Confirmation hearings begin for Supreme Court nominee

Gorsuch promised in his opening statement Monday to be a “neutral and independent” justice.

A slice of that pressure was on display Thursday when Bennet faced questions about the Supreme Court nominee during a town hall meeting in Colorado Springs. “All I can tell you is my job is to apply the law you write”.

Judge Neil Gorsuch listens during the first day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. Whereas Mr Scalia savaged his colleagues by likening their views to “pure applesauce” or “the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie”, Mr Gorsuch is refined and respectful of those with whom he disagrees. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif right and Sen.

‘I’ve participated in 2,700 opinions over ten and a half years. Democrats this week, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, ratcheted up their critique of specific cases they said showed Gorsuch to favor corporations and big business, but have yet to unearth a silver bullet that would convince their Democratic caucus to hold strong should they filibuster his nomination.

Gorsuch said he learned the news just after having breakfast with a legal scholar who coincidentally had been asking him how he felt about the fact that Trump hadn’t included him on his first Supreme Court list. He was sacked after he disobeyed a supervisor and abandoned his trailer at roadside after its brakes froze.

The trucker, Alphonse Maddin, filed a complaint asserting that his firing violated a federal safety law. Gorsuch now serves on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Before the vote, he will have to answer additional written questions from committee members. “Our only task is to decide whether the decision was an illegal one”. “We should all be concerned by this troubling trend in Gorsuch’s record”.

He also pointed to examples where he ruled against the government and for “the accused, the least among us”. “They come to me as a person”. Now, Republicans on this committee are guilty of their own ‘court un-packing scheme, ‘ ” said Sen.

Gorsuch on Monday cast himself as a judge willing to rule however the law required, highlighting cases where he landed on the side of individuals.

Meanwhile, in another case, Gorsuch ruled that the mother of a student with a disability could not pursue remedies under the ADA because she had previously settled an administrative complaint brought under IDEA.

“That is something that President Trump has endorsed”, Doocy said, pointing out that Trump has made it clear he would rather “go nuclear” than drag out the process.

Hatch blasted Democrats for wanting Gorsuch to outline how he would vote on certain cases, saying that to them, “judicial independence requires he be beholden to them and [their] political agenda” on issues like abortion.

Gorsuch has “been a judge here for a long time and many, many people speak highly of him”, Bennet said. Gorsuch is often described as a believer in “originalism” – that America’s founding document be applied as it was written more than two centuries ago and amended in subsequent years, not interpreted and expanded for application in modern cases.

“It has been reaffirmed many times”, Gorsuch said under questioning from Feinstein.

Update 11:02 a.m.: Asked about the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade Judge Neil Gorsuch suggested he would consider the ruling as precedent and “worthy as treatment of precedent like any other”.

“No matter your politics, you should be concerned about the preservation of our constitutional order, and most importantly the separation of powers”, said the committee’s chairman, Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican. “That’s what a good judge does”.