Now confirmed, Gorsuch will reveal his views as Supreme Court justice
WASHINGTON — Somewhere between the Republican caricature of the next justice of the Supreme Court as a folksy family guy and the Democrats’ demonization of him as a coldhearted automaton, stands Neil Gorsuch.
Largely unknown six months ago, Gorsuch has seen his life story, personality and professional career explored in excruciating detail since he was nominated by President Donald Trump 10 weeks ago. The portrait that emerges is more nuanced than the extremes drawn by his supporters and critics.
Gorsuch is widely regarded as a warm and collegial family man, boss and jurist, loyal to his employees and kind to those of differing viewpoints. He also has been shown to be a judge who takes such a “rigidly neutral” approach to the law that it can lead to dispassionate rulings with sometimes brutal results.
Four times during his confirmation hearings, Gorsuch invoked a “breakfast table” analogy, telling senators that good judges set aside what they have to eat — and their personal views — before they leave the house in the morning to apply the law and nothing else to the facts of the cases at hand.
“We’re all human beings,” Gorsuch told senators, “but the judge’s job is to put that stuff aside and approach the law as you find it.”
That ability to compartmentalize, combined with Gorsuch’s studious refusal to signal his thinking on contentious issues, left Democrats frustrated.
For all his many visits with senators and his hours in the witness seat, Gorsuch had not revealed his core beliefs and may have, according to Democrats, a bias favoring powerful interests over ordinary people.
Preparing to take the oath of office Monday after a rancorous 54-45 vote in the Senate, Gorsuch soon will largely recede into the cloistered halls of the Supreme Court.
For all that he shared, Gorsuch did his best not to telegraph where he might land on a range of topics that he could confront early in his time as a justice, even though both sides think they have a pretty good idea how he would rule.
Questioned about his views on the Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman’s right to have an abortion, Gorsuch would go no further than to voice his respect for legal precedent and say “no one is looking to return us to horse and buggy days.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, spoke for many in her party when, nearing the end of two days of testimony, she told Gorsuch: “It remains to be seen whether you will be a justice for all or a justice for some.”