The President has just nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy that the GOP majority in the US Senate held open for almost a year after the death of Associate Justice Scalia.
From Mother Jones:
Many court watchers, noting Trump’s “central casting” approach to staffing, consider the 10th Circuit judge the favorite for the high court seat, if for no other reason than “he looks the part,” as Empirical SCOTUS blogger Adam Feldman put it. David Lat, founder of legal affairs blog Above the Law, tweeted recently that Gorsuch seems like the obvious choice for Trump because “we all know Trump cares about looks, & Neil ‘Silver Fox’ Gorsuch is taller & handsomer than (the already good-looking) Bill Pryor.” Lat also noted, “Judge Gorsuch is a ‘winner’—brilliant, pedigreed, tall, handsome—and Trump likes winners.” Unlike Pryor and Hardiman, Gorsuch is also an Ivy Leaguer.
An Oxford and Harvard grad, Gorsuch, 49, is also one of the youngest sitting federal judges on Trump’s list—a selling point for a president looking to leave a lasting legacy on the court. He is a conservative in the mold of the late Justice Antonin Scalia and is considered an “originalist” who tries to interpret the law as the Founders would have. Also in his column: As one of the 10th Circuit judges who ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby against the Obama administration—exempting the company from federal requirements to provide employees with insurance plans that included free contraceptive coverage—his religious-right bona fides are solid.
But hard-core anti-abortion activists have been lobbying against Gorsuch and recently asked Trump to consider judges with a more proven record of anti-abortion advocacy from the bench. Andrew Schlafly, son of the late conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, recently sent out an alert to supporters arguing that Gorsuch is “NOT pro-life” because he wrote an opinion noting his obligation to follow court precedent. Schlafly sees adherence to precedent as a deal-breaker and a sign that a judge won’t overturn Roe.
Pryor, Hardiman, and Gorsuch are the leading candidates for the Supreme Court job, but Trump is unpredictable. So maybe he’ll go with bomb-thrower Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, who calls himself Texas’ most conservative justice. Willett sees very little role for the government in regulating health and safety issues. He once joined with the state court to strike down as unconstitutional training requirements for people who perform eyebrow threading, a hair removal procedure that can spread various diseases, including ringworm and pink eye.
A Reason columnist declared Willett’s concurrence in the case “easily one of the most libertarian legal decisions I’ve ever read.” Willett wrote with outrage about the greater threat to liberty of regulating eyebrow plucking:
This case raises constitutional eyebrows because it asks building-block questions about constitutional architecture—about how we as Texans govern ourselves and about the relationship of the citizen to the State. This case concerns far more than whether Ashish Patel can pluck unwanted hair with a strand of thread. This case is fundamentally about the American Dream and the unalienable human right to pursue happiness without curtsying to government on bended knee.
As far as appearances go, Willett doesn’t necessarily have the central-casting looks that seem so important to Trump. But he does have one quality Trump clearly appreciates: With more than 75,000 followers, Willett is really good on Twitter.
Corner Stone
As I just said below, well at least his wife is hot.
Trentrunner
For me, this is the most enraging and consequential (predictable) event in Hillary’s defeat.
There are not words profane enough to describe McConnell & the GOP.
Would LOVE for the Dems to derail this, but they won’t.
Corner Stone
CAN NO ONE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FUCKING ADMINISTRATION GET A FUCKING TAILOR OR SOMEONE WHO CAN PROPERLY DRESS THEM?
dmsilev
It always amazes me that anyone can write that with a straight face.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
wasn’t that one of the challenges to Alito, that he wouldn’t come out and say that he respects precedent?
(IANAL, but I believe it’s referred to as stare decisis)
Lavocat
One word, motherfuckers: FILIBUSTER!
Baud
@Corner Stone: probably why he got the job.
@Trentrunner: agreed.
lamh36
Fuq this pick…I fully expect the Dems to roll over and show their damn bellies on this one …
Elizabelle
Nobody but Merrick Garland.
Just say no. Losers.
