Neil Gorsuch is going to face tough questioning at his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next week because there’s still a lot we don’t know about him.
Gorsuch still hasn’t produced a complete record of his career so we don’t know his judicial philosophy. Gorsuch hasn’t answered questions about recusing himself in cases about the far-right billionaire who hand picked him, leaving him stuck in the ethical quagmire of the Trump administration. And Gorsuch’s far right, pro-corporate record might be good for powerful Americans, but leaves working Americans left behind.
Donald Trump told us his criteria for his Supreme Court nominee: Someone who would rubber stamp his far right agenda, revoke a woman’s right to choose, and side with corporations over people. Neil Gorsuch certainly fits the mold.
With only three days before Gorsuch’s hearing, senators and the American public need more from Gorsuch to make a thorough review of Trump’s nomination.
Here are five questions Gorsuch will need to answer during his Judiciary Committee hearing:
Gorsuch’s career is defined by supporting a pro-corporate, far-right agenda. His decisions to protect corporations and the powerful have left a long trail of people who have suffered unfair consequences. Gorsuch believes the judiciary should have more control over federal regulations, which would favor corporations over workers. Gorsuch won’t be a fair and independent jurist on the Supreme Court who will choose corporations over working families.
Gorsuch has close personal and professional ties with a far-right billionaire going back more than two decades, including Gorsuch representing the billionaire when he was in private practice and a shady house they own together under a secretive LLC. He had a policy of recusing himself as a federal judge, but refuses to commit to the same policy on the Supreme Court.
Ranking Member Feinstein has repeatedly asked Gorsuch about his incomplete record and Gorsuch continues to leave senators in the dark about what kind of justice he would be. Disturbing revelations show that Gorsuch played a key role in defending Bush-era terror policies. With Trump vowing to bring back waterboarding and “much worse,” Gorsuch will be a rubber stamp for Trump’s dangerous and reckless disregard for the Constitution.
With Trump’s sustained attack on our judicial system — including smearing judges who don’t rule his way and making racist attacks on judges — Gorsuch hasn’t done anything to convince the American people that he won’t immediately fall in line behind the president who appointed him. As an independent investigation of Trump becomes more necessary every day, Gorsuch isn’t an independent voice who will be a check on Trump.
Trump assured conservatives that he would nominate a Supreme Court justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and Gorsuch apparently passed Trump’s litmus test with flying colors. On cases defending corporations over employees, restricting a woman’s access to birth control in the Hobby Lobby case, and defending unconstitutional national security and terror policies at Bush’s Justice Department, Neil Gorsuch has built his career on pushing a pro-corporate, far right agenda.
Published: Mar 17, 2017