The Alliance for Justice issued a report Thursday condemning federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch’s bid for the Supreme Court.
“We’re issuing this report to sound the alarm,” said Nan Aron, president of the liberal group. “In delving deeply into his record, it’s clear that Judge Gorsuch’s views are on the far right fringe of legal thinking. His vision of America is one in which big corporations run roughshod over working people, women go without safe and accessible reproductive health care, and people with disabilities are relegated to second-class citizenship. When the public and senators review our report, they will understand how wrong he is for the Supreme Court.”
The group argues in its report that “Judge Gorsuch’s philosophy represents an existential threat to rights and freedoms.”
“Judge Gorsuch has, throughout his life, been driven by an ultraconservative ideology,” the report states. “This ideology is marked by four themes: (1) hostility toward social and legal progress over the last century; (2) willingness to downplay abuses of constitutional rights by government actors; (3) aggrandizement of corporations over individuals; and (4) skepticism of the federal government’s role in protecting the health and safety of the American people and a desire to weaken important legal protections.”
The Alliance for Justice said it attempted to look beyond the Supreme Court nominee’s resume to determine what drives him and found Gorsuch’s motivations to be problematic.
“While his resume may be objectively impressive, his ideology is disqualifying,” the Alliance for Justice report said. “Time and again, we found evidence of Judge Gorsuch’s ideological pursuit of legal outcomes that systematically denigrate the rights of everyday people. While this is never desirable, it is even more disturbing at a time when the rights and freedoms of so many communities face heightened threats on a daily basis.”
The Alliance for Justice is one of more than 100 liberal groups that wrote a letter to congressional leaders on the Senate Judiciary Committee this week stating their opposition to Gorsuch’s nomination. Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, scheduled Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings to begin March 20.
