Major liberal group opposes Gorsuch confirmation
WASHINGTON — The first of many liberal public interest groups to delve deeply into Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch's record on Thursday called him a "dangerous" choice who consistently favors corporations over workers, women, minorities and people with disabilities.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee was announcing a March schedule for Gorsuch's confirmation hearings, the Alliance for Justice issued a 56-page report on the federal appeals court judge that says a conservative ideology pervades his 10 years of opinions and dissents.
The group said the Senate should give "heightened scrutiny" to Gorsuch's nomination because of President Trump's recent attacks on the federal judiciary. Those attacks followed decisions across the country that blocked Trump's effort to impose a temporary travel ban on refugees and citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries.
"Judge Gorsuch‘s view of the Constitution is one that would indeed take our nation backward to an earlier era, where women, people of color, persons with disabilities, workers, LGBTQ Americans, and those interacting with the criminal justice system have fewer rights and legal protections," the report said.
The analysis — likely to be followed by as many as dozens more from conservative as well as liberal public interest groups — paints a portrait of a conservative ideologue whose views were formed in college and law school, long before his 2006 confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
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But it devotes most of its attention to his rulings on the bench, highlighting those it considers to be outside the judicial "mainstream." Prominent among the cases cited are those in which Gorsuch favored the religious rights of corporations and non-profits over women seeking insurance coverage for contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act.
"He has placed the rights of corporations over those of other Americans, weakened critical acts of Congress, and advocated for overturning long established legal doctrines that ensure the federal government can properly enforce protections for the American people," the report said.
That's a reference to Gorsuch's disdain for a Supreme Court precedent granting considerable deference to federal agencies when they interpret vaguely written laws or regulations. It's one area where Gorsuch disagrees with the late Antonin Scalia, the justice he would succeed on the court if confirmed by the Senate.
“It is hard to overstate how dangerous Neil Gorsuch would be on the Supreme Court,” Daniel Goldberg, legal director at the Alliance for Justice, said. “Neil Gorsuch is a judge who’s ideologically driven.”
Leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Thursday that hearings on Gorsuch's nomination will be held the week of March 20, with the judge appearing on March 21. The hearings are likely to last three or four days, followed by committee and full Senate votes, most likely in April.
That timetable would give Gorsuch an outside chance of being confirmed in time to hear oral arguments later in April — the last arguments of the court's 2016 term. Otherwise, he would not sit in on cases until the 2017 term begins in October.
Trump urged Democrats to vote for Gorsuch during his press conference Thursday but acknowledged that "you may not see that." Without at least eight votes from Democrats, Republicans who control the Senate would have to change the rules to eliminate the current 60-vote hurdle.
"But he’ll get there one way or the other," Trump said.
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