The Fake News outlet CNN is finally covering one of Trump’s great successes. That success is the appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch. In a recent article, they pointed out just how good Gorsuch has been.
From his first day on the bench when he dominated oral arguments, to Monday, when he wrote a dissent in a case related to gay marriage, joined his conservative colleagues in a fiery response to the travel ban case and possibly provided the necessary fourth vote for the court to hear a major religious liberty case, Gorsuch has broken the mold.
Gorsuch is already delivering as the strong conservative President Donald Trump promised his voters when he ran for office last year.
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“Whereas new justices usually take a beat before they start opining on every issue the court does (and doesn’t) address, Justice Gorsuch has asserted his exceptionally conservative views early and often across a dizzying range of hot-button issues,” said Joshua Matz, a lawyer and former clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Gorsuch’s recent opinions prove the point.
On Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Gorsuch and Justice Samuel Alito, chastized their colleagues for not going far enough in the travel ban cases. The troika would have allowed all of Trump’s executive order banning people from six majority-Muslim countries to go into effect immediately.
This is amazing news for Trump supporters. It shows Trump’s nomination is not only conservative but he is actively working to work on hot button issues early.
“One of the biggest themes of Justice Gorsuch’s confirmation process was his commitment to an especially strong view of how the Constitution protects religious liberty,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law.
“That came through in spades today not just in the Arkansas case, but in his separate concurrence in a case striking down a Missouri program that refused to provide otherwise available funds for preschool playgrounds to schools affiliated with religious institutions,” Vladeck said.
According to Vladeck, although the majority in that case was willing to resolve the dispute on relatively narrow grounds, Gorsuch wrote separately to suggest that the court could — and should — have issued a much broader ruling on religious liberty.
Those who pushed for his nomination were thrilled.
“Justice Gorsuch has, in his first couple of months on the Supreme Court bench, performed as advertised at his confirmation hearings,” said Leonard A. Leo of the Federalist Society, who worked with the White House on the nomination.
“He regularly demonstrated a deep and adroit commitment to interpreting the Constitution and laws as they are written,” Leo said.
Leo also noted something else about the court’s newest member. “He showed an early willingness to chart his own path in key cases,” he said.
Vladeck agreed. “For a Justice who’s been on the court for less than three months, it’s a remarkably self-assured set of opinions,” he said.
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