USA TODAY International Edition
TRUMP PICKS GORSUCH FOR SUPREME COURT
The conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado is an acolyte of the late Justice Antonin Scalia
Nearly a full year after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the Supreme Court shorthanded, President Trump nominated federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch of Colorado to fill the void Tuesday night, setting off a pitched battle over the direction of the nation’s highest court.
Trump unveiled his nominee to the nation on live television from the East Room of the White House after a day filled with palace intrigue, during which the news media mapped the whereabouts of Gorsuch and federal appeals court Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, the other favorite for the seat.
Gorsuch, 49, sits on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 1 th Circuit. He is a Scalia acolyte who says judges should interpret laws as they are written
and enforce the Constitution as the nation’s framers intended. He writes with a Scalia- like flair and has degrees from Columbia, Harvard and Oxford.
“Mr. President, I am honored, and I am humbled,” he said, standing next to his wife, Louise. He expounded briefly on his legal philosophy. “In our legal order, it is for the Congress, and not judges, to write laws,” he said. “A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge.”
Gorsuch, along with Hardiman, emerged from a list of 21 people Trump considered, topped initially by federal appeals court Judges William Pryor of Alabama and Diane Sykes of Wisconsin. Pryor has a more controversial record on issues such as abortion and gay rights, possibly making Senate confirmation risky, and Sykes, 59, has fewer years on the bench.
The White House filled the East Room with Washington’s movers and shakers for the announcement. On hand were Vice President Pence, top Republican leaders in Congress and Scalia’s widow, Maureen. Democratic leaders declined their invitations.
Trump made sure everyone watching knew he had kept his word to nominate someone from the lists he put forward in May and September. From those, he said, he had chosen “the very best judge in the country” to replace Scalia. “I studied every aspect of his life,” he said. “The qualifications of Judge Gorsuch are beyond dispute.”
Gorsuch holds strong views about the limits of executive branch power. He has defended religious liberties, most recently against the Affordable Care Act’s so- called contraception mandate.
He will face intense opposition from Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups, which planned to protest the nomination at the Supreme Court an hour after it was announced. Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, promised “a mass mobilization to defeat the nomination.”
“I look forward to speaking with members from both sides of the aisle,” Gorsuch said.
Republicans hold a 52- seat majority in the Senate, large enough to block President Obama’s choice of federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland last year but not sufficient to overcome a filibuster if Democrats seek to bottle up the nomination as revenge.
Unless Trump can win over eight of them, Republicans will have to change the Senate’s rules, eliminating the 60- vote threshold needed to bring the nomination to the floor. Trump endorsed such a move last week.
Republican senators sang their praises. “Today was the most important decision President Trump has made,” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said. Sen. Cory Gardner predicted “major Democratic support” for his fellow Coloradoan.
The White House hopes to have the seat filled in time for the court’s sitting in April, the last of the 2016 term, when several cases could be considered involving such issues as religious liberty and transgender rights.
“There’s a lot of cases that I think are in the queue right now that have the potential to be 4- 4 ( votes),” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said. “I think the idea is to get this individual confirmed as soon as possible, just to get the docket moving.”