President’s populism used against him on Gorsuch

Dems spot chance to block court nominee over his corporate support

WASHINGTON Montana Sen. Jon Tester’s opposition to President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, indicates how Democrats plan to stall the president’s agenda by turning his populist campaign message back on him.

Democrats representing states that Trump won calculate that Gorsuch’s record on labor and employment issues — and his support for campaign- finance rules favoring corporations — is so out of step with their voters that they are opposing him. “They’ve seen what happens when you start treating corporations like people, because they have no soul like people do,” Tester said of his voters. In Montana, cultural aversion to corporate abuses and dark money runs deep, dating to the civil rights violations during the “copper kings” era more than 100 years ago.

Gorsuch’s record is “very bad” when it comes to treating corporations like people, Tester said. In a case in 2014 involving the Hobby Lobby chain, Gorsuch supported a ruling that essentially said corporations are people with religious rights.

Republicans hold 52 Senate seats, so Democrats such as Tester prevent Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from mustering the 60 votes needed to approve Gorsuch’s nomination. Seven Democrats representing states won by Trump last year who are up for re- election next year plan to vote against Gorsuch.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D- Mo., said in a post on Medium that she could not support Gorsuch because his opinions “reveal a rigid ideology that always puts the little guy under the boot of corporations.”

USA TODAY Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch needs 60 votes in the Senate to be confirmed without the “nuclear option.”