GORSUCH HEARING MONDAY | What To Expect & What To Look For | Poll Du Jour From C-SPAN
March 17, 2017
T'WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE
|The SCOTUS confirmation hearing for JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH is right around the corner, scheduled for Monday, March 20. Tony Mauro with The National Law Journal considers what we can expect at the hearing which should “yield substantive statements that reveal a nominee’s frame of mind.”
TOP-ED
|In USA Today, SENATOR ORRIN HATCH sets the stage for next week’s hearing, predicting Democrats will fall all over themselves trying to paint JUDGE GORSUCH as a “fringe jurist.” The longest-serving member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hatch opines, “Ultimately, Gorsuch’s opponents will fail because he is so clearly a man of integrity and so clearly qualified to serve on our nation’s highest court.”
READ BETWEEN THE LINES
|Our SCOTUS nominee was picked for his judicial conservatism, and he’s likely to hold firm in that regard on social issues such as abortion, gun rights and affirmative action. “Not that Gorsuch has ruled on all these issues. He has not. But the legal road signs are there.” That’s NPR’s Nina Totenberg reporting on what kind of jurist NEIL GORSUCH is likely to be when it comes to society’s most difficult questions.
NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES
|More from NPR’s Nina Totenberg… She reports that while senators are likely to focus on hot-button social issues during the hearing, they will also “spend a lot of time examining the nominee’s views on federal regulations — of the environment, health and safety laws for workers, and laws on consumer rights and business.”
TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
|“Some liberals wary of JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH’S fitness for the Supreme Court point to the Case of the Frozen Trucker. As an appeals court judge, Gorsuch ruled against a driver who claimed he’d been wrongly fired because he ignored his supervisor’s demands by unhitching his unheated truck from its malfunctioning trailer and driving away in subzero weather in search of safety. Here’s a twist: Some conservatives supportive of Gorsuch cite the exact same case, in admiration.” That’s Robert Barnes of The Washington Post explaining how this case can offer insight into what kind of justice Gorsuch would be.
DEAD ON ARRIVAL
|Meanwhile, David Savage with the Los Angeles Times reports that the hearing should reveal why NEIL GORSUCH doesn’t believe in a “living” Constitution. Savage notes the hearing will be “a triumphant moment for ‘originalism,’ the once-obscure theory that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the meaning of words and phrases as they were understood in the times they were written.”
END OF LIFE QUESTIONS
|Joan Biskupic with CNN notes that JUDGE GORSUCH will also probably get some questions about a distinct aspect of his record that doesn’t often come up in confirmation hearings: whether physicians can prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients to end their lives.
SNOWFLAKE AWARD
|Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern takes no prisoners in his latest piece in which he writes, “Special snowflake SAMUEL ALITO is very worried anti-gay activists will be called mean names.” Wednesday, the justice spoke at a Catholic lawyers’ association about the threat he sees marriage equality posing to religious liberty. AP reported: “Alito used his own words from his dissent in the Supreme Court’s landmark same-sex marriage case, telling the gathering he had predicted opposition to the decision would be used to ‘vilify those who disagree, and treat them as bigots.'”
ICYMI
|JESS BRAVIN with The Wall Street Journal spoke with SCOTUSDaily about the upcoming Gorsuch hearings, and about the man behind it all. When asked about NEIL GORSUCH as a person, Bravin noted that although he may not be the most interesting man in the world, he’ll at least feed your dog while you’re out of town. Read it all here.
POLL DU JOUR
|A new poll from C-SPAN reveals Americans have very strong attitudes about the Supreme Court and how it affects their lives. The poll found 90% of Americans believe SCOTUS decisions affects their lives, and 82% said Supreme Court appointments were important in the consideration of their presidential vote.
OTHER NEWS
Why Trump's Revised Travel Ban Could Still Succeed
The Atlantic“Despite judicial setbacks, federal law leaves open the possibility that the president’s new executive order might prevail — if he can keep quiet.”
Democrats cede the airwaves in Gorsuch fight
CNN“A battered Democratic Party has largely forfeited the fight on television over the fate of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, another sign of both Gorsuch’s political strength and of Democrats’ inability to focus on fighting the pick.”