President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, federal appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch, faces questioning Tuesday from a sharply divided Senate panel on the second day of his confirmation hearings.
The proceedings began Monday with opening statements, including one from Gorsuch, who made clear his conservative leanings by speaking out against judicial activism.
“It's for this body, the people's representatives [in Congress] to make new laws,” Gorsuch said. “If judges were just secret legislators, declaring not what the law is but what they would like it to be, the very idea of a government by the people and for the people would be at risk.”
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee praised Gorsuch's conservative judicial philosophy while Democrats voiced concerns that he would solidify what they view as the Supreme Court's pro-corporate leanings.
“No matter your politics, you should be concerned about the preservation of our constitutional order, and most importantly the separation of powers,” said the committee's chairman, Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican. “Fortunately for every American, we have before us today a nominee whose body of professional work is defined by an unfailing commitment to these principles.”
“Our job is to assess how this nominee's decisions will impact the American people, and whether he will protect the legal and constitutional rights of all Americans, not just the wealthy and the powerful,” said the committee's top Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California.