Neil Gorsuch seems to be a great guy.

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Too bad he’s been nominated by Donald Trump. And too bad he’s the replacement nominee for Merrick Garland.

The Trump administration is shaping up to be such a flaming disaster that anyone associated with it is going to be tarred with the same brush. In addition, Republicans are now going to pay the price for the hissy fit they pitched about a year ago when they refused to give Garland a hearing. What nonsense! They didn’t have to approve the guy, but they did owe him, and the President, an up-or-down vote. Now the question is, Will the Democrats respond in kind? It would be great if they didn’t, if they decided to act like grownups, but good luck with that!

There are conservative voices, among them George Will, saying that Gorsuch would actually be a better justice than Antonin Scalia. Will says that Scalia put too much emphasis on the Constitution and too little on the Declaration of Independence. I’m not sure I totally follow his argument, but his point is: Gorsuch is great. (And he’s from Colorado!) He’s also seen a a much less pugnacious personality than Scalia. Will Trump’s nominee be confirmed? Probably. Eventually. And since he’s only 49, he will long outlive the president who nominated him, and if he’s a good as everyone says he will almost certainly (eventually) overcome any prejudice against him because of his association with Trump.

But in the meantime he’s facing a huge backlash. I hope he knows what a whirlwind he’s stepped into.Without in any way detracting from Gorsuch’s qualifications, I will point out that he has no clear judicial record on abortion or gun control and that he belongs to a very liberal mainline Protestant church (Episcopalian). He has issued rulings/opinions on assisted suicide and the contraception mandate in the ACA that are conservative. I hope that he is, indeed, as good man a and jurist as he seems to be.

We need to get something positive out of this whole Trumpian disaster. Maybe Gorsuch will be that something.

 

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