Live blog of confirmation hearing | March 21, 2017
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Whitehouse: How would you characterize your differences with Garland?
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[The questions do now seem to be getting to Gorsuch a bit.] He says: I don't like people to characterize me, and I am not going to characterize them.
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Whitehouse: What do these groups see in you that makes you worth the money?
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Whitehouse scores a point: "I can't, because I don't know who they are. They're a front group."
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Whitehouse: Supreme Court justices socialize with these mega-donors and speak at their retreats. Does that look right to you?
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[Gorsuch has himself spoken at, for example, billionaire Phil Anschutz's annual dove hunt.]
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Gorsuch: I have no information about anything you have just described.
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Whitehouse: You are going to be asked to make decisions, but you are going to have a very hard time making that call.
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Whitehouse: No one on current Supreme Court has ever run for office, but they make these wild leaps in cases like Citizens United.
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Whitehouse now talking about corporate influence at the Court.
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They are doing very well at the Court. When they turn up, should they disclose more about whose interests they represent?
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Gorsuch: I think I can talk about my record. In the last 10 years, there has not been a single motion to recuse me.
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In her report on Gorsuch's Senate questionnaire, Amy noted that Gorsuch disclosed that he spoke at the Phil Anschutz Annual Dove Hunt, an event hosted by the Denver billionaire at his 47,000-acre ranch in Colorado, which Whitehouse *may* be alluding to. Whitehouse already referenced a news article about Anschutz. Here's Amy's report. www.scotusblog.com
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Whitehouse: If an organization gives $100 million to a front group, as long as the front group pays for an amicus brief itself, we don't know who the interest is behind it. Worry that the court is actually blind to the true roots of who the organization is.
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Gorsuch: I think that's a very interesting suggestion and one I will take to heart.
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Whitehouse: There are special interest "training camps" at "lush resorts" for lower-court judges. Described as cross between Club Med and Maoist re-education camps. Should Supreme Court address?
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Gorsuch: I disclose every trip that anyone else has paid for.
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Whitehouse: Reads from editorializing on "training camps" critical of them.
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Whitehouse: All of those came from newspapers south of Mason-Dixon line. Not just Yankee liberalism . . .
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Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who was himself on Trump's shortlist of potential nominees, along with his brother.
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Lee: When we are focused on the identity of the parties, their identity matters more. But if your focus on the law, it is likely to be different.
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Lee: Any role in making laws governing federal campaign finance?
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Lee: Seems like it would be unfair for anyone to state or imply that you are somehow responsible for the conduct of third parties who are not you.
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Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) starts with a joke. "Politics" means poli, or many, and ticks, the leech.
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Gorsuch: Only I speak for me. I am a judge, and I don't have a spokesman.
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Lee: Tell us a little bit about your relationship with your law clerks.
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Gorsuch: Part of the reason I am a judge is because I was a law clerk.
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Gorsuch: Byron White would say "first one done with the draft wins." [Complete with Byron White imitation.] I never won.
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Gorsuch talking about how he loves his life, loves Colorado, hopes he is making it proud.
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Mark Walsh reported about Gorsuch's time as a law clerk. www.scotusblog.com
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His clerks have gone on to clerk for a variety of justices, he says.
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Gorsuch: One clerk is doing fishery policy in South Africa.
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Lee: Winston Churchill said "we shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us." I imagine your clerks get to know you well.
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[I think this is getting to the endorsement of Gorsuch (seen in commercials) by some of his "liberal" clerks.]
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Lee now refers to letters from clerks who also clerked for Scalia. They call him a "principled and courageous" judge. [So, yes, endorsements -- but I was wrong about from whom for now.]
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This seems to be the letter from the three clerks that Lee just referenced. www.usnews.com
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Lee: I would also like to enter into record from another clerk, who clerked for Kagan. [Ah, here we go.]
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