Posted on 01/31/2017 9:17:26 PM PST by Tours
Washington President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Tuesday night, fulfilling his campaign promise to nominate a documented judicial conservative to the nation's justiceship.
Gorsuch currently serves as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, considered a lion of the law and a hero of the political Right.
Scalia died over a year ago, leaving a vacancy on the nine-judge court. But Republican Senate leadership refused to entertain then-president Barack Obama's choice for the seat, Merrick Garland, casting the vacancy as a choice the American people to make through the selection of their next president.
Garland, had he been confirmed, would have brought to four the number of Jewish justices on the court.
Trump campaigned on a promise to select his nominee for Scalia's seat from a published list of known conservatives. Gorsuch, 49, was on that list.
Gorsuch characterizes his judicial philosophy in similar terms as Scalia: He considers himself a textualist on statutes, and believes the US Constitution should be enforced as it was originally interpreted. He has weighed in in favor of "religious freedom" laws that have allowed for exceptions to and restrictions on reproductive rights, although he has not personally issued any rulings on abortion from the bench.
Born in Colorado, Gorsuch attended Columbia University, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University for his doctorate. He clerked for both Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy before a short stint in private practice.
Judgeships on the Supreme Court are lifetime appointments.
Shortly after Trump announced his nominee came criticism and concern from several Reform Jewish organizations.
“We are greatly troubled by Judge Gorsuch’s record, which suggests that he may not have the attributes and values a nominee to the Supreme Court ought to have in order to mete out justice and interpret the laws that affect us all,” a statement issued by Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner on behalf of a number of the Reform movement’s umbrella bodies read. “We look forward to engaging in the confirmation process to further evaluate Judge Gorsuch’s views on issues of core importance to the Reform Movement, including civil rights, separation of church and state, religious freedom, women’s rights, LGBTQ equality, and many more.”
Rabbi Pesner added that either way, “it is also absolutely crucial that whomever joins the highest court in the land is a person who will defend the Constitution, promote equal rights and opportunity for all and approach legal interpretation with the reverence and care it deserves.”
“Unless President Trump's nominee meets all of these criteria and clarifies his views in confirmation hearings, we have significant reservations about his confirmation to be a Supreme Court Justice,” he added. Bend the Arc, a liberal social action group, also said it was “deeply concerned” by Gorsuch’s record.
Among Gorsuch’s opinions, most attracting Jewish interest was Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby in 2013, when the appeals court upheld the right of a private business to reject the government mandate to provide contraceptive care under employee health plans.
The Obama administration had offered leeway on such coverage to faith-based non-profits, but would not extend them to private businesses. Gorsuch joined the majority in the Appeals Court ruling, which was upheld the next year by the Supreme Court. Liberal Jewish groups backed the government in the case, while Orthodox Jewish groups favored Hobby Lobby. Gorsuch has also favored displays of crosses on public lands, and has tended in his rulings toward the rights of gun owners, in favor of the death penalty and against abortion rights.
The Interfaith Alliance, which describes itself "the faith-based voice countering the radical right and promoting the positive role of religion”, also voiced opposition to the nomination, saying that Gorsuch supported religious discrimination as federal judge.
"Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch seems to believe otherwise.”
The alliance added that "as a federal judge he ruled on two of the most consequential religious freedom cases in recent years, and both times he opposed genuine religious freedom. Instead, he empowered groups seeking to force their religious beliefs onto others.”
"Senators must carefully examine Judge Gorsuch's views and record to determine whether he would uphold religious freedom for all Americans, regardless of faith. We cannot afford as a nation to put our First Freedom at risk,” the group concluded.
Nathan Diament, the Orthodox Union’s executive director of public policy, meantime, said Gorsuch’s rulings “show a jurisprudential approach that venerates religious conscience and pluralism in American society.”
Trump’s supreme court nomination is likely to face a fight, with Democrats suggesting they may filibuster his nomination. Democrats are still stung by the refusal of Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to allow a hearing for President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia, Merrick Garland, a moderate judge. Garland, had he been confirmed, would have brought to four the number of Jewish justices on the court. On the other side of the Jewish movements spectrum, however, the Orthodox Union, said Gorsuch’s rulings “show a jurisprudential approach that venerates religious conscience and pluralism in American society.”
Danielle Ziri and JTA contributed to this report.
“Reform Jews are not religious Jews.”
Umm...they are still Jews. The definition of being a Jew is far more than being Ultra-orthodox.
