SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE/NEIL GORSUCH: “Justice Neil Gorsuch has yet to hear his first case, but the partisan conflict over President Donald Trump’s nominee on the Supreme Court already has left a legacy on the federal judiciary, further blurring the line between law and politics.
More than any appointment in recent memory, Justice Gorsuch’s was tied to the presidential election cycle. The linkage began within hours of Justice Antonin Scalia’s Feb. 13, 2016, death, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) posted on Facebook that the ‘vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.’
The fight, which closed with Monday’s [4-10-17] White House swearing-in ceremony, was fueled by tens of millions of dollars spent by political organizations promoting and attacking Judge Gorsuch this year and Judge Merrick Garland, who President Barack Obama nominated last year but wasn’t granted a hearing by the Republican-led Senate…
‘The process of appointing Supreme Court justices and other judges has gotten progressively more partisan and bitter,’ said Rutgers law professor Perry Dane. ‘When I clerked on the court, quite a few years ago, we certainly understood that some justices were *liberal* and others were *conservative.* But we did not think much in terms of *Democratic* or *Republican* judges.’ “
-Jess Bravin, “Neil Gorsuch’s Appointment Further Blurs Line Between Law and Politics,” The Wall Street Journal online, April 10, 2017 11:32am