Corner Stone
@Trentrunner: I am fucking furious. More than just about anything else. We were so fucking close to cementing our progress for a generation.
FUCK!
MomSense
Did he just get choked up over Scalia? Oh FFS.
Baud
@Elizabelle: IIRC, Garland wasn’t exciting enough for us.
Elizabelle
Antonin Scalia IS still dead. That’s always reassuring.
But that was Obama’s Supreme Court seat to fill. Do not cooperate in seating a Trump nominee.
hilts
For blocking any consideration of Merrick Garland, scumbag Mitch McConnell deserves to burn in Hell.
lamh36
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes and yes. Schlafly’s problem is that Gorsuch ruled in favor of a transgender woman who had sued over workplace discrimination she experienced when first transitioning.
Baud
@Corner Stone: We only thought we were. White people were never going to make it happen.
Corner Stone
@MomSense: He cried on the side of a mountain when he got the news of Scalia’s oh so untimely passing.
Another Scott
It doesn’t really matter who he nominates, does it? I mean, except for Garland, of course. It’s a no-brainer that all the Democrats are going to oppose this and filibuster it (if necessary), right?
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
(Perhaps the next Democratic President and Congress will increase the justices on the SCOTUS to 15. That’s a good number, I think…)
Timurid
What’s wrong with Gorsuch? There’s clearly something very wrong with him, or else Bann^H^H^H^H^Trump would have never picked him. I’m not enough of a SCOTUS nerd to be immediately familiar with him. The profiles I’ve read present him as a pretty ordinary Republican. He’s an originalist, but you can find a crowd of those on every street corner these days… What am I missing?
Elizabelle
@Baud: My little heart beat for Merrick Garland.
Although it’s good to know he’s Chief Judge of the DC Court of Appeals. That’s a hugely powerful seat. I wish him decades more of good health and public service.
Villago Delenda Est
Reject him. Bork him.
Major Major Major Major
@hilts: don’t worry, he will.
Baud
@Another Scott: thats on my agenda. Exactly.
That and make PR and DC states.
Corner Stone
@Baud: White people are the fucking worst.
SiubhanDuinne
Totally apart from the qualifications or lack thereof of Gorsuch — who the fuck announced his SCOTUS nomination with lines like “Were you surprised? How many were surprised at my pick?” and “He was confirmed unanimously, UNANIMOUSLY, can you even believe it?”
I am just curdled with shame every time I hear this man’s voice or see his image or read about him. We’re only 11 days in.
Hildebrand
I wonder if Gorsuch, in his most private moments, will admit he is sitting in Merrick Garland’s seat, that he is an interloper.
Nah. Probably is as introspective as Trump himself.
MomSense
@Corner Stone:
Oh brother. That’s disqualifying.
oldster
Democrats should make it clear from the outset that they will vote for Merrick Garland, and against anyone else.
They should obstruct, delay, filibuster, and pull every trick in the book to make sure that Trump never puts anyone on the SCOTUS.
Quinerly
I am furious all over again. Basically a perpetual state since November but actually had calmed down a bit today. He should be embarrassed to be nominated by a fucking President Trump.
khead
@Timurid:
Youth. Scalia. Hobby Lobby.
Mike in NC
When the reality TV game show host appeared on screen, we immediately went to cable.
Baud
@Timurid: The right doesn’t play games with judicial picks.
Cacti
Anyone who considers Antonin Scalia a judicial role model should be opposed.
MomSense
I’m so sick of religious freedom being defined by fucking fringe fundamentalist freaks who want to impose their beliefs on everyone else.
NotMax
Ya never know. Souter fit into the right-wing boxes when nominated.
lamh36
@amprog 3m3 minutes ago
More
Here’s what you need to know: #NotOurJustice
Baud
@NotMax: That would be a miracle.
Elizabelle
Craving a burger. Back later.
One wonders what fresh horror will be served up by then. It’s like last night’s firing of Sally Yates.
Which decade that we should have learned from did we just hit now? It’s shellshock, every single day.
By design.
