Labor pick cut deal with perv
SUPREME COURT nominee Neil Gorsuch vowed Tuesday to remain independent of the man who nominated him, even claiming that he would “have walked out the door” if President Trump had asked him to help overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Gorsuch, a judge on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was repeatedly asked during his second day before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his views on abortion and about his ability to remain judicially independent from Trump.
At one point, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) inquired whether Trump had explicitly asked the judge, during his interview, whether he would, if the opportunity arose, rule to “overrule” the landmark 1973 decision that effectively legalized abortion.
“Senator, I would have walked out the door,” Gorsuch responded firmly.
“It’s not what judges do. They don’t do it at that end of Pennsylvania Ave. and they shouldn’t do it at this end either, respectfully,” he added.
Trump had pledged repeatedly during his campaign that his Supreme Court nominee would be “pro-life” and vowed to pick someone who would help to “automatically” overturn Roe v. Wade — and senators on Tuesday peppered Gorsuch with questions accordingly, eager to pin him on some of his political positions.
Gorsuch’s reply to Graham, however, was one of many in which he deftly made the case that he would keep proper distance from Trump, who nominated him just 11 days after he was inaugurated.
“I have offered no promises on how I’d rule in any case to anyone,” he said in the opening moments of his marathon hearing. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for a judge to do so, no matter who’s doing the asking.”
“I have no difficulty ruling against or for any party, based upon what the law and facts in any particular case require,” Gorsuch added. “There’s no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge. We just have judges in this country."
He also promised to never apply his own personal views — including on abortion — to any rulings he would make from the high bench.
Judges have to “start with a heavy, heavy presumption in favor of precedent in our system,” Gorsuch said.
“I would tell you that Roe vs. Wade, decided in 1973, is the precedent of the United States Supreme Court,” he said, adding that “all of the other factors that go into analyzing precedent have to be considered.” PRESIDENT TRUMP’S pick for labor secretary once cut a non-prosecution deal with pedophile playboy Jeffrey Epstein, according to reports Tuesday.
Epstein, a billionaire money manager and registered sex offender, served 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008.
The light sentence was the result of a non-prosecution agreement drawn up by Alexander Acosta, a former U.S. attorney in Miami, the Washington Post first reported.
It states that if Epstein pleads guilty to the solicitation count, registers as a sex offender, and pays restitution to his underage victims, then federal charges would be dropped.
The sentence prompted widespread outrage, as federal prosecutors alleged that the 64-year-old Epstein sexually abused at least 40 girls, some of whom were as young as 13.