Who Is Harry Reid?

I never thought that I would ever write these words, but here they are. My VIP for this week is the late Harry Reid, the former Senate Majority Leader (2007-2015). I did not know him personally, but I did not like his liberal policies. In fact, I was often disappointed in him because of his liberal policies. He made it known that he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but his policies were often opposite of the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ – in my opinion. However, his liberal efforts, ideas and policies may have been a blessing in disguise.

Rebecca Downs, in an article published at The Daily Signal, stated that Reid’s decision to “nuke the filibuster on certain presidential nominees” may have led to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

Long before the Dobbs v. Jackson decision was handed down in 2022, Reid laid the groundwork through the changes he made to Senate rules. Reid opened Pandora’s box, and the pro-life movement took advantage of it.

Reid, who, like many other Democrats, became increasingly pro-choice over the course of his Senate career, supported nuking the filibuster on some presidential nominees in 2013.

Frustrated with impediments to confirming then President Barack Obama’s nominees, Reid convinced enough of his fellow Democrats to invoke the nuclear option so that breaking a filibuster to confirm Cabinet officials and certain judicial nominees could be done by a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes typically required to end debate before the final confirmation vote.

It was a narrow vote of 48-52 in the Senate on Nov. 21, 2013, that sealed the fate of Roe almost a decade later.

No Republicans voted to nuke the filibuster that November day. They were joined by three Democrats – Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Following the vote, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued his memorable reply: “I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you will regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think.”

McConnell’s prophetic words came to fruition. Less than four years later, President Donald Trump was in office for his first term and looking to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Republican-controlled Senate blocked Obama from filling Scalia’s seat. Obama had nominated Merrick Garland – who would later become former President Joe Biden’s infamous attorney general – for the high court.

Neil Gorsuch was announced as the nominee on Jan. 31, 2017. On April 6, McConnell expanded Reid’s scrapping of the Senate filibuster to allow the nuclear option for Supreme Court nominees.

Gorsuch was confirmed by a vote of 54-46, with no Democratic support….

Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett would be nominated and confirmed to the court by the retirement of former Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018 and the death of late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.

The justices nominated by Trump, and reviled and vilified by Democrats, would almost certainly not have gotten confirmed without the nuclear option.

The Dobbs case was heard on May 17, 2021, after numerous delays. This case “centered around Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban” and the official decision was to be handed down on June 24, 2022. However, “the draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito to overturn Roe was leaked on May 2, 2022. Radicals targeted conservative justices, and there was a threat to the life of Justice Kavanaugh. Nevertheless, the decision came down as determined, and Roe v. Wade was overturned -- thanks to Trump, the Justices, congressional Republicans, and Harry Reid.