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.
FINALLY....with the 2nd to last paragraph they quote an ACTUAL Jew -- and he LOVES Gorsuch!
Why did we have to sit though the Marxist and atheist Democrat activists who pose as "Jews" for the media?
I blamed Jews for my burnt toast this morning :) jk. I blamed the Irish :)
I didn’t mean to frighten you off.
Yes. Born and raised in the US, I now live in Jerusalem, Israel and hold Israeli and US citizenship.
it is most of the “reform” Jews, yes
the orthodox or traditional Jews voted mostly I think for DJT (at least several neighborhoods I checked where orthodox Jews live voted for him).
most of the “reform” have adopted the god of ‘progressivism’ ———————
occasionally a traditional rabbi comes out and says they don’t seem very Jewish but then his fellows ask him to quiet down...that Jewish people have had historical difficulties when they’ve tried to say that some others might not be sufficiently faithful to Biblical teachings or values....
its a very very very long story I won’t bore you with but basically ... trying to enforce some sort of discipline has sometimes led to some pretty awful bad results for the Jewish people as a whole....so a lot of the rabbis try to just keep the peace
you see similar in the RC Church and some Protestant denominations where serious (and quite similar) problems...where there appear to be genuine schisms really.....with one wing going off into “progressivism” like Nancy Pelosi for example......... and the traditional RCC clergy does not reprove her..... also look at what;s happened in (of all places!) Calvinism (Presbyterianism especially) with the PCUSA acting like a socialst party cell and tradtional faithful being told they can’t even have their church buildings
it appears that all three groups...Protestant, Catholic, Jewish....have a serious divide....some are faithful to their traditional or Biblical teachings....and another wing of all 3 groups has gone off the leftward cliff
and nobody can figure out how to fix the schism or rupture or bridge the divide
...
imho, its a very sad situation..but at least there are still many faithful in all 3 ....the entire country hasn’t gone mad
Soros ... we agree...I think he is one of the most evil and certainly destructive people on Rock Three today.
if you read up on his history really is a Nazi, he actually helped the Nazis steal the property of Jews that were slaughtered in the gas chambers during ww2. AND he has said he has no regrets...
religiously he proclaims himself an atheist, of no faith whatsoever.
but since you can trace his family tree back to Jews, the result is that SOME folks will say...SEE, an evil Jew...and Jewish people everywhere will get blamed for what this one jerk does...................innocent people who have no way of stopping or even influencing SorosNazi, none at all.
this is just the way some people “think”
Now then, if Mossad or somebody could only.................
I don’t quite understand this...
‘he died more than a year ago’ line of BS.
Scalia died Feb 12, 2016
perhaps Jews(Jerusalem Post) are using a different calendar?
“..which was upheld the next year by the Supreme Court. “
You lost your point of contention right there.
Seriously? Then, he was a Jew.
According to Jewish law(?), if your mother is Jewish, you’re Jewish. If your dad is Jewish, you have to convert. That’s the Orthodox rule, and I assume most Jews were Orthodox at the time.
Ridiculous article and then some
It would appear so these days
At least I got a peer AG
tks Yankee elites for thinking of lil ol me down heah in Dixie
I shore is grateful
Liberal JINOs
No kidding
Bytt
That’s why homosexuals don’t want the embassy moved to Jerusalem.
Never mind the Reform Jews’ comments. They do not represent the Jewish people. They worship secular material things far above their worship of the Divine. They know very little about the Jewish religion and basically hold it and its true worshipers in contempt. Half of them probably aren’t even Jews, being products of intermarriage with the father being the Jew in the equation.
I’ve read the majority in Israel will be Orthodox by 2030.
Hey Susie--visit Stormfront.com much? This sounds like a cut and paste right off their website.
Just posted this, but I’ve read the majority in Israel will be Orthodox by 2030.
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