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Live blog of confirmation hearing | March 23, 2017

3rd & 7 37yd

Feinstein: But I think the work you do is very fine and I read it with care

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:54:01 PM

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Feinstein: For many of us, what has happened this past year. You have also done an evaluation of Merrick Garland, who was not even given privilege of committee hearing

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:54:23 PM

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Feinstein: [now reading from report] "Garland's integrity is off the scales" "has no weaknesses, he may be the perfect human being"

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:54:47 PM

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Feinstein: "Garland is the very best"

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:54:56 PM

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Feinstein is still reading fabulous quotations about Garland [presumably quotes from people who contributed
to the report, but she hasn't said so]

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:55:30 PM

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Feinstein: I read this to dispel any notion that this man was not worthy of a committee hearing

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:55:44 PM

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Grassley: I think Gorsuch made very clear his confidence in Garland as well

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:55:58 PM

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Graham now speaking

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:56:33 PM

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Graham: Did you contact groups besides the Federalist Society?

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:56:53 PM

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Degan: Yes

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:56:55 PM

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Graham: Would you say he is a mainsteam judge?

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:57:02 PM

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Degan: Depends what you mean by "mainstream," he meets the highest standards of integrity

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:57:21 PM

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Graham: So if there's a stream, he's on the quality end of it?

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:57:34 PM

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Degan: He's fishing in it

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:57:38 PM

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Graham is now asking about reasonableness and integrity, Degan is saying yes

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:57:57 PM

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Franken, Coons and Blumenthal are also here now

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:58:21 PM

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None of them want to speak.

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:58:40 PM

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Hatch thanks ABA, also says he agrees that Merrick Garland is very good person and judge

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:59:09 PM

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Hatch: Do you see any reason why we should not support Gorsuch?

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:59:38 PM

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Degan: We've given him our highest rating, so no

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 1:59:47 PM

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Kennedy: How many grades are there?

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:00:08 PM

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Degan: 3 -- not qualified, well qualified, low qualified

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:00:32 PM

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Kennedy: How many people contribute?

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:00:39 PM

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Degan: 15 committee members, 26 people in two academic reading teams, plus 14 practitioners -- 55 people, all distinguished lawyers and academics

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:01:26 PM

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Kennedy: All Republicans or all Democrats?

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:01:33 PM

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Degan: No, sir, all varied

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:01:38 PM

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Degan: We don't get into political affiliation. Also very gender diverse, racially diverse (after follow up questions from Kennedy)

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:02:05 PM

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Kennedy is now saying that Degan is one of the most prominent attorneys in Louisiana and is going through her resume in that state. "I trust her judgment."

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:03:16 PM

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Okay, there will now be a new panel

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:04:31 PM

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Eight people in total

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:05:40 PM

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First is Judge Deanell Reece Tacha (retired, now with Pepperdine Law School)

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:06:47 PM

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Tacha: Privilege to support friend, Gorsuch. Served with him on 10th Circuit as Chief Judge when Gorsuch appointed in 2006

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:07:10 PM

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Tacha: Will speak of 3 qualifications. First, Gorsuch the judge -- powerful intellect and probing, analytical approach, strong commitment to limit his analysis to that case. He does not use judicial role as vehicle for anything other than deciding the case before him

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:07:56 PM

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Tacha now also praising his writing and saying that she assigns his writings to students to demonstrate the importance of narrative and legal decision-making

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:08:40 PM

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Tacha: "Judge Gorsuch is a case by case by case judge"

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:08:57 PM

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Tacha: Very important for a court to have high collegiality among members. Not getting along to get along, but improving the quality of the work of the court by careful and respectful listening

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:09:26 PM

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Tacha: Judge Gorsuch is such a judge. His attention to colleagues informs his work

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:09:48 PM

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Senator Tillis from North Carolina has now arrived (Kennedy left with Degan)

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:10:11 PM

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Tacha: Finally, as a person, Gorsuch is a friend and has been since the day he took his role. Unfailing kind, thoughtful, empathetic to all people

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:11:15 PM

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Tacha was a Ronald Reagan appointee

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:11:37 PM

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Tacha: Gorsuch for me is the gold standard

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:11:44 PM

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Now Elisa Massimino of Human Rights First is giving her statement

