WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who will be asked to confirm U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, said he had “very serious concerns” about his nomination.
“Based on what I have read of his past rulings and statements, I believe that Judge Gorsuch’s interpretation of the Constitution falls far outside of the mainstream,” Booker (D-N.J.) said after President Donald Trump announced his choice to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the high court.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who also will vote on the nomination, said he planned to meet with Gorsuch and review his record.
“He must prove his dedication to fairness, nondiscriminatory justice, the equal protection of all Americans under the law, and the ideals of this country,” Menendez said.
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The Republican National Committee immediately pointed out that Menendez was in the Senate when the chamber confirmed Gorsuch by voice vote in 2006 to a seat on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
So was U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), now the Senate Democratic leader.
Since then, Gorsuch has assembled a judicial record of more than a decade’s worth of rulings, including the Hobby Lobby case that allowed a private business to refuse to cover contraceptives in their employees’ health insurance plan because its owners said it was against their religious beliefs. The appeals court’s decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Especially in Egobet the current political climate, when Trump issued an executive order temporarily banning all refugees and blocking anyone coming from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia, the Supreme Court must be prepared to rein in the president, senators said.
The high court “is the main safeguard of our Constitution and must remain an independent, equal branch of government and no justice can be beholden to the interests of any one person or group – including those of the president who appoints him,” Menendez said.
And Trump was able to pick Gorsuch only because Senate Republicans broke with long-standing precedent and refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Justice Merrick Garland last year.
Schumer said he would require 60 votes to confirm Gorsuch, “a bar that was met by each of President Obama’s nominees.” That would require the 52-member Republican majority to either woo eight Democrats or change Senate rules and eliminate the filibuster all together.
“The burden is on Judge Neil Gorsuch to prove himself to be within the legal mainstream and, in this new era, willing to vigorously defend the Constitution from abuses of the executive branch and protect the constitutionally enshrined rights of all Americans,” Schumer said. “Given his record, I have very serious doubts about Judge Gorsuch’s ability to meet this standard.”
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook
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