PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Keeping his “promise to the American people,” President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Neil Gorsuch, an experienced judge with a conservative pedigree, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan support,” Trump said during his announcement.
But the news was met with mixed reaction. On the Republican side, responses to Gorsuch’s nomination were overwhelmingly positive. The announcement was cheered by conservatives wary of Trump’s own fluid ideology.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump made an “outstanding decision”.
WATCH → Neil Gorsuch will be a great #SCOTUS Justice. I applaud @POTUS for his excellent pick to our nation's highest court. pic.twitter.com/jCkto6kAs1
— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) February 1, 2017
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Gorsuch is respected by both Democrats and Republicans.
House Speaker Paul Ryan also called Gorsuch “phenomenal”.
Judge Neil Gorsuch is a phenomenal nominee for the #SCOTUS. https://t.co/qQIeFmXE3O pic.twitter.com/QoiGqCZ2dH
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) February 1, 2017
Our country desperately needs #SCOTUS justices who revere the Constitution and are willing to elevate it over their own personal preferences https://t.co/bKGwBnhVyx
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 1, 2017
But Democrats met the news with far less enthusiasm.
Some, still smarting over Senate Republicans’ refusal to consider Judge Merrick Garland — President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick — have vowed to mount a vigorous challenge to what they view as the court’s “stolen seat”.
“Last year, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Senate Republicans engaged in an unprecedented blockade of President Obama’s nominee to fill the vacancy… refusing to even hold hearings and votes,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a statement. “This is a stolen seat being filled by an illegitimate and extreme nominee.”
I encourage my Senate colleagues to give Neil Gorsuch the same courtesy Senate Republicans gave Merrick Garland. #SCOTUS
— Earl Blumenauer (@repblumenauer) February 1, 2017
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer said he has “serious doubts” Gorsuch is within what Democrats consider the legal mainstream.
In a statement, Schumer said Gorsuch “has repeatedly sided with corporations over working people, demonstrated a hostility toward women’s rights, and most troubling, hewed to an ideological approach to jurisprudence that makes me skeptical that he can be a strong, independent justice on the Court.”
Schumer said the Senate “must insist” on 60 votes for any Supreme Court nominee, meaning the nominee would have to receive bipartisan support.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said Gorsuch “harkens back to the days when politicians restricted a people’s rights on a whim. That is a very dangerous view to our liberty.”
No senator who believes individual rights are reserved to the people, not the government, can support Gorsuch’s nomination.
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) February 1, 2017
In a statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi condemned Trump for nominating “someone hostile to women’s rights on the Supreme Court.”
“In the Hobby Lobby case, Judge Neil Gorsuch revealed his eagerness to single out women’s health for discrimination and enable employers to meddle in their workers’ most intimate health decisions,” Pelosi wrote.
Judge Gorsuch’s radical views on women’s rights are deeply troubling to everyone fighting to #ProtectOurCare https://t.co/TDU2FufoKx
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) February 1, 2017
Judge Gorsuch must explain his hostility to women's rights, support of corporations over workers and opposition to campaign finance reform.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 1, 2017
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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