Post by DDNYjets on Jun 28, 2017 8:13:47 GMT -5
Richie "Stolen Valor" Blumenthal is 'disappointed' www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/democrats-gorsuch-supreme-court-rulings-240030
Democrats fume over early Gorsuch rulings
A string of decidedly conservative rulings from new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has Democratic senators grumbling: We told you so.
During his less than three months he has occupied late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat on the high court, Gorsuch is sending signals that he could be one of its most conservative jurists. He has often aligned himself with the judicial stalwarts of the right, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Gorsuch publicly disagreed with his colleagues' decision to pass up a challenge to the McCain-Feingold law's ban on so-called soft money. He dissented from a ruling enforcing same-sex couple's rights to have their names on their children's birth certificates. He lamented the court's refusal to hear a case about the right to carry a weapon in public. He took a strong stand in favor of churches' right to public subsidies. And he signed an opinion saying he would have allowed President Donald Trump's travel ban to go into effect now, in full.
"We've got another Scalia," declared Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Feinstein told POLITICO she'd looked at Gorsuch's early rulings and saw no sign of moderation from conservative orthodoxy. "Right down the line. Everything — everything," she said. "I'm surprised that it's so comprehensive."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — a former Supreme Court clerk — said Gorsuch's early record on the court is in tension with the humble and evenhanded approach he touted during his confirmation hearings in March.
"In a way, I'm surprised that he hasn’t demonstrated more independence. I am surprised because in his demeanor and his tone he really made a huge effort to show his openness — which some of us thought might be more an act than it was a real persona," Blumenthal said, before adding: "So far, I have to say, I’m disappointed."
While some thought Gorsuch's history of concern for religious freedom might give him pause about Trump's travel ban executive order seen by critics as part of a ban on Muslims, the new justice joined Thomas and Alito in an opinion issued Monday saying Trump had a strong chance of prevailing in the litigation and should be able to move ahead with his plan.
"On the travel ban, I think he’s fulfilling the worst expectations so far of his opponents and probably the best hopes of his supporters," Blumenthal said. The conservative faction "gave every indication they were ready willing and able to uphold the travel ban in its entirety. So as for any objection he has, he seems to be firmly in the administration’s corner."
During his less than three months he has occupied late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat on the high court, Gorsuch is sending signals that he could be one of its most conservative jurists. He has often aligned himself with the judicial stalwarts of the right, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Gorsuch publicly disagreed with his colleagues' decision to pass up a challenge to the McCain-Feingold law's ban on so-called soft money. He dissented from a ruling enforcing same-sex couple's rights to have their names on their children's birth certificates. He lamented the court's refusal to hear a case about the right to carry a weapon in public. He took a strong stand in favor of churches' right to public subsidies. And he signed an opinion saying he would have allowed President Donald Trump's travel ban to go into effect now, in full.
"We've got another Scalia," declared Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Feinstein told POLITICO she'd looked at Gorsuch's early rulings and saw no sign of moderation from conservative orthodoxy. "Right down the line. Everything — everything," she said. "I'm surprised that it's so comprehensive."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — a former Supreme Court clerk — said Gorsuch's early record on the court is in tension with the humble and evenhanded approach he touted during his confirmation hearings in March.
"In a way, I'm surprised that he hasn’t demonstrated more independence. I am surprised because in his demeanor and his tone he really made a huge effort to show his openness — which some of us thought might be more an act than it was a real persona," Blumenthal said, before adding: "So far, I have to say, I’m disappointed."
While some thought Gorsuch's history of concern for religious freedom might give him pause about Trump's travel ban executive order seen by critics as part of a ban on Muslims, the new justice joined Thomas and Alito in an opinion issued Monday saying Trump had a strong chance of prevailing in the litigation and should be able to move ahead with his plan.
"On the travel ban, I think he’s fulfilling the worst expectations so far of his opponents and probably the best hopes of his supporters," Blumenthal said. The conservative faction "gave every indication they were ready willing and able to uphold the travel ban in its entirety. So as for any objection he has, he seems to be firmly in the administration’s corner."