Another Scott
@NotMax: And Lincoln was a Republican. ;-p
I think we know enough. I think you do, too.
Cheers,
Scot.
Baud
@lamh36:
To be fair, any GOP president would have picked someone similar. But, yeah, Hillary would have been infinitely better.
Corner Stone
Any Democratic Senator that votes for this pick should have a feeling of looming doom every single day.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Emails, DUH.
TenguPhule
Garland him.
No consideration. No vote.
And someone take a baseball bat to Manchin’s knees if he tries to break ranks.
Timurid
@khead:
I guess that just shows how far my expectations have been lowered. I was expecting a flesh-eating monster like Willett, and this feels almost like a relief. But I guess that’s the Gaslighter in Chief master plan at work. At some point you’ll start wanting to thank him when he blackens only one of your eyes…
Dog Dawg Damn
Meh. Obama should have recess appointed Garland. Dems should have thrown a shit fit over it, and forced it to happen. We didn’t. Too busy with EMAILS!!%#@ to care.
Gonna save my breath on this one. Lost cause, and he’d just be replaced with someone similar.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
Apt alliteration’s artful aid. Very nice.
TenguPhule
@Cacti: Or executed as a clear and present danger to the Republic.
Baud
@Timurid: It’s good to have a sober analysis. But never be grateful.
Comrade Scrutinizer
However, these words:
We can always find little rays of sunshine.
BBA
See, when I think of a judge out of “central casting”, I think of one who looks like Jack Weinstein – bald, with bushy eyebrows.
Of course Weinstein is 96 years old, a Democrat, and something of a crank, so he wouldn’t be on anyone’s short list.
Major Major Major Major
@Cacti:
Anybody who considers Scalia a judicial role model should be beaten up.
Corner Stone
Lindsey Graham can go fuck himself.
Joyce H
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, me too! And when the background image is the Oval Office or the East Room or other White House settings, that just compounds it beyond my power to express.
ms_canadada
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m watching Season 2 of The Americans. Seems appropriate. BTW, as I’ve mentioned before, I have a spare room here in Hamilton, ON, Canada!
Comrade Scrutinizer
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t forget Benghazi!1!!
Seth Owen
On general principle Democrats should filibuster to prevent filling the stolen seat.
Undoubtedly the Republicans will invoke the nuclear option, which we knew they would whenver it really counted, and this really counts.
Over the long run, however, ditching the filibuster helps progressives more than keeping it. Republicans aren’t going to let legal niceties hinder them, but it will be easier for progressives to enact real reforms if they don’t have to chase 60 votes all the time. Historically the filibuster has been used far more often by the reactionary elements.
schrodingers_cat
They want to deport legal immigrants on financial assistance. That means children and old people. This man and his enablers are evil.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
remember this guy?
? Martin
@Corner Stone: Yeah. “This man won and he deserves the right to choose a Supreme Court nominee.” Huh. I recall when Obama won and deserved the right to choose a nominee…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@dmsilev:
Necromancy…
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Joyce H:
Argh. Those fucking tacky gold drapes. Gouge my fucking eyes out.
Corner Stone
Garland was confirmed to the DC Circuit at like 76 – 23 ! How in the fuck can you say he should not have been allowed a vote!
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Ties too long.
Single-breasted one-buttoned-over-paunch suit jackets.
Ill-fitting collars.
And most of the men look like they are on barely first-name terms with shampoo, let alone competent barbers.
amk
Wasn’t this one of them ‘battles’ the dems were gonna ‘pick’? Any word from them yet?
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Monkey Boy needs to go back into the darkness and continue fucking himself.
Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)
@Dog Dawg Damn: IIRC recess appointments were actually curtailed by the Supreme Court, & before that by Republicans breaking all norms & precedents by playing with the rules of when Congress was actually in session.
lamh36
Luvvie Ajayi
MomSense
This guy is only 49? No way.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
But wait, Schumer cried “fake tears” over his many relatives who perished in the concentration camps. So, equivalence.
