[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 28 (Thursday, February 16, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1224-S1225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF NEIL GORSUCH

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, Neil Gorsuch is 
one of the most impressive Supreme Court nominees we have ever seen. 
His resume is a mile long, his reputation is second to none, and his 
record is literally something to behold.
  In nearly a decade on the circuit court, his work was so outstanding, 
the Supreme Court didn't need to check it very often. In fact, as we 
recently learned from his Judiciary Committee questionnaire, the High 
Court felt the need to review on the merits an opinion he offered only 
once in 10 years. In that one case, a broad cross section of the 
Justices on the Court voted to affirm his work, with Justices Ginsburg, 
Breyer, and Sotomayor joining Justices Thomas and Alito in affirming 
his opinion.
  Let me put that in context. Out of 240 opinions Judge Gorsuch wrote 
for the Tenth Circuit or where he authored a concurrence or dissent--
not to mention the 500 additional unpublished dispositions he has 
written--the Supreme Court reviewed only one--one of his cases on the 
merits, and it affirmed the one case.
  As for the cases where Judge Gorsuch did not write the opinion but 
joined in the opinion of his colleagues, the Supreme Court reviewed 
five of those cases, and the Court affirmed four out of five. So even 
including opinions that Judge Gorsuch did not author but joined, his 
overall record in the Supreme Court is being affirmed in five out of 
six cases.
  How does that record compare to some of his would-be colleagues on 
the Supreme Court?
  Well, President Obama's first nominee, Sonia Sotomayor also was a 
circuit court judge before she was appointed to the Supreme Court, and 
she was a circuit court judge for about the same amount of time as 
Judge Gorsuch has been, approximately a decade.
  The Supreme Court reviewed on the merits five opinions she authored 
as a circuit court judge. But the Court reversed her most of the time--
reversing her three out of five times. And in one of those two cases 
that it affirmed, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected her reasoning 
in doing so, finding that it ``flies in the face of the statutory 
language.''
  So the Supreme Court actually rejected the approach of then Judge 
Sotomayor in four out of five opinions she authored.
  Our Democratic colleagues are insistent that we have someone 
mainstream appointed to the Court, with the definition of mainstream, 
of course, being determined by their particular worldview. Since all of 
our Democratic colleagues who were here when her nomination to the 
Supreme Court was pending supported Justice Sotomayor, I know that they 
found her to be mainstream. Given that Judge Gorsuch's record before 
the Court he seeks to join is quite a bit better than hers, I assume 
they would concede, even if grudgingly, that as measured by one's 
record before the Supreme Court as a lower court judge, Judge Gorsuch 
is at least as ``mainstream'' as she is.

  With Judge Gorsuch's impressive record before the Supreme Court and 
other impressive qualities, it is no wonder, then, that both sides of 
the political spectrum can't help but praise him. I have shared some of 
that praise already from those who have worked alongside him, from 
those who have studied underneath him, and now some thoughts from those 
who appeared before him.
  Let me read to my colleagues from an article that appeared just a few 
days ago in the Albuquerque Journal:

       Local attorneys from across the political spectrum who have 
     appeared before U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch 
     call him a ``gentleman,'' ``extraordinarily affable,'' and 
     ``an exceptional nomination.'' As a Federal Court of Appeals 
     judge posted in Denver for the last 10 years, Gorsuch has 
     ruled on numerous cases from New Mexico, giving many local 
     attorneys an up-close view of the man who could fill the seat 
     of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

  Here is one local lawyer who praised his fairness:

       He is an enormous intellect, a really, really bright guy. . 
     . . He'll be one of the brightest justices on that court--if 
     not the brightest. It was always a pleasure to be in front of 
     him because whether you won or lost, you knew you were going 
     to be treated fairly.

  Here is another lawyer, a Democrat who appeared before him a dozen or 
so times, mostly on civil rights cases:

       Gorsuch is not an ``ideologue.'' Politics aside, Judge 
     Gorsuch would be someone good for the judiciary and the 
     country. People should rest assured that he would always try 
     to make the most learned and just decision and politics would 
     not be a consideration or factor in his decisions. . . . And 
     that's from me, and I'm a longtime Democrat.

  Here is one more who noted the legacy he has already left behind:

       Gorsuch has placed 11 of his (Appeals Court) clerks with 
     Supreme Court justices,

[[Page S1225]]

     so he is in the very top. And not only has he placed them, 
     his law clerks go all over the place. They've clerked for 
     Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, and they've also clerked for Kagan 
     and Sotomayor. . . . This is a really good indicator of what 
     the justices think of this guy before he was even a nominee 
     to the Supreme Court. It's like a Good Housekeeping seal of 
     approval. And it cuts across the political spectrum.

  In other words, clerks of Judge Gorsuch have gone on to clerk for 
Supreme Court Justices across the ideological spectrum.
  Speaking of those who have clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, we recently 
heard a testimonial from an Obama administration lawyer who clerked for 
both Sotomayor and Gorsuch. ``I don't think folks on the Left should be 
concerned about Judge Gorsuch becoming a Supreme Court Justice,'' she 
said. ``He is extraordinarily fair-minded . . . [h]e will approach each 
case the same, regardless of the issue or the parties before him, and 
he will have a great deal of respect for folks on all sides of the 
ideological spectrum.''
  That is very high praise. It is coming from both sides of the aisle. 
And I am sure we will hear even more of it as the days go by.

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