Within an hour of one another, we have two analysis pieces this evening with diametrically opposite premises regarding President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, and how Trump’s Twitter insults toward federal judges will affect his nomination.
“Gorsuch begins seeking support with break from Trump,” reads tonight’s NBCNews.com headline. The piece suggests that Gorsuch’s “break” with Trump over his remarks “could hurt the judge’s relationship with the man who nominated him” but also “help Gorsuch reach the bench.”
ABC News chose to run with the opposite take: “How Trump’s Criticism of Judiciary Could Complicate Supreme Court Confirmation.” The piece says that Trump’s remarks “could complicate” Gorsuch’s confirmation. It quotes a law professor stating that questioning during Gorsuch’s hearings “will be sharper than before President Trump made these comments [about Robart and] they will be very difficult questions to answer.”
I think the former take is more accurate. By simply talking common sense about the independence of the judiciary, Gorsuch has already managed to put a distance between himself and Trump which, in the Senate’s current hyper-politicized environment, will likely be a huge asset for his confirmation. Without even going into specifics, he’s been able to show that he’s not going to be “Trump’s justice.”
This has to be one of the easiest things for any judge to discuss without raising an eyebrow. And it’s something Gorsuch could probably discuss intelligently for hours. It certainly beats the potentially thornier topics where he might just have to say he cannot comment at all, such as how he would rule on contentious social issues.
