Sen. Ed MarkeyEd MarkeyDemocratic Rep. Mondaire Jones calls on Breyer to retire Democratic senators call on Biden to support waiving vaccine patents Progressives put Democrats on defense MORE (D-Mass.) pledged Monday that Democrats will restore a 60-vote filibuster threshold for Supreme Court nominees if they regain the majority in the upper chamber. 

"We will restore the 60-vote margin. We will ensure that for the Supreme Court there is that special margin that any candidate has to reach," he told MSNBC.
 
He said making Supreme Court candidates get 60 votes "is essential to ensuring that our country has a confidence in those people who are nominated, rather than just someone who passes a litmus test." 
 
Markey's comments come after Republicans triggered the "nuclear option" last week to confirm Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who took the judicial oath on Monday. 
 
There's been no indication yet from Senate Democratic leadership that it plans to restore the 60-vote procedural threshold if the party retakes the Senate in the future. 
 
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Under a rule change enacted last week by the GOP, the minority party will still be able to filibuster Supreme Court nominees, but the majority will only need 51 votes, instead of 60, to end debate. 
 
Republicans defended the rule change by arguing Democrats were waging the first "partisan filibuster" of a Supreme Court nominee and were signaling they wouldn't back any Republican nominee.  

“Our Democrat colleagues have done something today that is unprecedented in the history of the Senate. Unfortunately, it has brought us to this point. We need to restore the norms and traditions of the Senate," Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTrump looms over Senate's anti-Asian hate crimes battle Appointing a credible, non-partisan Jan. 6 commission should not be difficult Why President Biden is all-in in infrastructure MORE (R-Ky.) said shortly before the vote. 

Democrats accuse Republicans of effectively filibustering former President Obama's nominee for the court, Merrick Garland, because they refused to give him a hearing or a vote. 

Senate Democrats, led by then-Majority Leader Harry ReidHarry Mason ReidThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Tax March - CDC in limbo on J&J vax verdict; Rep. Brady retiring Biden to tap Erika Moritsugu as new Asian American and Pacific Islander liaison White House races clock to beat GOP attacks MORE (D-Nev.), voted in 2013 to lower the procedural hurdle for lower court and executive nominees, allowing them to clear the chamber with a simple majority, but kept the 60-vote filibuster in place for Supreme Court picks.
 
Markey's Monday pledge was met with near-immediate skepticism from some GOP strategists. 
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