New justice thanks prez after oath at White House
WASHINGTON — New Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch went to the White House yesterday to take a second oath and to publicly thank President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, the lawyers in the White House counsel’s office, and Republican Senate leaders for helping put him on the nation’s highest court.
“This process has reminded me of just how outrageously blessed I am,” Gorsuch said in the Rose Garden ceremony.
There has been some controversy in the past decade over whether it was appropriate for a newly confirmed justice to be sworn in at the White House. Retired Justice John Paul Stevens said such ceremonies give the appearance the new justice is going to the court as the president’s appointee rather than an independent justice.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan took their oaths at the Supreme Court and did not go the White House for a public ceremony. When they had a ceremonial investiture in the courtroom, President Barack Obama attended. But in prior decades, the newly confirmed justices routinely went to the White House to take the oath alongside the president.
At the Rose Garden ceremony, Trump said he was proud and pleased to have chosen an outstanding jurist to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“I got it done in the first 100 days!” Trump said.
“This is a very, very special moment,” Trump told Gorsuch as he was about take the oath. “I have no doubt you will go down as one of the truly great justices in the history of the United States Supreme Court.”
Gorsuch won his seat after an unusually partisan battle. Senate Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to consider Judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee, and they were forced to change the filibuster rule to confirm Trump’s nominee after Democrats sought to block a vote on Gorsuch.
Earlier yesterday, Gorsuch took the constitutional oath in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court. He then went to the White House to take a second “judicial oath” in a public ceremony.
Gorsuch will soon be hearing and deciding cases involving the Trump administration, including possibly whether to uphold the president’s temporary travel ban on people from six majority-Muslim nations. Two federal judges decided to put the ban on hold, and lawyers for the administration are appealing.