No promises and no one above law, Supreme Court pick says
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch declared Tuesday he’s made no promises to 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.
Gorsuch also called Trump’s attacks on federal judges “disheartening” and “demoralizing.”
During the long second day of his Senate confirmation hearings, Gorsuch made two other notable statements in response to questions from members of the Judiciary Committee, and both also related to Trump, who nominated him.
Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked Gorsuch whether Trump had asked him to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case establishing a right to abortion, and what he would have done had Trump asked him to do so.
“Senator, I would have walked out the door,” Gorsuch replied. “That’s not what judges do.” Later in the day, Gorsuch acknowledged that he and Trump discussed abortion during his Supreme Court interview, but only how divisive an issue it is. Their conversation touched on abortion, Gorsuch said, after Trump bemoaned his loss of Gorsuch’s native Colorado in November.
When Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Gorsuch if a president is free to ignore laws on national security grounds, Gorsuch replied that “nobody is above the law in this country, and that includes the president of the United States.”
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.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter that while the investigation continues, “lifetime court appointments can wait.”
Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley dismissed the idea as ridiculous.
On a day mostly devoid of drama, 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 Trump.
The abortion question was especially pointed be- cause Trump himself has insisted he would appoint “pro-life justices” who would vote to overturn the 1973 Roe decision.
Gorsuch likewise wouldn’t comment on litigation over 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 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 Gorsuch replied.
As Tuesday’s questioning wore on, senators and Gorsuch engaged in a routine well-established in recent confirmation hear- anyone,” ings. 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.
Gorsuch made one exception, describing the twoyear-old decision extending same-sex marriage nationwide as “settled law,” a term he did not apply to any other decision.
The 49-year-old Denver appeals court judge kept a smile on his face most of the day, although he seemed to show flashes of anger under questioning from some Democrats.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois pressed Gorsuch on claims by a former student at the University of Colorado Law School who said Gorsuch implied in a legal ethics class in April that he believes many female job applicants unfairly manipulate companies by hiding plans to begin families. She remembered him saying that many accept job offers but quickly leave with maternity benefits.