Originally posted March 21, 2017. Not upholding the will of the majority of the moment. Not reflecting the popular opinions of the day. Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) at the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Justice-designate Neil Gorsuch: It’s a strange thing that judges wear robes. . . . Why do the robes—often unfashionable and unflattering—persist? […]
Pat Buchanan Explains the Beginning of the Judges War
Before there was Neil Gorsuch, or Merrick Garland, and before Harriet Myers and Clarence Thomas and even before Robert Bork, the war over the Supreme Court was raging, and Pat Buchanan was in the trenches. The battle was between Nixon and LBJ over replacing Earl Warren as Chief Justice with his ally on the court […]
Neil Gorsuch—Next Supreme Court Justice
History was made Thursday when 52 Republican senators voted to overrule Senate precedent and move forward with a vote on Judge Neil Gorsuch as the next Supreme Court Justice. Republicans used the “nuclear option” to bypass the Democratic filibuster. Gorsuch will be confirmed tonight with a simple majority vote. “Republicans have accused Democrats of unfairly […]
The United States—a Republic, Not a Democracy
For many, the stakes for the nomination of Neil Gorsuch are pretty high, especially in that, at 49 years of age, it is not impossible to imagine Mr. Gorsuch sitting on the Supreme Court for decades. Furthermore, Gorsuch’s nomination represents decades of increasing polarization in D.C., not just in the judiciary, but also politics in […]
The Senate Must Confirm Neil Gorsuch
The petty political game being played over the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court must end. Gorsuch is, by any measure, the best possible nominee for the job, and Democrats awkward threats to filibuster such a sound candidate for the position only threaten their own reelection chances. Democrats may still be smarting […]
A Puzzled Neal Gorsuch Sits through Democrat Buffoonery
Wonder why Americans are losing confidence in Congress? Well, yesterday’s hearing of Supreme Court nominee Judge Neal Gorsuch was a prime example, writes John Daniel Davidson in The Federalist. Senator Diane Feinstein (D., Cal.) started off, “Our job is to determine whether Judge Gorsuch is a reasonable mainstream conservative or is he not.” And lo, […]
Filling Justice Antonin Scalia’s Irreplaceable Robes
Justice Scalia, it is said, lamented the absence of a “genuine Westerner” on the Supreme Court, writes Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute. In nominating Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, Trump is filling the void Antonin Scalia was referring to. Gorsuch is best known for his opinions supporting […]
Donning Black Robes Does Not Make Judges Smarter
“No one is going to take this guy down,” writes Peggy Noonan in the WSJ. To whom is she referring? The guy who reads Dickens, who quoted “Bleak House” in a 2009 decision. A former clerk told Ms. Noonan that because of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s grounding in legal philosophy, it “allows him to […]
Trump Keeps His Word, Appoints Conservative Neil Gorsuch to SCOTUS
Yesterday President Donald Trump fulfilled one of his most important campaign promises, nominating a conservative, originalist judge, Neil Gorsuch to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the bench of the Supreme Court. Here’s a profile of Gorusch from the White House: Judge Neil M. Gorsuch U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Neil M. Gorsuch […]
It Looks Like the New SCOTUS Nominee Will be Revealed Tonight
The White House has signaled that tonight, at 8:00pm Eastern, the President will name his nominee to the Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump has promised that his pick would come from a list of 21 names he announced during his campaign. In the last week […]