Kelly
@Corner Stone: This
mai naem mobile
@SiubhanDuinne: I turned to NPR and could not handle pigfuckers voice and switched stations. Just so you know Neil Gorsuch is the son of Ann Gorsuch Burford the EPA beeyotch under Reagan. Also,he has the same shit eating smirk that all of pigfuckers nominees have. Fuck Mitch McConnell.
Paul in KY
@Corner Stone: He probably does. With 2 wetsuits. Also. Too.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Am not one prone to snap judgments, prefer to take the time to do some research first.
Justice is blind, and Sessions is someone who yearns to make justice deaf as well. Am not prepared at this moment to definitively say the same of this guy. Doesn’t mean I won’t come to that conclusion a bit later.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Badly fitting over sized suit jacket that caused it to wrap and billow around the waist and the collar to pouch out away from his neckline. And that fucking necktie! What country yokel did he knock over the head and steal that from?
amk
@Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones):
yup. dems can learn a few lessons from the thugs how to gum up the works.
MomSense
“Pro life” and pro NRA? GTFO
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, just FUCK David Gregory. Let him dance with a rusty combine and go home with it and have it FUCK him.
Kelly
@MomSense: This
Major Major Major Major
@amk: at least give them a minute before deciding they sold you out, dude.
Lizzy L
From The Hill:
Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) says he isn’t planning to join calls from fellow Democrats to filibuster President Trump’s forthcoming Supreme Court nominee.
“I’m not going to filibuster anybody,” Manchin told the conservative Weekly Standard on Tuesday.
Iowa Old Lady
This guy needs to be filibustered for, oh, almost a year. Then we can talk.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“meet him”. because policy doesn’t count. Is he, like Kellyanne Conway, a “good person”.
TenguPhule
Take a page from the new Trump rule on regulations.
Trump only gets one SC pick if Alito and Thomas exit the SC, on their feet or on a stretcher.
Corner Stone
@Lizzy L:
*checks GPS*
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dancin’ Dave. Vile suckup. Needs tumbrel ride, stat.
Kelly
Sen Jeff Merkley promises a filibuster.
TenguPhule
@Lizzy L: Baseball bat. Kneecaps.
Villago Delenda Est
@Iowa Old Lady: Try four years.
mai naem mobile
@Lizzy L: you don’t need Manchin to filibuster.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne: There’s nothing with them that can’t be solved by any of them being a head shorter.
Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t understand why I find it so offensive that these guys (& some women) with all their $ fail so hard at fashion. They’re schlubs, and they have the money & contacts not to be.
lamh36
this fuqn’ guy!!!
Brachiator
Obama appoints a judge with Ivy League credentials and the snarling right wing dogs bowl about Obama’s arrogant elitism.
Trump appoints a judge with Ivy League credentials and the snarling dogs bark about a wise and classy choice.
I try to be even handed about the various liberals who could not support Hillary, but you muthafvcking idiots knew that the Supreme Court was in play. You knew it. Someone should slap you upside the head.
Turgidson
@dmsilev:
Seriously. I mean, I suppose it’s possible for a judge to try to rule based on the original intent of the founding documents. But Scalia, for all his pomposity about it, jettisoned that “philosophy” whenever it served his short-term interests. And by the end, he was basically a demented right-wing blogger with a better vocabulary
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Heitkamp and Minchin have announced they won’t filibuster. Coons is making mealy-mouthed noise about allowing a vote, not clear if he means the filibuster. That still leaves Dems, assuming King holds on, a five vote filibuster margin, no?
Timurid
@Brachiator: At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if Gorsuch is Aristotle reincarnated. He will still be sitting in a stolen seat.
Another Scott
@NotMax: It really doesn’t matter who the pick is.
This seat was Obama’s to fill. That’s the bottom line.
If they won’t nominate and seat Garland, then they don’t get to pick.
Let the SCOTUS have 8 seats for a while. The Republic will survive.
It won’t survive under a system where only the GOP gets to decide who replaces a sitting GOP Justice, and by the way, also gets to replace a Democratic Justice’s seat.
