Gorsuch earned high court seat
... In this week’s Senate confirmation hearings, Neil Gorsuch has shown himself to be committed to the principle that judges should rule on the law as written, and apply it equally to all.
Ah, but the real world is messier than a legal scholar’s mind. That tension suffused the Senate hearings. Important court cases arise when the law or situation isn’t clear-cut. So how, for example, would Gorsuch rule on a crucial issue such as preserving abortion rights?
Like all nominees for the court these days, he wouldn’t talk in specifics about cases he might rule on in the future. Republicans are fine with that; they’re doing everything possible to guide him to confirmation. But Democrats mistrust Gorsuch, who was named to an appeals court seat by President George W. Bush. They’re also angry because they believe this Supreme Court vacancy, created a year ago by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia should have been filled by Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice. Instead, Senate Republicans stonewalled Garland’s nomination.
Democrats’ questioning Tuesday and Wednesday was aggressive. But their attempts to trip up Gorsuch, revealing deficiencies that might disqualify him, elicited the opposite: unassailable assurances by Gorsuch that he would decide each case on the merits, based on the law as written, applied to the world as it is today. Democrats struggled to find offense with that judicial philosophy. After each attack, they were forced to move on . ...
[One] Democratic attack came Tuesday from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, over Gorsuch’s dissent in what’s been called “the case of the frozen trucker.” Gorsuch said a truck driver dealing with mechanical failure on a 14-degrees-below-zero night could be fired for driving away from his load, even though staying meant endangering his life. The law would protect a driver who refused to operate an unsafe vehicle, but Gorsuch ruled that this driver did operate his rig. He drove off. At the hearings Democrats harassed Gorsuch for being unfeeling, but the judge said his empathy for the driver was beside the point.
Gorsuch then schooled Durbin:
That’s all we can ask of any justice. Some of Gorsuch’s critics think judges should be creative and expansive depending on the political climate — to treat laws differently on a cold night than a warm one. Those critics suggest that they fear Gorsuch won’t follow the law, but the opposite is more true: They fear he will. Gorsuch should be confirmed.