Day One of the Neil Gorsuch hearings was not about Neil Gorsuch

Source: Washington Examiner | March 21, 2017 | Ilya Shapiro

Those who tuned into C-SPAN today for hot-and-heavy questioning of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee were sorely disappointed. The first day isn’t actually about the nominee, but just a chance for senators on the Judiciary Committee to make opening statements. Accordingly, we learned very little about Judge Neil Gorsuch—he made an opening statement too, confirming everything we already knew about him as a humble jurist and western family man—and some about the Democrats’ approach to this confirmation process.

Actually, there was nothing new there either. There was no magical coalescence around certain deadly needles found in the haystack of 2,700 Gorsuch opinions. Just the tired old issues we saw the day after the nomination announcement on January 31. First, this was a #StolenSeat, so no Republican nominee will be confirmed until Merrick Garland is returned from exile. This issue was of course litigated at the election, and the voters decided that they’d rather have Trump filling the Scalia vacancy. So it’s unclear who this argument is for, other than the arch-blue base.

Second, a handful of carefully cherry-picked cases show results that don’t make Gorsuch look sympathetic to the “little guy.” The leading contenders for this strategy are the “frozen trucker” case, the “cancer survivor” case, and the “taser-to-the-head” case. Indeed, Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) accused Gorsuch of being too “fixated on the plain meaning” of a statute. Well, then.

…..

But really, unless something really weird happens, this is so much about everything except the nominee. These hearings are unlikely to change a single vote on anything (filibuster or nomination). I’m just hoping they elucidate some important areas of constitutional interpretation and legal process despite (because of?) that dynamic.

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