President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, faced senators Monday for his confirmation hearing, with Democrats expected to grill him on his legal philosophy — and depict him as too cozy with conservatives and the finance world.
If confirmed, Gorsuch — a federal appeals judge for the past decade — would fill the seat left vacant by the death of towering conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016 in the middle of the presidential election campaign.
Since that time, the court has been operating with eight justices, and Democrats are still bitterly angry over Republican refusal to even consider Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland for a vote.
The Republicans, who have a majority in the Senate, say they are confident Gorsuch will be confirmed, pushing the court’s balance towards the right.
A Colorado native with an Ivy League education, the 49-year-old Gorsuch — the youngest nominee for a generation — is known for his strict interpretation of the Constitution, as was Scalia, and his defense of so-called traditional family values.
He will be pushed to expand on his opinions on hot-button issues such as abortion, same sex marriage and the right to bear arms.
The hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to last three to four days, with opening statements followed by extended questioning from lawmakers and testimony by experts.
Gorsuch “has met every demand placed on him by the minority,” the panel’s Republican chairman Senator Chuck Grassley said ahead of the hearing. “He is well-qualified and respected.”
“We are going to ask tough questions,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who sits on the committee, told CNN Monday.
Trump announced his pick of Gorsuch in late January, just 11 days into his presidency.
Some Democrats are demanding a 60-vote threshold for Gorsuch’s confirmation, which they have permission to do under Senate rules.
“I think a nominee to the United States Supreme Court ought to be approved overwhelmingly, not by a razor-thin margin. We are talking the highest court of the land — lifetime appointment,” Blumenthal said.
With Republicans holding 52 seats in the 100-member chamber, Gorsuch would need to earn the support of at least eight Democrats to win confirmation.
But other Democrats, especially those from states that voted for Trump, may be unwilling to force the issue.
Trump has attacked the federal judiciary in recent weeks, especially over its decisions to block his travel ban on refugees and nationals from six mainly Muslim nations.
Some Republican senators have made it clear they will call on Gorsuch to reject those statements.
Gorsuch knows his way around the Supreme Court building — he was a clerk for the late Byron White. The late justice shared Gorsuch with Anthony Kennedy who, at 80 years old, may now become his colleague.
He then worked as a litigation attorney for a Washington firm before taking a job in the Justice Department under George W. Bush. It was Bush who would nominate him for the federal court position he took in Denver in 2006.
Gorsuch is known for his ability to write incisive rulings and for his traditionalist views, both of which have fueled the comparisons with Scalia.
Like Scalia, Gorsuch favors what is known as originalism — the idea that judges should interpret the US Constitution by reverting to how it was understood at the time it was written, with no modern filters.
The Columbia and Harvard grad says he is flattered by such comparisons, and does not hide his admiration for Scalia, who died at age 79.
Gorsuch said when he learned of Scalia’s death, he was on the ski slopes.
“I am not embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t see the rest of the way down the mountain for the tears,” he said in a speech in April last year.
If he is confirmed, Gorsuch would join:
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