Gorsuch survives another round

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch endured a second day of questioning Wednesday from supportive Republicans and wary Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The federal appeals court judge from Denver continued his steady and consistent testimony from yesterday but encountered an unexpected line of questioning after the current Supreme Court announced a unanimous ruling today involving learning-disabled students. The decision overturned a standard for special education that Gorsuch had endorsed in an earlier case on the same topic, and provided committee Democrats with an opportunity to catch Gorsuch off guard.

“Why in your early decision did you want to lower the bar so low?” asked Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Gorsuch said he was bound by an even earlier decision on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and that any implication that he was against autistic children was “heartbreaking.”

“I was wrong senator, I was wrong because I was bound by circuit court precedent,” Gorsuch said. “And I’m sorry.”

Once past that hurdle, Gorsuch continued to talk earnestly about his respect for prior court decisions and his pledge to maintain absolute judicial independence and not let politics interfere with any decisions he’d make from the bench: “When you put on the robe, you open your mind.”

When Democrats tried to get him to comment on a range of hot-button topics, including abortion and same-sex marriage, Gorsuch answered in the same manner: “I have declined to offer any promises, hints, or previews of how I’d resolve any case.”

Sen. Diane Feinstein of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat, expressed her and her fellow Democrats frustration with Gorsuch’s answers, but with a hint of admiration.

“What worries me is you have been very much able to avoid any specificity like no one I have ever seen before,” she told Gorsuch. “And maybe that’s a virtue, I don’t know. But for us on this side, knowing where you stand on major questions of the day is really important to a vote ‘aye,’ and so that’s why we pressed and pressed.”

On the Republican side, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina used some of his allotted time to discuss what he called the deterioration of the Senate confirmation process since Antonin Scalia, whose seat Gorsuch would fill, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were confirmed with more than 90 votes each.

“What’s happened?” Graham asked. “Did the Constitution change? I don’t think so, I think politics has changed. I think it’s changed in a fashion that we should all be ashamed of as senators, and I think we’re doing great damage to the judiciary by politicizing every judicial nomination.”

Senators on the Judiciary Committee opted to add a third round of questioning Wednesday evening. The overall hearing is scheduled to end Thursday, after a panel of outside witnesses testifies for and against Gorsuch. A committee vote is expected April 3, with a Senate floor vote later that same week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.