Later this week, the Republicans will try to get Neil Gorsuch approved as a new Supreme Court justice. The Democrats will filibuster, but Majority Leader McConnell has said the Republicans will change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster of any Supreme Court nominee (the so-called "nuclear option").In her latest missive to her supporters, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) tells us why Gorsuch should not be approved by the Senate. She writes:
When Justice Scalia died last year, giant corporations and their right-wing buddies spent millions of dollars to slime President Obama’s consensus nominee and steal a Supreme Court seat for Donald Trump. President Trump then returned the favor – picking a Supreme Court nominee off a list of “acceptable” names drawn up by far-right groups funded by those same powerful interests. (Really.) Judge Neil Gorsuch is polite and well-spoken, but make no mistake – his record shows that he consistently favors big corporations over women, workers, consumers, and everybody else. And in the next few days, Gorsuch could receive a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. If a Supreme Court nominee isn’t mainstream enough to get 60 votes in the United States Senate, the President should have to pick a new nominee. Back before he became a judge, Neil Gorsuch made his far-right positions clear. He wrote in 2005 that “liberals have become addicted to the courtroom… effecting their social agenda on everything from gay marriage to assisted suicide to the use of vouchers for private-school education.” And on the bench – for more than a decade – he’s twisted himself into a pretzel to help giant corporations:
- In consumer protection cases, when he had to choose between the “rights” of corporations and the rights of swindled customers, Gorsuch sided with corporations.
- In discrimination cases, when he had to choose between the “rights” of corporations and the rights of employees, Gorsuch sided with corporations.
- And in the infamous Hobby Lobby case, when he had to choose between the “rights” of corporations and the rights of women who wanted access to birth control, Gorsuch sided with corporations.
