Commentary “You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think,” then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2013 upon Senate Democrats’ invoking the “nuclear option” to prevent Senate Republicans from filibustering all lower-court judicial nominations. And so it was: In 2017, facing fierce Democratic opposition on the nomination of then-Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, then-Majority Leader McConnell galvanized Republicans to extend Reid’s precedent to Supreme Court nominees. Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett all ended up benefiting by means of razor-thin confirmation margins on the Senate floor that would not have been possible with traditional filibuster rules in place. Fast-forward to 2021, and Democrats are now flirting with making precisely the same mistake they made in 2013. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden came out in favor of filibuster reform. …