Gorsuch defends adherence to law at Senate hearing

Supreme Court nominee pledges to stay neutral

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch promised to be a "neutral and independent" member of the nation's highest court as a Senate panel began a divisive fourday hearing over a year-old vacancy.

"If judges were just secret legislators, declaring not what the law is but what they would like it to be, the very idea of a government by the people and for the people would be at risk," Gorsuch told the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday on the first day of his confirmation hearing.

"I have ruled for disabled students, for prisoners, for the accused, for workers alleging civil rights violations, and for undocumented immigrants. Sometimes too I have ruled against such persons," he said. "But my decisions have never reflected a judgment about the people before me — only a judgment about the law and facts at issue in each particular case."

Gorsuch, 49, President Donald Trump's first high court nominee, is a heavy favorite for confirmation given Republicans' 52-48 Senate majority. Still, senators' opening statements Monday showed he isn't likely to win much, if any, Democratic support on the Judiciary Committee.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said the high court's Republican-appointed majority had engaged in a "54 rampage" of rulings in recent years that favored "corporations against humans."

"Tellingly, big special interests are spending millions of dollars in a darkmoney campaign to promote" Gorsuch's confirmation, Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, said. "They obviously think you will be worth the money."

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said, "The judge's job, our nominee says, is to deliver on the promise that 'all litigants, rich or poor, mighty or meek, will receive equal protection under the law and due process for their grievances.'"

Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said the committee plans to vote April 3, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he's confident Gorsuch will be confirmed later that week, before a mid-April Senate recess. The Supreme Court hears the final arguments of its current term later that month.

Gorsuch's confirmation would again give the court five Republican-appointed justices, restoring a majority that had been in place for almost half a century before the February 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Gorsuch said he learned the importance of objectivity and judicial independence from mentors including Scalia and Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom he served as a law clerk.

"These days we sometimes hear judges cynically described as politicians in robes. Seeking to enforce their own politics rather than striving to apply the law impartially," Gorsuch said. "If I thought that were true, I'd hang up the robe."

He also worked to inject his personality into the debate over his nomination. He spoke of his first day on a Denver-based federal appeals court, when he tripped on his robe while carrying papers up the steps to the bench "and everything just went flying."

In some of the sharpest comments by a Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois told Gorsuch, "In case after case, you've either dismissed or rejected the efforts of workers and families to recognize their rights or defend their freedoms."