Last night, President Donald Trump announced his nominee to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court of the United States – Neil Gorsuch.
If confirmed by the Senate, Gorsuch would replace one of his idols, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was one of the most robustly proud conservative justices we’ve had in years. Gorsuch’s time as a judge has often been compared to Scalia’s, and the expectation is that he would follow in his mentor’s footsteps. A confirmation of Gorsuch would mean that five of the nine justices on the Court were appointed by Republicans, once again.
Here’s why that should scare you.
1. Gorsuch Is Young
At just 49 years old, Gorsuch is likely to be a conservative fixture on the Supreme Court for decades. If he gets confirmed by the Senate, Gorsuch would give Republicans a dependable voice in the Court for long enough that they can count on building on it with subsequent nominations. With Justice Kennedy considering retirement and Justice Ginsburg an old 83, Gorsuch is a stepping stone towards having one of the most conservative Supreme Courts in history.
2. Gorsuch Is An Insider
Even if you appreciated Trump for being an anti-establishment candidate, this nomination shows that “draining the swamp” was as hollow as, well, everything else Trump said on the campaign. Gorsuch has deep roots in Washington D.C. and would make the sixth justice to have a law degree from Harvard Law School. The other three went to Yale.
3. Gorsuch Is A Traditional Conservative
The seat on the Supreme Court that Gorsuch would be filling once belonged to Antonin Scalia, one of the most conservative justices in decades. According to the New York Times, though, Gorsuch is even more conservative. He’s also an “originalist,” meaning he reads laws, like statutes and the Constitution, by focusing on how the drafters wanted them to be interpreted, regardless of how absurd that interpretation would be, now. This results in archaic and conservative results, especially when it comes to the Constitution.
While Gorsuch has not explicitly come out in support or opposition to LGBT rights, his history as a staunchly conservative judge leaves little to be doubted. He strongly supports religious freedom, even when it toes into the realm of religious persecution. For example, he thought that Hobby Lobby should be able to refuse to provide free contraception coverage for its employees under Obamacare because of the company owner’s religious beliefs. His pro-life stance even goes into his firm opposition of assisted suicide.
Gorsuch has also made numerous political statements for Republicans in the past, criticizing liberals for exercising their rights to enforce the law in courts. In line with his preference for originalism, Gorsuch thinks that even the smallest expansion of a law to protect new rights requires a whole new law to make its way through Congress.
This is also why Gorsuch hates federal regulations and the agencies that enforce them. Federal agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, always play a part in interpreting the laws they’re tasked with enforcing. Courts have long given agencies wide latitude to do this. Gorsuch, though, thinks that this is a job for Congress, alone, and wants to rein them in.
4. Confirmation Means Might Makes Right
Lastly, of course, there’s the elephant in the room. A confirmation of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court means that it worked. Republicans held out for nearly an entire year, refusing to even listen to Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination, Merrick Garland. If Republicans are able to ram Gorsuch into the vacant seat, it will prove to Republicans that they can ignore both rules and basic decency, and not worry about a thing.
Featured image cropped from official portrait on Wikimedia available in the Public Domain.
