outraged when Democrats put "politics and partisanship ahead of the interests of the American people" when they upended the rules in 2013. On Thursday, he applauded the so-called "nuclear option."
"It was an honor to vote in favor of moving Judge Gorsuch's nomination forward today," he said in a statement, "and I look forward to voting on his final confirmation tomorrow."
Before Republicans essentially cleared the way for Gorsuch's confirmation with the rules change, Democrats had stalled the effort over lingering resentment that Obama's pick to fill the seat, Merrick Garland, was never given a hearing.
Twitter: @CourtneyLTanner