Judge Neil Gorsuch urged collegial camaraderie in his opening remarks during Monday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his Supreme Court nomination.
“Long before we’re Democrats or Republicans, we’re Americans,” Gorsuch said.
Gorsuch spoke about how frequently justices of different ideologies agree with one another and noted that the late Justice Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer agreed more than 60 percent of the time.
“I also had the great fortune to clerk for Justice [Anthony] Kennedy, he showed me that judges can disagree without being disagreeable,” Gorsuch said in speaking of his relationships with the Supreme Court justices. “Justice Scalia was a mentor, too. He reminded us that words matter. … Now we didn’t agree on everything. The judge fished with the enthusiasm of a New Yorker.”
The federal appeals judge said sometimes the outcomes of his rulings have kept him up at night but that has not changed his approach to adjudicating cases.
“Sometimes the answers we reach aren’t the ones we personally prefer,” Gorsuch said. “But the answers we reach are always the one we believe the law requires.”
Gorsuch touted his background as a westerner and said it meant he knew how to “tolerate” and “cherish” different points of view.
He will face questions from senators beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and extending into Wednesday.
