Judge Gorsuch: ‘Everyone Who Comes To Court Deserves Respect’

JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH: “I’ve been stuck on the highway in Wyoming in a snowstorm. I know it’s involved. I don't make light of it, I take it seriously. But, Senator, this gets back to what my job is, and what it isn’t.” (U.S. Senate, Judiciary Committee, Hearing, 3/21/17)

JUDGE GORSUCH: ‘Everyone Who Comes To Court Deserves Respect’ & ‘A Legal Case Isn’t Just Some Number Or A Name But A Life Story’

JUDGE GORSUCH: “I also had the great fortune to clerk for Justice Kennedy.  He showed me that judges can disagree without being disagreeable.  That everyone who comes to court deserves respect.  And that a legal case isn’t just some number or a name but a life story.” (U.S. Senate, Judiciary Committee, Hearing, 3/20/17)

• JUDGE GORSUCH: “As a judge now for more than a decade, I have watched my colleagues spend long days worrying over cases.  Sometimes the answers we reach aren’t ones we would personally prefer.  Sometimes the answers follow us home and keep us up at night.  But the answers we reach are always the ones we believe the law requires.” (U.S. Senate, Judiciary Committee, Hearing, 3/20/17)

MADDIN CASE: ‘Judge Neil Gorsuch Wasn’t Saying Truck Driver Alphonse Maddin Was Wrong To Abandon His Trailer’

“Judge Neil Gorsuch wasn’t saying truck driver Alphonse Maddin was wrong to abandon his trailer on the side of the road after waiting several hours in subzero temperatures for a repair truck. Gorsuch just wasn’t willing to say Maddin’s employer, TransAm Trucking Inc., broke the law by firing him.” (“Gorsuch Freezing-Trucker Case Boosts Business Hopes At Top Court,” Bloomberg, 2/1/17)

• JUDGE GORSUCH: “It might be fair to ask whether TransAm’s decision was a wise or kind one. But it’s not our job to answer questions like that.  Our only task is to decide whether the decision was an illegal one.” (TransAm Trucking, Inc. v. Administrative Review Board, DoL, Pg. 19, (2016)

FLASHBACK: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Praised Judge Sonia Sotomayor For Hewing ‘Carefully To The Text Of Statutes, Even When Doing So Results In Rulings That Go Against So-Called Sympathetic Litigants’

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “…Judge Sotomayor puts rule of law above everything else… Sotomayor has hewed carefully to the text of statutes, even when doing so results in rulings that go against so-called sympathetic litigants.” (U.S. Senate, Judiciary Committee, Confirmation Hearing For Sonia Sotomayor, P.25, 7/13-16/2009)

• SCHUMER: “…her record shows that she is in the mainstream. ...she has ruled for the government in 83 percent of immigration cases against the immigration plaintiff, she has ruled for the government in 92 percent of criminal cases, she has denied race claims in 83 percent of cases. ... In a case brought by plaintiffs who claimed they had been bumped from a plane because of race, she dismissed their case because the law required it, Judge Sotomayor has hewed carefully to the text of statutes, even when doing so results in rulings that go against so-called sympathetic litigants. In dissenting from an award of damages to injured plaintiffs in a maritime accident, she wrote, ‘we start with the assumption that it is for Congress, not the federal courts, to articulate the appropriate standards to be applied as a matter of federal law.’” (U.S. Senate, Judiciary Committee, Confirmation Hearing For Sonia Sotomayor, P.25, 7/13-16/2009)

COURT WATCHERS AGREE: ‘It’s Not Gorsuch’s Job To Be A ‘Friend Of The Little Guy’ … Or A Friend Of The Big Guy Or A Friend Of Any Party’

NOAH FELDMAN, Liberal Harvard Law Professor, & Former Clerk To Justice David Souter: “I’m not sure who decided that the Democratic critique of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch would be that he doesn’t side with the little guy. It’s a truly terrible idea. … The rule of law isn’t liberal or conservative -- and it shouldn’t be.” (Noah Feldman, Op-Ed, “Democrats' Misguided Argument Against Gorsuch,” Bloomberg, 3/15/17)

• FELDMAN: “…the thing is, siding with workers against employers isn’t a jurisprudential position. It’s a political stance. And justices -- including progressive justices -- shouldn’t decide cases based on who the parties are. They should decide cases based on their beliefs about how the law should be interpreted.” (Noah Feldman, Op-Ed, “Democrats' Misguided Argument Against Gorsuch,” Bloomberg, 3/15/17)

ED WHELAN, Ethics And Public Policy Center: “It’s not Gorsuch’s job to be a ‘friend of the little guy’ … or a friend of the big guy or a friend of any party. So, yes, individuals whose plights win our sympathy will lose their cases when they have weak legal claims. That’s what the rule of law means…. Gorsuch would instead say that he was striving to apply the law dispassionately in these cases. And any fair reading of them would support his account.” (Emphasis In Original; Ed Whelan, “Democrats’ Empty Case Against Gorsuch,” National Review Online’s Bench Memos, 3/13/2017)