April 10 (UPI) -- Neil Gorsuch is set to be sworn in as the United States' 113th Supreme Court justice during a ceremony Monday morning in the White House's Rose Garden.
The event is scheduled to take place at 11 a.m., ending months of bitter partisan warfare in the Senate since the February 2016 death of Antonin Scalia.
The Senate on Friday voted 54-45 to confirm the 49-year-old Colorado judge nominated by President Donald Trump.
Democrats filibustered his nomination Friday, citing previous rulings they did not like. But the subtext went deeper than judicial philosophy. Democrats were furious Merrick Garland, former President Barack Obama's nominee to fill the seat left empty by Scalia, was never granted a hearing by Republicans.
After it became clear Gorsuch would not win enough Democratic votes to pass the traditional 60-vote threshold in the Senate, Republicans used the so-called "nuclear option" and gutted longstanding Senate rules for Supreme Court nominees, clearing the way for a simple majority to approve his nomination.
His ascension could have an immediate impact on several high-profile cases. Since Scalia's death, the court had been ideologically deadlocked, with four liberal justices and four conservatives.
