WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Trump picked Gorsuch, who worked as a judge with the US Federal Court of Appeals, to fill the seat with the US Supreme Court. The seat has been left empty after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.
"President Trump and I have a full confidence that Judge Gorsuch will be confirmed. We will work with the Senate leadership to ensure that Judge Gorsuch gets an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor- one way or the other," Pence said as broadcast by Fox News.
He added that Gorsuch was one of the most qualified nominees for the seat in the Supreme Court in the country's history and called for opponents of the appointment to refrain from attempts to block the approval in the Senate they had already promised to take.
"This seat does not belong to any party or any ideology interest group, this seat on the Supreme Court belongs to the American people, and the American people deserve a vote on the floor of the United States Senate," Pence added.
The vacant Supreme Court seat has been a bone of contention between the representatives of the two major US parties following the death of Scalia in early 2016.
Throughout his election campaign Trump had promised to select a Justice in the conservative tradition of the late Scalia who died a year ago after serving on the court for almost three decades.
Gorsuch was born and raised in Colorado. He attended Columbia University and Harvard Law School and received his doctorate from Oxford University. He still faces confirmation hearings in the Republican-controlled US Senate.