Sen. Orrin Hatch excoriated Democrats in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, accusing them of launching a “desperate, scorched-earth campaign” against Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, who faces a possible filibuster next month.
The process has been so twisted by Democrats, Hatch wrote, “We are now watching the confirmation process through the funhouse mirror.”
Hatch, R-Utah, is a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the panel’s former chairman.
He accused Democrats of using a partisan formula in an attempt to undermine Gorsuch at the Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings last week.
“First, cherry-pick one of the judge’s opinions in which a sympathetic victim lost,” Hatch wrote, describing the tactics he believes Judiciary Committee Democrats employed last week. “Next, gloss over the legal issues that informed his decision in the case. Then fail to mention that his opinions were often joined by colleagues appointed by Presidents Clinton and Obama. After that, ignore the many times that Judge Gorsuch ruled in favor of similar litigants. End with a wild assertion about how Judge Gorsuch must be biased against ‘the little guy.'”
Senate Democrats have begun lining up against Gorsuch despite his widely praised performance last week. They accuse Gorsuch of dodging their questions and they point to his decisions in past cases they say show a deeply conservative-leaning judicial philosophy.
But Hatch called Democratic attacks “phony” and wrote that Gorsuch’s decisions were not partisan, but clearly followed the law and were endorsed by judges appointed by presidents in both parties.
The attacks, Hatch wrote, violate the advise-and-consent process in the Senate that has governed past high court nominees.
“In essence, Judge Gorsuch gets the kind of treatment that leads him to regret putting his family through what ought to be a dignified process,” Hatch wrote. “This madness needs to stop.”
