WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee announced Thursday that hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch will begin on March 20.
The high-profile affair, which is expected to last three or four days, is the next battleground in the fight over President Donald Trump’s pick to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the high court.
“Itap time for him to have the opportunity to speak for himself before the Judiciary Committee,” said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the committee, in a statement.
Some Senate Democrats have vowed to oppose his nomination in part because of how Senate Republicans treated Judge Merrick Garland, the nominee put forward last year by former President Barack Obama.
Though Garland was selected in March, GOP leaders never granted him a hearing — leading to accusations that Gorsuch would be filling a on the nine-member court.
But it remains unclear whether Democrats, in the Senate minority, ultimately will try and block his nomination with a filibuster.
Gorsuch, a , already has met with the state’s two senators: Republican Cory Gardner and Democrat Michael Bennet.
