WASHINGTON—Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court pick, said on Tuesday he would not hesitate to rule against the president as he vowed independence amid concerns by Democrats he would be beholden to the man who nominated him.
Answering questions from senators during the second day of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Gorsuch said Trump never asked him to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion nationwide, saying if the Republican president had done so “I would have walked out the door.”
Trump promised during last year’s presidential campaign to appoint an anti-abortion justice who would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which many conservatives want reversed.
If confirmed by the Senate as expected, Gorsuch would restore the nine-seat court’s conservative majority at a time when Republicans control Congress and the White House. But the conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado repeatedly said he was beyond politics.
“When I became a judge, they gave me a gavel not a rubber-stamp,” Gorsuch said, adding that no one, including the president, was “above the law.”
“A good judge doesn’t give a whit about politics or the political implications of his or her decision, (and) decides where the law takes him or her fearlessly,” Gorsuch added.
Republicans have praised Gorsuch, 49, as highly qualified for a lifetime appointment as a justice. Democrats, who have slim chances of blocking his nomination, have questioned his suitability, with some portraying him as a judge who favors corporate interests and is insufficiently independent from Trump.
Chuck Grassley, the panel’s Republican chairman, asked Gorsuch “whether you'd have any trouble ruling against a president who appointed you.”
“That’s a softball, Mr. Chairman,” Gorsuch said. “I have no difficulty ruling against or for any party, other than based on what the law and facts in the particular case require. And I’m heartened by the support I have received from people who recognize that there’s no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge. We just have judges in this country.”