Observant Jews of the United States will applaud this nomination of someone who understands the Constitutional right to freedom of religion. The Reform and Conservative Movement of Judaism have long since been infiltrated by the same Marxists who infiltrated some of the big Protestant denominations and a portion of Catholics. They threw out God and brought in today’s Marxist infiltrated Democratic Party as a substitute.
The Reform and Conservative Movements top leaders have already jumped on the bandwagon that falsely characterized President Trump’s three month moratorium. Ditto for the Jewish Federations. Truly pitiful. The leadership are the culprits. They are making up completely untrue, grotesquely distorted claims that these Muslim “refugees” are no different from Jews who were trying to escape Hitler and were turned and were killed. No Jew was a terrorist. No Jew wanted to convert all of the U.S. to Judaism on threat of death. This is moratorium. The “progressive” religious leadership of the Christians and Jews are showing profound stupidity, among other traits.
This article is the worst kind of propaganda. I am not surprised that it comes from the JTA (the Jewish Telegraphic Agency), which takes a hard-left slant.
The headline talks about polarizing “religious” US Jewry. I don’t think that “religious” means what they think it means.
They quote a Reform Rabbi condemning Gorsuch. The reform movement has been described as “The New York Times with holidays”. It is not surprising that they are opposed to him. It would have been surprising if they were not. But the Reform movement in Judaism is not regarded as “religious” if that word means adherence to Jewish laws and respect for Jewish tradition — and if you don’t mean that, then I don’t know what “religious” means.
Meanwhile, the Orthodox person quoted in the article was full of praise for the appointment. I think that this perspective is the one held by the vast majority of Orthodox and traditional American Jews.
Agreed. The Catholics for the most part have been okay, but the Jews are an ultra-Liberal disaster. Time for a Protestant, as long as he’s not like the last one on the court - Souter!
Adolf was an altar boy. And I think he got the Anabaptists to dunk him.
If he bar mitzvah’d too, he must have really been covering his bases.
Hitler never had a Bar Mitzvah. He was not Jewish and did not identify as Jewish. Do you really think that if it had been otherwise, that fact would not have become common knowledge before, during, or after World War II?
I don’t know if you are trolling us or you actually believe this. I don’t know which is worse.
what BS!
of course the leftwing is gonna bitch about almost anything DJT does
and most “reform” Jews tend to be included in the left wing.
sadly but its a fact.
SO, a relatively leftist paper like JPost (and certainly the even more extremely leftist papers) can always find “reform” Jews (that, usually, nobody has ever heard of) to make statements questioning DJT
big Fg deal!
this is not a news story. there’s no news in it, other than DJT has nominated his candidate for the job.
Huh?
“No Jew was a terrorist.”
Well....check out Stern and Urgun. King David Hotel....
I don’t think that you can fairly blame all of the social ills of the Western world on the Jews. There just aren’t that many of us, and we don’t control what you apparently think we do.
Very well put, SMCN.
“...can always find “reform” Jews (that, usually, nobody has ever heard of) to make statements questioning DJT...”
The vast majority of U.S. Jews are liberal and democrats. About 70% voted for Hillary. This is not a fringe group of Jews. It could be called the “mainstream”.
Soros funded group. That is all we need to know.
You may find interesting this article trying to explain the large Catholic vote for Hillary: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440122/hillary-clinton-catholic-vote-why-has-she-apparently-won-it
I don’t think that castigating “the Jews” is the right way to go.
Hitler was an altar boy in the Catholic church. Editor says he was Jewish. I say he was Anabaptist.
Try to keep up.
A lot of what you say is true, but an increasing proportion of Israelis and world Jewry does keep the commandments. Check out the orthodox communities and neighborhoods and you will see family life and modesty.
The state of Israel is trying to be all things to all people and that is the problem.
Many of its academics were trained in the West and in the process caught the disease of “progressivism.”
Having the Fifth Column of Muslims, including in the Knesset, trying to destroy the Jewish state, doesn’t help, either.
Those Jews who have tragically followed the Sirens’ song to nihilism will not be Jews in another one or two generations.
Some of the children, after running after East religions, seeking the spirituality that was missing, do fortunately find that their own monotheistic religion is the source of all that is good in Western Civilization. It is the richest one, with the most to offer for living an ethical and uplifted life.
Demographers already see in today’s U.S. cities that only observant Judaism, with awe and respect and carryout out God’s teachings, will remain in the diaspora.
Are you an Israeli?
It is what it is....
White Catholics voted for Trump.
Hispanics voted like the Jews, Muslims and Asians - around 70% for Hillary.
To clarify, the majority of white Catholics voted for Trump. As did the majority of white Protestants.
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