[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 4149]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF NEIL GORSUCH

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the endorsements for Supreme Court 
nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch keep rolling in from across the political 
spectrum. As I noted last Thursday, more than 150 former Columbia 
University classmates joined that extensive list recently. Those 
classmates represented a variety of backgrounds, home States, faiths, 
and political views. But they all agreed on one thing--that Judge 
Gorsuch is extremely well-qualified to be our next Supreme Court 
Justice.
  On Thursday, I also noted that we could expect more supporters with 
sterling reviews of the judge in the near future. Sure enough, that 
very evening the American Bar Association awarded Judge Gorsuch the 
highest possible rating: unanimously ``well qualified,'' meaning no one 
on the reviewing panel found him other than ``well qualified''--
unanimously ``well qualified.''
  The Democratic leader and the former Democratic chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee have called the ABA ``the gold standard by which 
judicial candidates are judged.'' So on the gold standard, Neil Gorsuch 
got a unanimous ``well qualified.'' There is no higher score. And 
today, it is a group that believes Judge Gorsuch is ``well qualified'' 
to be a Supreme Court Justice based on his integrity, professional 
competence, and judicial temperament. That is high acclaim from an 
organization that our colleagues on the left have long considered, as I 
said, the gold standard. It is the type of acclaim we keep hearing from 
Democrats and Republicans in the legal community.
  Judge Gorsuch has an impressive resume and impressive credentials to 
match. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia in just 3 years and 
got his law degree from Harvard, and he is an Oxford scholar to boot. 
The Senate confirmed him to his current position on the circuit court 
without a single vote in opposition. He is the right jurist for the 
job.
  As we move forward with his nomination later this month, we should 
give him the fair consideration, debate, and up-or-down vote that he 
deserves, just like we did with the four Supreme Court nominees of 
Presidents Clinton and Obama after they were first elected.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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