Live blog of confirmation hearing | March 21, 2017
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Gorsuch: Priebus doesn't speak for me. I don't appreciate it when people characterize me. I like to speak for myself. I am my own man.
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Franken: I don't think we are crazy to think that the administration was lying. Are you comfortable with your nomination being described in such transactional terms?
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Gorsuch: There is a lot about this process that I am uncomfortable about.
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Gorsuch: Here to answer questions about my qualifications and my record.
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After Priebus, Steve Bannon described president's priorities -- deconstruction of administration state.
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Franken is talking about Chevron and Gorsuch's concurring opinion.
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Franken: Do you believe that Chevron was wrongly decided?
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Gorsuch: I am a circuit judge. I don't tell my bosses what to do?
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Franken says he doesn't want the legislature to decide how much space can be between slats on a baby's crib. I don't trust Senator Coons (next to him).
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Gorsuch refers again to Gutierrez, who was affected by a change in law created by federal bureaucracy.
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Franken: This is a big deal. Chevron deference mentioned only twice on the Senate floor until your nomination but now a hot topic when senators speaking in support of your nomination.
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Franken: But you want to address the behemoth. That suggests Priebus and Bannon knew what they were doing with your nomination.
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I know you are choosing your words very carefully, says Franken, but some of those signals have already been sent.
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Senator Sasse is up next. I am disappointed that Cruz stole my originalism question but also that he got to muttonbusting before I did.
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Also mentions a text from his wife about how long Gorsuch can go without using the bathroom.
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Sasse: have you ever asked a referee to wear your kids' Little League jersey under theirs?
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Gorsuch throws his kids under the bus: No, because it wouldn't have helped. They were pretty rotten at basketball.
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Gorsuch, in foreground, laughs at joke by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), far right.
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Gorsuch: Shows children in obituaries -- people want to be remembered for the kindness they showed others. For me, it's the words I read yesterday from Increase Sumner's tombstone, a good dad, good husband, kind and mild in private life, dignified and firm in public life.
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Gorsuch: I have no illusions that I will be remembered long. That's how it should be.
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Sasse: Wish more people had the obituary assignment, that's a great lesson.
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Gorsuch is now praising his colleagues, thanking senators for picking them
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Sasse: Senators and judges have different callings. You can look back and be proud, even if you didn't advance policy perspectives, as a judge. Please explain this.
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Gorsuch: Judge looking back, the most you can hope for is fairness and that you carried on the tradition of a neutral and impartial judiciary in which people could come for a fair hearing of their dispute.
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Gorsuch: Lawyers are supposed to be fierce advocates, and I was once. But judges are supposed to be impartial.
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Sasse now returns to the line of questions about actions in 2004 election (by Franken). But you were not a judge then. How did things change for you on bench?
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Gorsuch returns again to Jackson, who dissented in Korematsu, a judge's judge, calling it as he sees it and writing clearly. "That's the best I can do on that."
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Sasse: You said you worry that labels put us in boxes. But do you see originalism as one philosophy among many, or just a description of what judges do?
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Gorsuch: I'm with Justice Kagan on this. All judges want to know about the original understanding. That's valuable information. Heller, for example [again]
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Sasse: I'm of a view that we are in a crisis, not passing on the meaning of America -- cites pollsters that show many think First Amendment might be dangerous for how speech is used. But in Washington or Boulder or in church/synagogue/bar/town square, we debate. We're not explaining this First Amendment to the next amendment. All three branches led by people who have taken oath to the Constitution. All three branches have an obligation for civics edu.
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Sasse: Quoates Reagan, in any democracy, one generation away from the extinction of freedom.
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Sasse: What are your responsibilities to teach civics as judge?
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Gorsuch: I think of Sandra Day O'Connor, who has done "amazing amount of work" on this after retirement. There is a need to remind people how to speak to one another. More fundamentally, how brilliant - not perfect - the design of this Constitution is. E pluribus unum, out of many one.
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Gorsuch: This is one of the things I look forward to as a justice. I really believe in this country and I'm optimistic about its future. Young people give me hope every day.
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Gorsuch: Harry Truman didn't want a monument as a memorial, but something living, a scholarship for young people to go on to do public service (Gorsuch was one, with Senator Coons).
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Sasse: Talk a little bit about the role of writing for a justice. What are the purposes of concurrences and dissents. What are the objectives at appellate level versus on SCOTUS?
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Gorsuch: When I write an opinion, I write for myself, I'm trying to convince myself that I've got it right. I go through a lot of drafts.
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[Gorsuch taking time to explain himself with some friendly questions from Sasse.]
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Gorsuch: Then it's about the test of my colleagues. I believe in collegiality. Two, three -- nine -- heads better than one.
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Gorsuch: Maybe that's why my opinions have attracted relatively few dissents [this is a statistic Gorsuch has been returning to]
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Sasse: Audience should be seen as smarter than you, but ignorant of topic, when writing history. Same for judges?
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Gorsuch: Right on target. People will at least understand what I'm doing, even if they disagree.
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