This is a principle worth standing up for.
Gorsuch may be a fine judge. That doesn’t matter. He should not be seated and we should do everything we can to make that the outcome.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who needs to figure out a way to channel his rage about this…)
lamh36
#TeamPerez
TenguPhule
@Brachiator: 10 years of indentured servitude should be punishment enough. They can be leased to the Native Americans as farm workers.
Farthestnorth
Thought the name Gorsuch was familiar. His mom Ann was EPA administrator under Reagan and did her best to wreck it.
lamh36
Keith G
Yep, Democrats are in a bit of a fix, but that’s what happens when your grip on political power is based on holding the presidency, having a strong presence on the federal bench, and occasionally running the Senate.
Been reading the belly aching on Twitter. It’s tiring. Gorsuch will be confirmed and he’ll sit on Supreme Court for the next 30 years. His presence on the court will be minimized if, for the love of God, we can start paying attention to local and state elections and start winning them.
When the wack-a- loons at the local level start pulling crazy shit, we depend on federal courts to hold them back. How about we just replace the nutters with folks from our side and then sidestep the need of having to depend on the federal bench as much as we do.
This is something that can have an impact in as little as 10 months from now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mitch McConnell didn’t want hearings for Garland because Garland would’ve appeared like a reasonable and reassuring figure who would be someone the public could support. Let’s hope Gorsusch’s hearings have the opposite effect. Dems are gonna have to be focussed and sharp
Adam L Silverman
@Turgidson: Here’s the definitive takedown. By the only intellectually coherent conservative jurist in the US:
https://newrepublic.com/article/106441/scalia-garner-reading-the-law-textual-originalism
TenguPhule
@Keith G: We don’t have 10 months. Wake up and smell the iron and steel. Trump and his minions will not allow free and fair elections. They’re cracking down on dissent. They’ll only give up power from cold dead fingers and even then they’ll need to be broken to get them to let go.
Lizzy L
@Another Scott: Yes, agree.
@lamh36: Yes, agree.
Make them nuke the filibuster. Because they will.
Timurid
@Lizzy L:
OBSTRUCT! OBSTRUCT! OBSTRUCT!
lamh36
@SenFeinstein
JUST NOW: On Sessions attorney general nomination: “I must vote no.”
YES!!! I know can’t hope for a Blanket NO for ALL of Trump’s picks…but this one feels more personal…ANY Dem that votes YES on Sessions..needs to go
Bupalos
Fine with it. Probably the best one on the list, meaning he’s the least likely to give preclearance to gas chambers. After some reflection, I don’t think there is any win here for us, drag the hearings out, ask a lot of questions about constitutional ramifications of presidential ethical conflicts and foreign interventions in elections, and give him the 9 votes, making the point at every turn that we’re doing it because we won’t lower ourselves to their level.
Van Buren
@TenguPhule: I like the way you think.
Lizzy L
Washington—Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced her opposition to the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general.
“It is very difficult to reconcile for me the independence and objectivity necessary for the position of attorney general with the partisanship this nominee has demonstrated,” Feinstein said Tuesday.
“We are being asked to determine whether this nominee’s record demonstrates that he will have the objectivity to enforce the law for all Americans and be an independent attorney general and not an arm of the White House.
Yesterday, early in the evening, we clearly saw what a truly independent attorney general does…I have no confidence that Senator Sessions will do that.”
NotMax
@Another Scott
I think we’re on the same chapter but different pages.
The seat was Obama’s to offer a nominee for. Which he did. Bottom line is that Garland’s nomination expired at 11:59:59 on the 20th.
The Senate Rs, particularly by refusing to bring the nomination to committee, were odious (and worse). Rightly so, we decried and lambasted them – and continue to do so – for what they did to derail process. Turning on a dime and saying if the Ds do it it’s all right doesn’t wash.
I do, however, favor a filibuster (a part of regular process the Rs did NOT employ for Garland).
James Powell
A supreme court justice this bad or worse was a done deal on November 8th.
