No promises and no one above law, Supreme Court pick says
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch declared Tuesday he's made no promises to Donald Trump or anyone else about how he'll vote on abortion or other issues and testified he'll have no trouble as a justice holding anyone accountable, including the president who picked him.
During the long second day of his Senate confirmation hearings, Gorsuch made two notable statements in response to questions from members of the Judiciary Committee, and both related to Trump, who nominated him.
Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked Gorsuch whether Trump had asked him to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case establishing a right to abortion, and what he would have done had Trump asked him to do so.
"Senator, I would have walked out the door," Gorsuch replied. "That's not what judges do."
When Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Gorsuch if a president is free to ignore laws on national security grounds, Gorsuch replied that "nobody is above the law in this country, and that includes the president of the United States."
On a day mostly devoid of drama, Gorsuch batted away Democrats' efforts to get him to reveal his views on abortion, guns and other controversial issues, insisting he keeps "an open mind for the entire process" when he makes rulings. His comments were similar in response to questions from majority Republicans as they tried to help him highlight his neutrality in the face of Democratic attempts to link him to Trump.
The abortion question was especially pointed because Trump himself has insisted he would appoint "pro-life justices" who would vote to overturn the 1973 Roe decision.
As Tuesday's questioning wore on, senators and Gorsuch engaged in a routine well-established in recent confirmation hearings. The nominee resists all requests to say how he feels about Supreme Court decisions, even as he is asked about them again and again.
The 49-year-old Denver appeals court judge kept a smile on his face most of the day, although he seemed to show flashes of anger under questioning from some Democrats.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois pressed Gorsuch on claims by a former student at the University of Colorado Law School who said Gorsuch implied in a legal ethics class in April that he believes many female job applicants unfairly manipulate companies by hiding plans to begin families. She remembered him saying that many accept job offers but quickly leave with maternity benefits.
"Those are not my words and I would never have said them," Gorsuch said. He later explained he was trying to teach students about inappropriate questions from prospective employers, not endorsing such inquiries. Other students told the AP the accuser was misconstruing the lesson.
Gorsuch was asked repeatedly by Democratic senators to defend his dissenting opinion in the case of a truck driver who was fired for disobeying orders on a frigid night and left his trailer filled with meat on the side of the road while he drove off in his cab. The two other judges on Gorsuch's panel held that federal law protects drivers from dismissal when they refuse to operate an unsafe vehicle. But Gorsuch said the driver wasn't refusing to drive.
He said the case "is one of those you take home at night." But he said he can only interpret and apply laws that Congress writes.
Gorsuch reacted sharply when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked him what he knew about a multimillion-dollar ad campaign run by a conservative group that backs his nomination. Ads have been running mainly in states won by Trump last year and in which Democratic senators face re-election in 2018.
"Is it any cause of concern to you that your nomination is the focus of a $10 million political spending effort and we do not know who's behind it?" Whitehouse asked.
Gorsuch replied: "Senator, there's a lot about the confirmation process today that I regret. A lot."
While Republicans are unanimous in support of Gorsuch, Democrats are not eager to "rubber stamp a nominee selected by extreme interest groups and nominated by a president who lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes," as Sen. Leahy put it.
Democrats remain incensed over how Republicans treated former President Barack Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, who was denied even a hearing last year after Antonin Scalia's death created an opening on the high court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that since a presidential campaign was underway it was the right of the next president to fill the opening, and his gamble paid off when Trump won the election and chose Gorsuch.
There are now just eight justices on the nine-member high court.
In an interview with Associated Press reporters and editors Tuesday, McConnell dismissed "whining" and "crocodile tears" by Democrats over Garland, insisting they would have done the same in his position. With a Senate narrowly divided 52-48 between Republicans and Democrats, McConnell would need eight Democrats to get Gorsuch over procedural hurdles to a final confirmation vote.
He said Tuesday he remains hopeful of getting Democratic votes, but if they aren't forthcoming he sounded prepared to move unilaterally to change Senate rules and confirm Gorsuch with a simple majority.
"If there aren't 60 votes for a nominee like Neil Gorsuch it's appropriate to ask the question is there any nominee any Republican president could make that Democrats would approve," McConnell said. "Gorsuch will be confirmed I just can't tell you exactly how that will happen yet."
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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.