Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is ending his 17-year reign as GOP leader in the upper chamber of Congress, but his legacy as leader has shaped another branch of the federal government — the Supreme Court.
During his six years as majority leader, the Kentucky Republican is best remembered for how he chose to confirm or deny appointees to the Supreme Court, but McConnell’s defining accomplishment began in 2013 with a warning to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV): “You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.”
Reid was moving to dissolve the filibuster for judicial nominations — with a carveout for Supreme Court nominations — after frustrations over Republicans blocking then-President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees. McConnell and the Senate GOP, then in the minority, opposed the
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