Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., expressed concern over Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court after their Tuesday afternoon meeting and said he will wait until after the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 20 to announce whether he will support his nomination.
Franken, who serves on the committee, told reporters after the meeting that he was not satisfied with many of the answers he got from Gorsuch, particularly on “corporate” rulings made by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts over the past 12 years and on the nomination of Merrick Garland last year.
“I do have my doubts about whether he won’t be another fifth vote for an activist, pro-corporate court like we’ve seen with the Roberts Court,” Franken said. “I have some skepticism … I do believe this court, under [John] Roberts, I don’t think they’ve called balls and strikes. I think they’ve changed the strike zone.”
He revealed that Gorsuch was not “familiar” with the “Biden rule,” which the Republicans used as a reasoning for not bringing Garland’s nomination up for a hearing or a vote last year. The rule refers to Biden’s 1992 call for former President George H.W. Bush to delay a nomination for the Supreme Court until after the presidential election.
“That was an area where I didn’t really get a satisfactory answer. I asked him about the so-called ‘Biden rule’ that’s been completely … misrepresented by my colleagues,” Franken said. “He said he wasn’t familiar with it, and he says he’s a great admirer of Merrick Garland.”
The Minnesota Democrat said that Gorsuch answered many of his questions in “judge speak” and deflected with many of his answers. He also said that the two did not discuss President Trump’s past comments on the role of the judiciary, which Gorsuch has said in past meetings were “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”
Gorsuch’s meeting with Franken was his third of four meetings with Democratic senators on Tuesday. He also met with Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.
