Trump nominates top judge
US president picks conservative Gorsuch to shift Supreme Court balance
DONALD Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, seizing an unusual early opportunity to put conservatives back in the majority on America’s top court.
In a primetime address that was part jurisprudence, part reality show, Trump tapped the 49-year-old appeals court judge from Denver, Colorado.
If Senate-confirmed, he will fill the seat made vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia nearly a year ago and tilt the balance of the court five-to-four in conservatives’ favour.
The elegant, silver-haired jurist with a flair for writing incisive rulings is the youngest nominee in a generation.
His appointment could have a major impact on cases ranging from business regulation to gender rights to gun control.
After unprecedented hyping of the announcement, Trump invited Gorsuch and his wife to emerge dramatically before an audience in the East Room of the White House.
“He could have had any job at any law firm for any amount of money, but what he wanted to do with his career was to be a judge, to write decisions, and to make an impact by upholding our laws and our constitution,” Trump said.
But despite the razzmatazz, Gorsuch was also a remarkably orthodox pick for a president who scythed through norms and precedent during his brief time in office.
Like Scalia, Gorsuch is considered an “originalist” – guided in his legal thinking by the constitution’s original intent and meaning.
Gorsuch says he was on the ski slopes when he learned of his mentor’s death last February. “I couldn’t see the rest of the way down the mountain for the tears,” he remarked in a speech soon after.
For Trump, the selection is payback to evangelical Christian and conservative Republicans who backed his bid for the presidency – at times reluctantly.
“Millions of voters said this was the single most important issue to them when they voted for me for president,” Trump said.
“I am a man of my word. I will do as I say – something that the American people have been asking for from Washington for a very, very long time.”
The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of many of the most sensitive issues of American life and law.
Its members are named to life terms so their influence is long-lasting.
Given the advanced age of several sitting justices, Trump could potentially make several appointments during his term, shaping the court’s direction for a generation.
Once confirmed, however, justices enjoy independence and some have proved politically unpredictable.
With an eye to a bitter Congressional fight, Gorsuch presented himself as someone who is fair-minded and self-deprecating.
“A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge, stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands,” he joked.
Much of Democrats’ opposition to Gorsuch is likely to stem from Republicans’ behaviour after Scalia’s death.
For the better part of a year, Congressional Republicans refused to give then president Barack Obama’s pick a confirmation hearing.
Democrats, who are in a minority in both chambers of Congress, are still smarting from Republican treatment of Obama’s pick, Merrick Garland.
Garland has since returned to his old job as chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, but Democrats could yet pick a fight. — AFP