Trump Nominates a Judge to fill Supreme Court Vacancy
On Tuesday, January 31st, President Donald Trump announced Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to fill the seat which has been open in the Supreme Court since Justice Scalia past away last year. Over the past year, there has been a battle between the Democrats and Republicans to appoint a candidate that would best support their views on certain issues. The House and Senate never approved Barack Obama’s nominee of Judge Merrick Garland last year despite Garland being a moderate candidate that was not too liberal. Throughout the process Republicans stated time and time again that they would not decide on Judge Garland because they believed that the new president should be the one to nominate a new judge to the Supreme Court.
After reading about President Trumps nomination of Neil Gorsuch I believe that he is a nominee who can get approval from Congress. To understand how Judge Neil Gorsuch is a good candidate to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court you must know who sat in that seat before, Justice Scalia.
Justice Scalia was well respected by many. He had a great legal understanding and spoke his mind in many well-articulated dissents. Justice Scalia was known as an originalist. this means that he believed that the US Constitution should be interpreted based on what was originally meant by the framers of the Constitution. This typically means that you take the constitution at face value with what is said without reading into it or using certain parts to create certain laws/rights that are not given. This philosophy is opposite to the belief that the constitution is a living breathing document and that it is the Supreme Court's job to interpret the constitution to relate to contemporary issues such as same-sex marriage. These two different philosophies are important to discuss when learning about a new candidate for the supreme court vacancy because typically those who are originalist like the late Justice Scalia are Republicans whereas those who believe that the Constitution is a living document are typically Democrats.
Neil Gorsuch is like Justice Scalia. In a speech he gave about Justice Scalia he states that Judges and Legislators are different. Legislators are focused on shaping the law for the future based on social unity whereas Judges should have nothing to do with that and instead focus on maintaining the law and looking to the past, not thinking about moral convictions or policies that could be in place. Here Neil Gorsuch is talking about how Judges should take a more originalist stance.
Another similarity between Scalia and Gorsuch is in relation to criminal law. Scalia during his time as a Supreme Court Judge has sided with the defendant on cases and Gorsuch has done the same occasionally. He also expresses concerns with over criminalization which is the act of imposing unbalanced penalties with no relation to the gravity of the offense committed or the culpability of the offender. It is the imposition of excessive punishment or sentences without adequate justification. Many people attribute over criminalization to the rise of prison population in the United States, a problem that needs to be fixed.
Finally, one last aspect of Neil Gorsuch which I think will strengthen his nomination as the new Supreme Court Judge is his views on religious freedom. The past few weeks have shown that religious freedom will be an issue that will make a resurgence in the media and how the legislator and courts respond is important, Gorsuch has argued in favor of religious expression. In the case, Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, Gorsuch supported a religious organization who argued that it should be allowed to erect their Seven Aphorisms next to a monument of the ten commandments. The court granted a preliminary injunction requiring the city to erect the organization's monument as well. Although this case is a specific example it can set precedent on other issues of religious expression in public.
The nomination of Neil Gorsuch sheds some light on President Trump as well. Even though Gorsuch is supportive of life in relation to assisted suicide and euthanasia stating that “human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable” his view on abortion is not public. President Trump knew he would have to nominate a candidate that would have a good chance of being approved by both Republicans and Democrats. It seems he put his typical stubbornness aside and realized that having a Supreme Court of only 8 is not good and that a 9th Judge needs to be appointed.