Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday night he has “very serious doubts” whether Judge Neil Gorsuch will meet his standard for winning confirmation to the Supreme Court. “The burden is on … Gorsuch to prove himself to be within the legal mainstream and, in this new era, willing to vigorously defend the Constitution from abuses of the executive branch and protect the constitutionally enshrined rights of all Americans.”
He’d best not seek input from former Colorado senator Ken Salazar, a Democrat who represented Gorsuch’s native Denver. In remarks prior to Gorsuch’s Senate approval to be a U.S. circuit judge in 2006, Salazar observed the jurist had demonstrated a “dedication to fairness, impartiality, precedent, and the avoidance of judicial activism.” It’s routine for senators to compliment executive-branch nominees from their home state, but this was a liberal in the mainstream of his party extolling the qualifications of a constitutional textualist, a jurisprudence commonly associated with unbending conservatism. Said Salazar, “At a time when too many judicial nominations are bogged down by partisan and ideological rancor, it is heartening to see a nominee on whom senators from both parties can agree.”
