30,000 FOOT VIEW OF GORSUCH HEARING DAY TWO | Creature of Consensus | Playing Dodgeball With Dems
March 21, 2017
GETTING TO THE GOOD STUFF
|It’s day two of JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH’S confirmation hearing, and senators are at long last asking the Supreme Court nominee all of their burning questions. We’re giving you the 30,000 foot view of the hearing, as it happens, so you won’t miss a thing. Watch the rest of Day 2 LIVE.
A CREATURE OF CONSENSUS
|“JUDGE NEIL M. GORSUCH presented himself on Monday as a creature of consensus during a sharply partisan Supreme Court confirmation hearing, clouded throughout by the bitter nomination fight that preceded it over the past year.” Matt Flegenheimer with The New York Times reports on Gorsuch’s performance yesterday during his 16-minute “well-practiced” speech in which he tried to put himself above politics.
ICYMI
|Read the full transcript of JUDGE GORSUCH’S prepared remarks he delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday on the first day of his hearing. The New York Times delivers six highlights from yesterday’s hearing — one of which, notes that two of the most frequently mentioned people were JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND and SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL.
PLEADING THE FIFTH
|Today, JUDGE GORSUCH’S performance can perhaps be best characterized by evasion. Dip, dodge, dive and dodge — that was the name of the game and Gorsuch has been doing swimmingly at it. Continually refusing to answer questions from Democrats regarding abortion, guns and campaign spending, Gorsuch did not want to give hints about his ideological leanings because, as he says, he has to be able to “look the litigant in the eye for that next case.”
SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT
|Democrats grilled JUDGE GORSUCH on his work at the Justice Department, while Republicans questioned him about judicial independence and whether he would be able to rule against Trump. He declined to share his view on the president’s travel ban and asserted, “I’m not going to say anything here that would give anybody any idea how I’d rule in any case like that that could come before the Supreme Court.”
PLAYING SOFTBALL
|When SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY asked Gorsuch if he would ever rule against PRESIDENT TRUMP, Gorsuch replied, “That’s a softball question…I have no difficulty ruling against or for any party other than based on what the law and the facts of a particular case require. And I’m heartened by the support I have received from people who recognize that there’s no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge. We just have judges in this country.”
ABOVE THE LAW
|When SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY asked Gorsuch if the president’s national security determinations could be reviewed by a court, the nominee replied, “Senator, no man is above the law.”
WALK RIGHT OUT
|During today’s hearing, JUDGE GORSUCH told SENATOR LINDSAY GRAHAM that if PRESIDENT TRUMP had asked him during his interview to overturn Roe v. Wade, he “would have walked out the door.”
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
|While senators continue the never-ending fight over who will fill the ninth seat on the Supreme Court bench, the Court’s current justices are making their way through their docket schedule. Yesterday, the justices seemed divided during oral arguments in Murr v. Wisconsin, a takings case that considers whether an action that might otherwise be a taking might cease to be one merely because the owner of the affected lot also happens to own other property contiguous to it. In other words, the case could make it harder for state and local governments to limit development in coastal areas.
WAY OUT WEST
|Eric Boehm for Reason explains that although the Murr case is so “narrow and technical” that it “makes you wonder why the Supreme Court is involved at all,” it’s a case Western states are watching very, very closely.
YOU'RE SORTA HIRED
|The Supreme Court yesterday ruled 6-2 to curb the president’s power to appoint someone to fill a top government post temporarily while the person is awaiting Senate confirmation to do the job permanently. The new ruling says that a nominee can fill a position on an acting basis only if they held the role as top assistant to the post for 90 days.
STILL IN THE GAME
|The justices rejected a bid from SENATOR ROBERT MENENDEZ yesterday to have his corruption charges thrown out, meaning his trial will likely go forward later this fall.
POLL DU JOUR
|Somehow, some way, with all this news in and around the Supreme Court, not even half of the country is engaged on SCOTUS. A new poll from C-SPAN/PSB reveals only 43% of Americans can name a Supreme Court justice. THE NOTORIOUS RBG was named more than any other of her fellow justices, with 16 percent of those surveyed giving her name.
PICTURE THIS
|Tom Toles, the editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post, shares his latest — a cartoon pointed at the SCOTUS nomination hearings that remind us “it’s only a game.”
SCOTUS VIEWS
Neil Gorsuch could be the most conservative justice on the Supreme Court
The Washington Post“Our analysis suggests that, if confirmed, Gorsuch might be the most conservative justice on the Supreme Court.”
The Case Against Neil Gorsuch
Slate“At a Supreme Court confirmation hearing, we should not be talking about the beliefs a nominee may hold in his heart. Instead, we need to focus on whether his accommodation of the beliefs of others overmasters not just scientific fact and neutral civil rights laws, but also the interests and values of people of different faiths and those who reject religion altogether.”
OTHER NEWS
U.S. Supreme Court Gives Patent Holders More Time to Sue
BloombergSCOTUS decided 7-1 to give patent holders more time to file infringement lawsuits, ruling in a case involving adult diapers.
How 'Price Discrimination' Helps Less-Affluent Countries
The Wall Street Journal“Supreme Court decisions affect ordinary Americans on matters from health care to housing, but rarely does a ruling make a material difference for people abroad. On Tuesday the high court will hear a case that represents an exception to the rule.”
Bipartisanship: A Hopeful Memory from an Unlikely Source
Nasty Politics“From Scalia, I learned that conviction in one’s belief does not mean blindness to other opinions. I learned that bipartisanship is a facet of American politics that will always exist and that does not need to be our demise.”