‘No promises, and no one above law’
Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch says he’s made no pledges to Trump
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch declared Tuesday he’s made no promises to President Donald Trump or anyone else about how he’ll vote on abortion or other issues and testified he’ll have no trouble as a justice holding anyone accountable, including the president who picked him.
Judge Gorsuch also called Mr. Trump’s attacks on federal judges “disheartening” and “demoralizing.”
During the long second day of his Senate confirmation hearings, Judge Gorsuch made two other notable statements in response to questions from members of the Judiciary Committee, and both also related to Mr. Trump, who nominated him.
Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked Judge Gorsuch whether Mr. Trump had asked him to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case establishing a right to abortion, and what he would have done had Mr. Trump asked him to do so.
“Senator, I would have walked out the door,” Judge Gorsuch replied. “That’s not what judges do.” Later in the day, Judge Gorsuch acknowledged that he and Mr. Trump discussed abortion during his Supreme Court interview, but only how divisive an issue it is. Their conversation touched on abortion, Judge Gorsuch said, after Mr. Trump bemoaned his loss of Judge Gorsuch’s native Colorado in November.
When Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Judge Gorsuch if a president is free to ignore laws on national security grounds, Judge Gorsuch replied that “nobody is above the law in this country, and that includes the president of the United States.”
Calm and unruffled, Judge Gorsuch frustrated Democrats by refusing to be drawn into revealing his thoughts on current legal controversies or past rulings. “If I were to start telling you which are my favorite precedents or which are my least favorite precedents,” he said, “I would be tipping my hand.”
Instead, Judge Gorsuch said he was there to defend his qualifications and his record as an appeals court judge.
Some Democratic senators who are not on the Judiciary Committee called for a pause in the confirmation process after FBI Director James Comey said Monday that the bureau is investigating Russian meddling in last year’s election and potential ties between Trump associates and Russia.
On a day mostly devoid of drama, Judge Gorsuch batted away Democrats’ efforts to get him to reveal his views on abortion, guns and other controversial issues, insisting he keeps “an open mind for the entire process” when he makes rulings. His comments were similar in response to questions from majority Republicans as they tried to help him highlight his neutrality in the face of Democratic attempts to link him to Mr. Trump.
The abortion question was especially pointed because Mr. Trump himself has insisted he would appoint “pro-life justices” who would vote to overturn the 1973 Roe decision.
Judge Gorsuch likewise wouldn’t comment on litigation over Mr. Trump’s efforts to ban travel to the U.S. by people from some mainly Muslim countries. He did, however, say publicly what he had previously told senators in private about Mr. Trump’s attacks on judges who ruled against him on that issue.
“When anyone criticizes the honesty and integrity or the motives of a federal judge, I find that disheartening, I find that demoralizing,” he said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat, asked, “Including the president?”
“Anyone is anyone,” Judge Gorsuch replied.
As Tuesday’s questioning wore on, senators and Judge Gorsuch engaged in a routine wellestablished in recent confirmation hearings. The nominee resists all requests to say how he feels about Supreme Court decisions, even as he is asked about them again and again. Such was the case with questions about rulings on campaign finance, abortion, gun rights, even a privacy ruling from 1965 that John Roberts explicitly endorsed in his confirmation hearing in 2005.
Judge Gorsuch made one exception, describing the 2-year-old decision extending same-sex marriage nationwide as “settled law,” a term he did not apply to any other decision.
Republicans are unanimous in support of the 49year-old Denver appeals court judge. There are now just eight justices on the nine-member high court.