Democratic Attacks on Gorsuch are Dishonest, and Their Filibuster is Foolish
April 4, 2017
To keep up with conservative & legal experts on Twitter follow:
For the latest on Judge Gorsuch’s nomination: www.confirmgorsuch.com
1. At The Resurgent, Erick Erickson explains why Democratic attacks on the Federalist Society are so absurd.
“Gorsuch, according to the Democrats, is a member of a secretive, extremist group that has lobbied for Gorsuch under the radar. This nefarious, radical group of the right has been plotting for years to place Gorsuch on the Supreme Court it seems.
“The name of this nefarious, secretive, extremist group? That would be the Federalist Society.
“The Federal Society is so nefarious, secretive, and extreme that every single sitting member of the United States Supreme Court has spoken at its events. Justice Elena Kagan, when she served as Harvard Law School’s dean, declared ‘I love the Federalist Society.’”
“Justice Sotomayor spoke during a Federalist Society panel discussion.
“Justice Breyer had the audacity to join Justice Scalia at a Federalist Society event.
“Even the Notorious RBG herself, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has participated in Federalist Society events.
“It is that extremist and secretive.”
2. In the New York Post, Rich Lowry explains why the filibuster of Gorsuch is “the dumbest in US history.”
“It won’t block Gorsuch, won’t establish any important jurisprudential principle and won’t advance Democratic strategic goals, indeed the opposite. A Gorsuch filibuster would be an act of a sheer partisan pique against the wrong target, with the wrong method, at the wrong time.
“The effort to portray Gorsuch as out of the mainstream has fallen flat. He has the support of President Barack Obama’s former solicitor general, Neal Katyal. He got the American Bar Association’s highest rating. He’s been endorsed by USA Today. He will receive the votes of at least three Democratic senators. Some radical….
“In short, Democrats are departing from the Senate’s longtime practices and excoriating the GOP for responding with a tactic Democrats themselves pioneered.”
3. A new guide from Judicial Crisis Network explains the cloture process and clarifies how Democrats are departing from Senate tradition by filibustering Gorsuch.
“Exercising the constitutional option on the Gorsuch nomination would reinforce Senate tradition that judicial appointments brought to the Floor are not blocked by filibuster and receive a confirmation vote.”
4. In USA Today, Tim Carney argues that contrary to Democratic rhetoric, Judge Gorsuch has often stood up for “the little guy.”
“It’s hard to see what Hirono, Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer and all the other Democrats are talking about when they say Gorsuch doesn’t stick up for the little guy. But if you look more closely at his cases and the Democrats’ charges, you realize what the Democrats mean.
“First, in Yellowbear, Little Sisters, Makkar, Carloss and the burping case, Gorsuch was ruling against government overreach. In Kelo, he praised the ruling against the government. And there’s the issue. When Democrats talk about being for the little guy, they often mean being for government power. The two concepts are inseparable in the liberal mind-set.
“So nuns facing down the drug industry and the Department of Health and Human Services — or a working-class woman in a little pink house staring down a bulldozer, the local government, and a developer — don’t count as the little guy because they’re annoying wrenches thrown in the gears of government.”
5. In LifeZette, Brendan Kirby reports on Democratic hypocrisy over the Gorsuch nomination.
“Democrats screaming loudly over Senate Republicans’ plan to — in the words of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, ‘break the rules’ on the filibuster — refuse to accept the role they played, according to supporters of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
“Leonard Leo, an adviser to President Donald Trump on judicial appointments, noted in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday that it was former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who eliminated the filibuster for all appointments except the Supreme Court in 2013. Even before that, he added, it was Democrats who fired the first salvo in the escalating war over the courts in the 1980s.
“‘They should basically look in the mirror rather than point their finger at the “nuclear option,”’ he said….”
“Democratic hypocrisy is evident in their own words. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was Democrat Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, said weeks before Election Day — when a Clinton victory seemed certain and analysts were predicting a Democrat takeover of the Senate — that the party would not allow Republicans to block judicial appointments.”
