In a season of Democratic Party frustration and anger, Donald Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court Tuesday night is a particularly bitter pill to swallow.
When the seat opened nearly a year ago following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Democrats imagined a durable liberal majority on the court for the first time since the 1960s.
Even as the Republican Senate majority broke with longstanding tradition and blocked any consideration of President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, Democrats comforted themselves with the prospect of Hillary Clinton's likely victory in November's presidential election. They entertained the possibility that she would instead pick someone younger and even more progressive than the decidedly moderate Mr Garland.
Then the election happened - setting up the inevitability of Tuesday night's prime-time announcement. President Trump, standing in the East Room of the White House, sprayed lemon on their open wounds, noting that the next Supreme Court justice would follow in Scalia's conservative footsteps.
Republicans, across the board, are thrilled with the pick. Mr Gorsuch has a sterling legal reputation and indisputable right-wing pedigree. While Mr Trump has proven an uncertain quantity when it comes to fealty to other party orthodoxies, they view his court pick as their trust rewarded.
"President Trump won 81% of the evangelical vote in no small measure because he made an ironclad pledge that if elected he would fill the vacancy on the US Supreme Court with a strict constructionist who would respect the Constitution and the rule of law, not legislate from the bench," Faith and Freedom Coalition Chair Ralph Reed said in a press release. "We never doubted then-candidate Trump's sincerity or commitment, and by nominating Judge Gorsuch, he has now kept that promise."
As great as was conservative joy, so were the depths of liberal anger - likely only stoked by calls by Republicans, from Mr Trump on down, to give their nominee a fair shake.
"The default is if you are generally qualified and not extreme you are confirmed," White House press spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday afternoon.
It's a sentiment that has not been welcomed by those on the left.
"The Democrats should treat Trump's [Supreme Court] pick with the exact same courtesy the GOP showed Merrick Garland," tweeted Dan Pfeifer, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama. "Don't flinch, don't back down."
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