Pressure is mounting at home for Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet to decide how to vote on Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to vote on Gorsuch’s nomination Monday, support for Gorsuch is building among the state’s leading newspaper, bipartisan members of the Colorado legal community and some of Bennet’s fellow Democrats. Such groups are often allies of Bennet but have staked out opposition to his indecision on the high court nominee.
The Denver Post wrote an editorial calling on Bennet to put his constituents ahead of his party and leave partisan politics behind.
“Colorado’s senior senator, Democrat Michael Bennet, is blowing an important opportunity to stand up for our state and nation in sitting on the sidelines while his party foolishly seeks to block the path of Denver native Neil Gorsuch to the highest court in the land,” the newspaper wrote in March. “If Bennet wants to be known for representing Colorado, and not resting on his East Coast elitist pedigree, he should demonstrate the same kind of autonomy and courage Gorsuch already has exhibited.”
Denver Post editorial page editor Chuck Plunkett told the Washington Examiner that Bennet’s actions have made him wonder whether Bennet is worried about losing in the next primary election. Bennet won re-election in 2016 while supporting failed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at a time when Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders outperformed Clinton in Colorado’s caucuses.
Plunkett said if Bennet toes the Democratic Party line and opposes Gorsuch this coming week, that “breaks with the whole narrative of Michael Bennet” he crafted for himself as a statesman that puts Colorado above politics and that can help return his state to a less partisan way of doing things.
“There would be Democrats who would be seriously disappointed,” Plunkett said of Bennet’s potential opposition to Gorsuch. “That this is just a chance to show that you really are the statesman that you say that you are and you really do care about running the country more than you care about political parties. That’s where this really comes down in Colorado. If we really are trying to be the more work-across-the aisle-politicians out here, which [we] used to, that was something that we talked about a lot.”
Among the Mountain West Democrats who would be disappointed if Bennet turned his back on Gorsuch is Theresa Wardon, a Democrat who clerked for Gorsuch on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals from 2008 to 2009. Wardon said she never saw the judge’s personal political beliefs affect his work.
“I happen to be a Democrat. I suppose he probably knows that, but it was just something that really doesn’t come up, doesn’t matter, because his personal politics don’t play into the way that he decides cases,” Wardon told the Washington Examiner. “So certainly his law clerks’ personal politics wouldn’t play into that calculus at all as well.”
Wardon said she understood her fellow Democrats’ concerns about how Republicans blockaded President Obama’s high court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, before the 2016 election.
“As a Democrat, I understand some of the disappointment and being upset about things that have occurred in the past, particularly with Judge Garland,” Wardon said. “But I hope that Judge Gorsuch being such a fair-minded, independent judge, I know he’s judicially conservative, but he applies those principles in a way that’s very independent. I hope that he’s the type of judge that everyone can give him a fair look and eventually come to the conclusion that he is extremely well-qualified for the job and deserves the up-or-down vote.”
More than 200 members of Colorado’s legal community wrote a letter of support for Gorsuch and urging an up-or-down vote, including former Colorado state Supreme Court justices, former Colorado solicitors general and lawyers for previous Democratic governors.
“We hold a diverse set of political views as Republicans, Democrats and independents,” the group wrote in the letter. “Many of us have been critical of actions taken by President Trump. Nonetheless, we all agree that Judge Gorsuch is exceptionally well qualified to join the Supreme Court. He deserves an up-or-down vote.
“We know Judge Gorsuch to be a person of utmost character. He is fair, decent and honest, both as a judge and a person. His record shows that he believes strongly in the independence of the judiciary. Judge Gorsuch has a well-earned reputation as an excellent jurist. He voted with the majority in 98 percent of the cases he heard on the 10th Circuit, a great portion of which were joined by judges appointed by Democratic presidents.”
Republicans are insisting that Gorsuch will receive an up-or-down vote one way or another, regardless of what Bennet and his fellow Democrats do. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on Gorsuch’s nomination for Monday, while the full Senate is expected to vote on the nomination Friday.
Kelly Ayotte, the former New Hampshire senator who has shepherded Gorsuch to meetings with more than 70 senators, told reporters Friday that she believed Gorsuch would be confirmed.
“I think that he will be confirmed one way or the other,” Ayotte said. “I think the majority leader has made that clear.
“To find ourselves in this position right now, where unfortunately a qualified Supreme Court nominee is not going to be permitted an up-or-down vote at the beginning of a president’s term, I think it’s very disappointing and it’s not going to, this judge deserves to be on the court and I think that the Republican caucus in the end if they have to change the rules, I mean it’s their decision, but I think that they will do that if they need to do it. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Colorado residents predisposed to support Bennet hope it does not come to that, either. Plunkett told the Examiner he “genuinely likes” Bennet and is impressed by him. Plunkett noted that Bennet often remains neutral on controversial issues as part of an effort to gain leverage to get something he wants, but Plunkett said he did not see how Bennet could execute such a plan with Gorsuch’s high court bid.
“That’s just kind of how Michael Bennet does things,” Plunkett said. “But the key for us in writing an editorial is sometimes that’s not enough. This is a candidate, Neil Gorsuch is a candidate widely praised in Colorado by Republicans and Democrats who are very smart Democrats who are involved in the arena of law say, look, this guy’s golden. It would be a shame to miss him. If you look at the composition of the court, they’re all either from the coasts or they’re from the South. And so we don’t have any western representation, inner-mountain, you know Rocky Mountain type, representation on the court.”
The clock is ticking on Bennet to make a decision. In his testimony introducing Gorsuch before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as is customary for home state senators of high court nominees, Bennet praised Gorsuch’s “distinguished record of public service, private practice and outstanding integrity and intellect.”
“As a person and as a lawyer, Judge Gorsuch exemplifies some of the finest qualities of Colorado,” Bennet said, introducing Gorsuch. “A state filled with people who are kind to one another, who by and large do not share the conceit that one party or one ideology is all right and the other all wrong, and who are conscious of the legacy we owe the generations who forged our state out of a western territory of the United States.
“The Supreme Court is too important for us not to find a way to end our destructive gridlock and bitter partisanship. In my mind, I consider Judge Gorsuch as a candidate to fill the Garland seat on the Supreme Court. And out of respect for both Judge Garland and Judge Gorsuch’s service, integrity and commitment to the rule of law, I suggest we fulfill our responsibility to this nominee and to the country by considering his nomination in the manner his predecessor deserved, but was denied.”
Bennet’s office declined requests for comment on how the senator would vote.
In his weekly address to the nation, Trump indicated that the Senate’s vote on Gorsuch’s bid is “about preserving our republic.”
“The Senate will soon have the chance to help preserve our democratic institutions for our children — by voting to confirm Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court,” Trump said. “Judge Gorsuch is going to serve our people by devoting himself to our beloved Constitution. The Senate saw this firsthand in hours of Judge Gorsuch’s impressive testimony. In every step of the process, what has been clear to all is that Judge Gorsuch is a man who respects the law. He defends the Constitution. And in doing so, he will protect our freedoms. With Judge Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, America will be a more free, fair and just nation for all of our citizens.”
