Neil Gorsuch, Trump's Supreme Court pick, once scolded Senate GOP for blocking Merrick Garland
In May 2002, four years before he was appointed to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Neil Gorsuch — nominated by President Trump on Tuesday for a Supreme Court seat — wrote a eulogy for Supreme Court Justice Byron White, for whom he had clerked. In between extolling White's excellence in pro football and judicial temperament, Gorsuch decried the partisan bickering over filling judgeships. White was confirmed in 1962, he noted, "less than two weeks after his nomination; his hearing lasted 90 minutes."
Today, "politicians and pressure groups on both sides declare that they will not support nominees unless they hew to their own partisan creeds," Gorsuch wrote. "There are too many who are concerned less with promoting the best public servants and more with enforcing litmus tests and locating unknown 'stealth candidates' who are perceived as likely to advance favored political causes once on the bench." After noting the gaping vacancies in the federal judiciary "because of partisan bickering over ideological 'control'" of certain courts — an equally large problem in 2017 as in 2002 — Gorsuch singled out two "of the most impressive judicial nominees" who had been "grossly mistreated" by the Senate:
John Roberts is now chief justice of the Supreme Court, but Merrick Garland is still waiting, almost a year after former President Barack Obama nominated him to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat, and Republicans refused to even give him a hearing. "So much for promoting excellence in today's confirmation process," as Gorsuch wrote in 2002.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security law
Speed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitution
speed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidence
Speed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulations
Speed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriage
Speed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba have a rough day in defamation court
Speed Read Trump's audible grousing as E. Jean Carroll testified earned him a warning he could be thrown out of court, and Habba showed she 'doesn't know what the hell she's doing'
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Anders Breivik to testify in prison isolation lawsuit against Norway
Speed Read Far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in 2011 claims he has received 'inhuman treatment' in custody
By The Week UK Published
-
Former Philadelphia police officer charged with murder for Eddie Irizarry shooting
Speed Read
By Rafi Schwartz Published