Senate Confirmation Hearings for Neil Gorsuch Begin Tomorrow

At 11:00 tomorrow morning (Monday, March 20th), the United States Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to begin its hearings on Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's pick to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court as an associate justice.  Gorsuch has served ten years as a federal appeals judge in the 10th Circuit, having been nominated for the position by then-President George W. Bush and approved on the Senate floor by voice vote.  By all standards, including those of the American Bar Association, he seems very qualified for the post he is nominated for. His judicial philosophy is to interpret the Constitution as he believes it was originally intended and to strictly interpret laws according to their text, putting him squarely in the corner of conservative judges like Scalia.  Because of this, he is bound to be seriously grilled during the hearings by the nine Democrats on the committee, with his more controversial decisions from the 240 he has made so far certain to receive scrutiny and criticism.  I imagine Gorsuch will be able to catch his breath, though, whenever the eleven Republicans are questioning him, doubtless raining accolades down on him and feeding him softball questions...

Monday's hearing will feature Judge Gorsuch in attendance, but other than the nominee possibly saying something later that day, the rest of the time will be devoted to the committee members making their own speeches and setting the tone for the hearings.  Tuesday will feature Gorsuch in the "hot seat" as the senators take turns asking him about his record, past statements, and judicial philosophy.  Committee chairman Grassley wants Gorsuch's testimony to be only a one-day affair, but it may spill over into a second.  The last day will be devoted to others' testimonies about how good or bad a job they feel he will do on the Supreme Court...and then the committee will vote to pass on the nomination to the Senate floor.  Then it will be a question as to whether the Democrats can muster up enough votes to filibuster the final debate...if they succeed, in all probability Majority Leader McConnell will change the Senate rules to end debate with a simple majority...the so-called "nuclear option"...in order to hold the final confirmation vote.  Regardless, unless something nobody knows about Gorsuch comes out, it is a near certainty that he will be confirmed and sworn in as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice...

I personally do not have a problem with a conservative president appointing and having confirmed a qualified conservative to the Supreme Court.  What I do have a problem with is when a liberal president makes his own selection to the high court and has it stonewalled and rejected out of hand by the opposition-controlled Senate, without even the courtesy of a hearing given the nominee.  This vacancy, caused by Justice Scalia's death more than a year ago, was Barack Obama's to fill.  He made overtures to McConnell and Grassley in order to come up with a candidate more acceptable to them, but they refused to honor their Constitutionally-mandated role of advice and consent.  The President nominated Merrick Garland, by no means a liberal but neither a dyed-in-the-wool conservative.  In my opinion there is something illegitimate about next week's hearings for Neil Gorsuch, as Garland should already have been serving in the Supreme Court for several months by now. That having been said, it isn't Neil Gorsuch who is at fault here and, so far, I have a favorable opinion of him...