GOP Senators set to use ‘nuclear option’ to get Neil Gorsuch on Supreme Court 

WASHINGTON D.C. (KUSI) — Neil Gorsuch is one step closer to becoming the next Supreme Court Justice, but it may take the Senate’s equivalent of a nuclear war to make it happen.

The so-called "nuclear option" has never been used in the case of the Supreme Court nomination before.

The partisan battle lines are clearly drawn. The Senate is headed for a high-stakes showdown over President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. 

On Monday, Democrats locked in enough support to successfully filibuster Gorsuch when he faces the full Senate later this week.

The nuclear option changes Senate rules so that Gorsuch and future supreme court nominees, will only need a simple majority — 51 votes — to be approved rather than 60 votes that had been established under long-standing Senate rules.

Senator Coon’s support marks the 41st Democrat to sign onto a filibuster, making it mathematically impossible for Republicans to get the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster.

Translation: Republicans will make good on their promise to invoke the so-called nuclear option to get Gorsuch through.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not mincing words about what he intends to do when Gorsuch faces the full Senate.

But even Republicans hope they don’t have to resort to such a drastic measure.

By a vote along party lines, Gorsuch’s nomination advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the last step before reaching the Senate floor, but without a single Democratic vote.

Republicans on the committee said the Democrats are playing politics.