WASHINGTON The Senate confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Friday, ending an ugly, weeks-long fight between Democrats who demanded a different nominee and Republicans who changed the rules to go around them entirely.

Gorsuch was confirmed, 54 to 45. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) were the only Democrats who voted with Republicans to support President Donald Trump s court pick. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) missed the vote.

Following the vote, the Supreme Court announced that Gorsuch would be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts as the nations 101st associate justice in a private ceremony on Monday. Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch clerked as a young lawyer, will administer a public oath later at the White House.

Republican leaders were thrilled to chalk up the win, arguably their partys first major victory since Trump became president.

Hes going to make an incredible addition to the court, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) raved ahead of the vote.

In a statement, Trump called Gorsuchs confirmation process one of the most transparent and accessible in history.

As a deep believer in the rule of law, Judge Gorsuch will serve the American people with distinction as he continues to faithfully and vigorously defend our Constitution, he said. At 49, Gorsuchs lifetime appointment to the bench is expected to last decades.

Democrats had argued that Gorsuch, a conservative Colorado federal appeals judge, was out of the mainstream and too aligned with corporate interests to be a fair justice. They urged Republicans to put forward a consensus nominee. When that didnt happen, they made history on Thursday by staging a party-line filibuster of the Supreme Court nominee.

Republicans retaliated by making history, too: They unilaterally blew up the rules so it only takes 51 votes, instead of 60, to advance any Supreme Court nominee. There are 52 Republicans, so after that rules change, they had the votes to bypass Democrats and move Gorsuch along.

The rules change means that majority parties will no longer have to concern themselves, at all, with the opinions or votes of minority party members for any presidential appointments.

Senators in both parties are walking away from this fight with a bitter taste in their mouths.

I could not help but notice a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle high-fiving each other, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said on Thursday after the rules change. That image stays with me as I stand here now. It saddens me. There is no cause for celebration in what happened in the Senate just hours ago. No one should sleep well tonight. No one should underestimate the magnitude of what happened here.

I wish that an important aspect to this process had played out differently. It didnt have to be this way, McConnell said on Friday. But today is a new day. I hope my Democratic friends will take this moment to reflect on perhaps considering a turning point in their outlook going forward.

Gorsuch will fill the seat on the court previously held by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. President Barack Obama put forward a nominee, Merrick Garland, to fill that seat in March 2016. But McConnell took the unprecedented step of refusing to give him a hearing never mind a vote for the entire year, arguing that the next president should get to fill the court vacancy. He took that position literally an hour after news of Scalias death broke.