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:12:10 PM

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Massimino is speaking about dangers of an unchecked executive power grabs

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:12:41 PM

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Massimino: Now it would be a problem to confirm a judge who would not stand up to this

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:12:56 PM

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Massimino: The key question is this -- how would he respond to unprecedented threats to human rights, separation of powers and the rule of law

by Andrew Hamm 3/23/2017 2:13:17 PM

Comment ()

Featured Posts

Challengers urge justices to dismiss census case after district court ruling (Updated) – Amy Howe

Reargument analysis: Justices seek a “middle position” in takings litigation case – Miriam Seifter

Argument analysis: Justices have strong views about removal of class actions – Ronald Mann
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- New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira A court should determine whether the Federal Arbitration Act’s Section 1 exclusion for disputes involving the “contracts of employment” of certain transportation workers applies before ordering arbitration; here, truck driver Dominic Oliveira’s independent contractor operating agreement with New Prime Inc. falls within that exception.
- Stokeling v. United States The Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause encompasses a robbery offense that, like Florida’s law, requires the criminal to overcome the victim’s resistance.
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- City of Escondido, California v. Emmons The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit failed to conduct the analysis required by Supreme Court precedents in determining whether two Escondido police officers were entitled to qualified immunity.
- Shoop v. Hill Because Danny Hill’s intellectual disability claim must be evaluated based solely on holdings of the Supreme Court that were clearly established at the time the state-court decisions were rendered, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit’s reliance on Moore v. Texas -- which was handed down much later -- was plainly improper.
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- Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia Whether discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitutes prohibited employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2.
- Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. (1) Whether a state may require health-care facilities to dispose of fetal remains in the same manner as other human remains, i.e., by burial or cremation; and (2) whether a state may prohibit abortions motivated solely by the race, sex or disability of the fetus and require abortion doctors to inform patients of the prohibition.
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- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
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  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Department of Commerce v. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  Whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker—including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking Executive Branch officials—when there is no evidence that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
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Merits cases granted to date 73

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Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
		1 Holiday	2	3	4 Conference	5
6	7 Orders MERCK SHARP & DOHME CORP. V. ALBRECHT (17-290) OBDUSKEY V. MCCARTHY & HOLTHUS LLP (17-1307)	8 HERRERA V. WYOMING (17-532) FOURTH ESTATE PUBLIC BENEFIT CORP. V. WALL-STREET.COM, LLC (17-571) Opinions	9 FRANCHISE TAX BOARD OF CALIFORNIA V. HYATT (17-1299)	10	11 Conference	12
13	14 Orders THACKER V. TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY (17-1201) RIMINI STREET INC. V. ORACLE USA INC. (17-1625)	15 HOME DEPOT U.S.A. INC. V. JACKSON (17-1471) AZAR V. ALLINA HEALTH SERVICES (17-1484) Opinions	16 KNICK V. TOWNSHIP OF SCOTT, PENNSYLVANIA (17-647) TENNESSEE WINE AND SPIRITS RETAILERS ASSOCIATION V. BLAIR (18-96)	17	18 Conference	19
20	21 Holiday	22 Orders Opinions	23	24	25	26
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Justice Sotomayor at Harvard

On November 13, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and Judge Susan Carney of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit presided over the final round of the 2018 Ames Moot Court Competition at Harvard Law School.

Peabody Award
Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
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Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
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Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
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Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
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Cases argued	43
Cases decided	9
Summary reversals	2
Merits cases granted to date	73

Editor's Note :

Scribble

Live blog of confirmation hearing | March 23, 2017

Featured Posts

Challengers urge justices to dismiss census case after district court ruling (Updated) – Amy Howe

Reargument analysis: Justices seek a “middle position” in takings litigation case – Miriam Seifter

Argument analysis: Justices have strong views about removal of class actions – Ronald Mann

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Merits Case Pages and Archives

Recent Decisions

Current Relists

Conference of January 18, 2019

Major Cases

Recent Special Features

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Jan. 2019

Download our App in the Apple Store

First Mondays see all

Videos see all

Peabody Award

Sigma Delta Chi

National Press Club Award

Silver Gavel Award

American Gavel Award

Webby Award