Commission on Civil Rights has reviewed 200 some cases on civil rights handled by Gorsuch. Our examination shows his approach is consistent with generally accepted textual practices.
Kirsanow: He was in minority of only 5% of cases, 43 cases he was in a 3-judge panel with two Democratic-appointed colleagues, and joined them in 94% of cases.
Kirsanow now says Gorsuch applied the plain text in the TransAm case about the trucker
Not to say who is right, but Kirsanow is giving a polar opposite take on civil rights than just given by Clarke.
Kirsanow has moved on to the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Kirsanow: Record shows he is a careful and exacting judge
Flake is only senator present because of a vote.
Sarah Warbelow from the Human Rights Campaign is now up/
LGBTQ people are no strangers to the SCOTUS, Warbelow says
Warbelow is now going into the plaintiffs in the Obergefell case that recognized marriage equality nationwide
Warbelow: Gorsuch employs a dangerous brand of originalism
Warbelow: He is squarely in the mold of Justice Scalia
Warbelow: Gorsuch has directly questioned the court's recognition of the right to autonomy that is a cornerstone to protections for same-sex couples. He compares same-sex marriage to bestiality.
Warbelow: He may have LGBTQ friends, but this line of reasoning shows a lack of concern for the community.
Warbelow: Hobby Lobby did not directly involve LGBTQ community, but these religious based claims have been used in other cases
Warbelow: Gorsuch's views on moral culpability callously disregards the harms caused to other people.
Warbelow: We do not have to agree with every decision a justice makes, but we must believe they are fair and that they recognize the shared humanity of LGBTQ people. Gorsuch has never met this bar.
Flake excuses himself to vote, Hirono takes over.
Alice Fisher, former colleague of Gorsuch's, up next.
They worked as summer associates together.
Fisher: Struck by his brilliance but more by his character -- integrity, courtesy, kindness
Fisher: He also counseled and mentored me as if he cared about my success as much as his own, and I am not alone in that experience
Fisher: He comports himself with deep humility when he comes into public service
Miller: We are gravely concerned about the nomination.
Miller: We envision a world in which every woman who has decided to end a pregnancy will be respected
Miller: I know what happens when politicians find devious ways to deny women their constitutional rights
Miller: Roe v. Wade has been settled law for more than four decades and reaffirmed repeatedly by Supreme Court
Miller is now going into a Texas law that resulted in many clinics closing that led to the Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt case
Miller says woman told her, I will tell you what's in my medicine cabinet, can you tell me how I can have my own abortion
Miller: We need justices on bench who will not impose unreasonable obstacles
Miller: Last year, court called out these laws as shams without any medical basis behind them
Miller: Gorsuch's positions raise concerns about his ability to be fair and impartial
Hannah Smith, senior counsel at Becket, now up
Becket works to protect religious liberty. Smith says it does it best work for unpopular religious beliefs
Smith: My assessment is that a Justice Gorsuch would be vital for protecting religious liberty, and the Supreme Court has never overturned his decisions on religious liberty -- and has even vindicated his dissents.
Smith: When Gorsuch did author a religious liberty decision for the court, every single time it was unanimous
Smith: Gorsuch has demonstrated repeatedly that he protects the religious liberty of minorities and the incarcerated. She now discusses Yellowbear v. Lambert, which involved a prisoner wishing to use a sweatlodge
Smith: Sotomayor has quoted from Gorsuch's decision in another SCOTUS case.
Smith: In his Religious Freedom Restoration Act, government tried to force ministries and family owned businesses to violate beliefs or pay huge fines. Some have tried to portray these are irresolvable conflicts between religious freedom and health care concerns. But the government has conceded that there are other ways to provide health care, so no real conflict must exist.
Professor William Marshall now speaking.
His first point is that originalism has changed repeatedly in history.
He says that the earliest courts did not see the Constitution as the bounded, limited document, as originalists say, and he goes to Chief Justice John Marshall: "It is a constitution we are expounding."
The framers came from a common law tradition that understands that law adapts over time.
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