Judge Neil Gorsuch defended his discussion of maternity and job applicants during an ethics class at Colorado University’s law school, saying he was discussing the “harsh realities” that law school graduates face in the workplace.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin during Tuesday’s hearing on Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination pressed him on a complaint from one former student, Jennifer Sisk, who served as a staffer of former Democratic Sen. Mark Udall. Sisk suggested that Gorsuch said during class that women used maternity leave to exploit their employers, among other things.
“The first I heard of this was the night before my confirmation hearing,” Gorsuch told Durbin. “I’ve been teaching legal ethics at the University of Colorado for seven or eight years. It’s been a great honor, a pleasure. I teach from a standard textbook that every professor, well I don’t know if every professor, a number of professors at CU and elsewhere use… One of the chapters of the book confronts lawyers with some harsh realities they are about to face when they enter the practice of law.”
Gorsuch said that he was discussing a hypothetical situation in which an older female partner asks a job applicant if she plans to get pregnant soon. He said the applicant had several options, and then asked if anyone in the class had run into a similar situation.
While Sisk spoke out against her former professor, 87 other current and former Gorsuch students at Colorado University wrote a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee praising their experience in his class and boosting his nomination.
Gorsuch is facing the first round of questions from senators Tuesday in a session expected to last at least 10 hours.
