NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — President Trump made his pick for the Supreme Court in a primetime address on Tuesday. Nominating Federal Judge Neil Gorsuch, from Colorado.
“Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills and a brilliant mind,” said President Trump.
“I pledge that if I am confirmed I will do all my power to permit to be a faithful servant of the constitutional laws of this great country,” said Gorsuch.
Gorsuch is being compared to the late Antonin Scalia, who died a year ago. His vacant seat on the Supreme Court is the one that’s now up for grabs.
“Judge Gorsuch is a fairly conservative judge and I think that’s what most people expected,” said Law Professor William Dunlap at Quinnipiac University.
“The republicans for about a year refused to give a hearing to President Obama’s candidate for the Supreme Court and many people are saying the democrats should do the same thing to the republicans,” said Dunlap.
Some democrats are saying that Gorsuch should at least get a hearing and a vote. Others, are skeptical.
“I do believe that he many be coming to the court with an agenda outside of the mainstream,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
The matter is now in the hands of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If Gorsuch gets a majority vote there his confirmation then goes onto the Senate for final approval. If it fails to pass, the president must go back to the drawing board.
“The question, as a purely political matter, is going to be whether or not it’s somebody more conservative in order to teach the democrats a lesson or somebody less conservative as he realizes he has to negotiate with other people,” said Dunlap. “It’s really hard to know.”