Among the many deeply rooted flaws in the Democratic-inclined voter is a complete disregard for the supreme court.
Baud
@James Powell: Yep.
amk
@Another Scott:
exactly.
also. too. all 3 seats of power + ass kissing msm all gop? great checks and balances there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Just saw that Katie McGinty in PA lost to Toomey by about 100K votes– the Libertarian got 250K. I wonder how many pseudo-sophisticate (“Social liberal and a fiscal conservative! I read David Brooks and Maureen Dowd!”) suburban tote-baggers voted for Toomey thinking that Clinton had it in the bag and they wanted a “check” on President Hillary.
nastybrutishntall
He’s a nice guy with horrible ideas. He must be stopped.
Juju
@SiubhanDuinne: He was nominating a Supreme Court justice, not hosting a game show, for peets sake!! Does he need the peanut gallery applauding him and whooping every time he gives a speech? Holy cow, what is wrong with that cheetoh colored collection of collagen?
Sab
Trump has managed to please the right-to-lifers and diss his own accomplished (and female) sister by having her former colleague’s name bruited about all day, and then picking the other guy.
Always the misogynist.
Chris T.
Since Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million, clearly we should leave the seat unfilled until the next administration.
Timurid
I have no idea how accurate this is, but it’s quite disturbing.
Mike in NC
@Juju: We must assume there is a permanent Cult of Trump entourage, 30 to 40 people strong, with their very own dedicated bus, to follow him around on all his rallies. He’s mentally impaired.
Adam L Silverman
@Timurid: I don’t understand how that’s scored. Alito should be to the right of Scalia.
NotMax
@Mike in NC
Roadie toadies.
Villago Delenda Est
@Timurid: Stolen and posted at Wonkette, to thunderous applause.
D58826
If the D’s don’t grow a spine and use every procedural tactic left to them to block the rest of Trump’s cabinet picks and SCOTUS nominee they will have seen the last dollar I will every send them. I will use the money for something more useful – like the next drunken homeless person I see.
Why give money to an organization that will not stand up for it principles. They will probably lose but at least go down fighting – you know remember the Alamo kind of thing.
Villago Delenda Est
@Juju: Deep insecurity. He knows he’s a loser; he needs positive reinforcement always.
NotoriousJRT
Looks the part? Gawd, that is nauseating.
sunny raines
no way in hell Senate Dems are fillibustering the SCOTUS picks for 4 years. 1) unlike republicans, Dems believe in the system and are loyal to America, not traitors, 2) unlike obama, trump and the republicans would tear them apart in public. There would never be a single word out of any republican’s mouth without including the travesty of the Dem filibuster.
repeat after me:
naa gonnna happin
liberal
@Adam L Silverman: Charles Fried was regularly cited by Ronald Dworkin as a conservative who understood that “originalism” was complete bullshit.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They’re “keeping their powder dry” for when Shitgibbon nominates Torquemada — then they’ll REALLY consider the idea of a filibuster seriously. For at least 30 seconds.
And, Mitch, you treasonous, seditious fuck: the PEOPLE — who you said needed to have their say, which is why you wouldn’t let the blackity-black black man get his SCOTUS pick — said they wanted Hillary to name Scalia’s replacement. NOT that fucking narcissistic moron who does whatever his Nazi racist “adviser” wants him to do. You fuck.
SFAW
@Bupalos:
Yeah, because Americans LOVE the “high road.” That’s why the Rethugs paid such a heavy price for their bullshit tactics, like the shutdown in 2013.
SFAW
@James Powell:
I am reminded of the Dem voter who wasn’t sure about voting for Hillary, because she wanted someone to give her a “positive” reason to vote for Hillary, “without mentioning Trump or the Supreme Court.” Fucking moron.
quakerinabasement
Well, we can’t play the Unqualified card. It’s going to have to be Outside the Mainstream or straight up payback for Garland.
TenguPhule
@Bupalos: F the High road. Its obvious the American public wants straight up warfare, otherwise Republicans wouldn’t be taking over after just saying no to civility.