A Supreme Court nominee is known by the company he keeps. At least that’s the logic of the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative group working to shepherd Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
The network just dropped $2 million on a national ad featuring Jane Nitze, a former Obama administration attorney and Gorsuch clerk. “I have to say,” she tells the camera, “I’m 100 percent comfortable with Judge Gorsuch becoming the next Supreme Court Justice.”
Republicans hope the Nitze endorsement can soothe liberal fears ahead of the coming Supreme Court struggle. She certainly doesn’t hold anything back.
“I don’t think folks on the Left should be concerned about Judge Gorsuch,” Nitze says. “He is extraordinarily fair-minded. He will approach each case the same, regardless of the issue or the parties before him, and he will have a great deal of respect for folks on all sides of the ideological spectrum.”
The strength of her resume certainly lends her credibility. A Harvard Law graduate, Nitze clerked for Gorsuch on the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit before clerking for Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court. After leaving former President Barack Obama’s Justice Department, she returned to Harvard to teach.
The advertisement comes as Democrats are hunkering down in preparation for a drawn-out confirmation fight. The Nitze spot certainly won’t turn the debate. But it should at least disabuse Democrats from mistakenly thinking Gorsuch is some sort of judicial extremist.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
