Environmental groups are weighing in heavily against the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as Supreme Court justice because he sees liberals as “addicted to litigation.”
Trip Van Noppen, the president of the environmental lawyer group Earthjustice, made the comment Monday after Gorsuch was advanced out of the Judiciary Committee, quoting an essay published in National Review magazine in 2005 by President Trump’s nominee to the high court.
“His apparent view is that people seeking to protect their environment and to secure their civil rights do not belong in the courtroom — and that they should instead be confined to advocating legislatively — defies the very checks and balances on which our nation was founded,” Van Noppen said.
The comments come as Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and others have begun a legal campaign to counter Trump’s push to delay, repeal and scuttle environmental regulations and programs.
In the last week, groups have filed lawsuits to roll back Trump’s approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s delays of Obama-era energy efficiency standards, while also preparing to defend the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change regulations in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But that legal effort could be at risk if Gorsuch is installed in the high court, according to Earthjustice and several other groups opposing Gorsuch.
“Judge Gorsuch even went so far as to say that liberals are ‘addicted to litigation,'” said the Earthjustice president. “This suggests that if confirmed, the next Supreme Court justice, who can be expected to serve for decades to come, could enter the role with a built-in bias against suits by those who seek to protect the environment, human rights and other important values.”
The groups are urging the Senate to require 60 votes to confirm Gorsuch, as Republicans have threatened to use the “nuclear option” to bypass Senate rules and approve him by a simple 51-vote majority. Using the nuclear option would prevent Democrats from scuttling a vote on Gorsuch through a filibuster.
“We urge the Senate to require the 60-vote bar and to vote against his confirmation,” Van Noppen said.
