FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2017

 

INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM STATEMENT

SENATE SHOULD AFFORD JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH AN UP OR DOWN VOTE

"If anything is clear from November’s election, it is that the American people are tired of politics as usual. To filibuster an exceptionally qualified candidate in what has been an extremely transparent process would be just that: politics as usual."

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As Senate prepares to consider Judge Neil Gorsuch as the late Justice Antonin Scalia's successor at the U.S. Supreme Court, Erin Hawley, legal fellow at the Independent Women's Forum, associate professor of law at the University of Missouri, and former clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., issued the following statement:

"As we enter the final phase of Gorsuch's confirmation, the Senate should vote to confirm Tenth Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court in an up or down vote. The last four nominees to the Supreme Court have all been confirmed by comfortable margins and there is no question that Judge Gorsuch is exceptionally qualified. The American Bar Association (hardly a conservative bastion) has given him its highest possible rating. When he was nominated to the Tenth Circuit, he was confirmed by a voice vote, without a single senator objecting. Indeed, even the Senator currently leading the charge against his nomination, Minority Leader Charles Schumer, has described Judge Gorsuch as “clearly very smart, articulate and polite, with superb judicial demeanor.”

"Judge Gorsuch should be confirmed on an up or down vote because he is well-positioned to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia. Like Justice Scalia, he believes in the rule of law, not judge-made law. Judge Gorsuch believes that judges are given the power to interpret statutes, not write them. And he believes that our Constitution is tied to original meaning, not the whims of nine unelected lawyers. As Justice Scalia wrote, these interpretive issues matter because they determine who governs: the Supreme Court or the people’s representatives.

"The Senate should also afford Judge Gorsuch an up or down vote because this nomination process may be the most transparent Supreme Court nomination in all of history.  President-elect Trump released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees and vowed to select from that list should he be elected. Judge Neil Gorsuch's name appeared on that list, and when the American people spoke in November, they listed as one of their top considerations the open seat on the Supreme Court. 

"If anything is clear from November’s election, it is that the American people are tired of politics as usual. To filibuster an exceptionally qualified candidate in what has been an extremely transparent process would be just that: politics as usual. The Senate should vote yes or no."

 

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