The Senate Friday confirmed Neil Gorsuch as the 113^th justice appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in the nation’s history. The vote was 54-45.

The Senate’s 100^th member was recorded as absent and not voting  – Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia. He was back in his home state recovering from a second back surgery in the past month.

Isakson had received his doctor’s approval to travel to Washington on Thursday to vote on the Republican motion to change the Senate rule from 60 votes to a simple majority to end the Democrats filibuster of Gorsuch’s appointment by President Donald Trump.

Friday’s confirmation vote was anticlimactic. The Republicans had votes to spare to elevate the 49-year-old Gorsuch, a federal appeals judge from Colorado, to the Supreme Court. He replaces conservative icon Antonin Scalia, who died 14 months ago.

Isakson applauded the Gorsuch confirmation in a statement issued by his office Friday.

“Judge Gorsuch’s judicial temperament and his ironclad commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law make him an excellent addition to our nation’s highest court,” the statement said.