4 Things You Need to Know About Neil Gorsuch—Trump's Nominee for the Supreme Court
March 22, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
1) GORSUCH IS A CHEERLEADER FOR TORTURE
During Gorsuch's 14 months as Principal Deputy to the Associate Attorney General from 2005 to 2006, he was a crucial architect of the legal defenses for Bush's "War on Terror" policies following 9/11. Gorsuch articulated legal justifications of Bush's order to wiretap Americans' international phone calls and emails without warrants, and of the administration's practice of suspending habeas corpus for some detainees, The New York Times reported last week. He also visited Guantánamo Bay, and praised the prison commander for having implemented "standards and imposed a degree of professionalism that the nation can be proud of."
2) GORSUCH ASSOCIATED THE RIGHT TO ABORTION WITH A RIGHT TO “POLYGAMY, DUELS, PROSTITUTION AND ILLEGAL DRUGS”
During his campaign, Trump declared “I am putting pro-life justices on the court. I will say this: It will go back to the states, and the states will then make a determination.” In other words, justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade, making the right to abortion limited to states that allow it. Gorsuch has avoided overtly publicly stating his position on overturning Roe v. Wade, but he has upheld the right of corporations to refuse to provide women employees with insurance that covers birth control based on the corporation’s religious beliefs (in the “Hobby Lobby” case). He has a record of questioning court rulings upheld while restricting a woman’s right to an abortion. In a critique of one such ruling (Planned Parenthood vs. Casey), Gorsuch wrote that the logic invoked by a plurality of Supreme Court justices in that case of upholding Roe v. Wade could also lead to respecting the right to “polygamy, consensual duels, prostitution, and, indeed, the use of illicit drugs” (See “The Gorsuch Record - Alliance for Justice.”)
3) GORSUCH IS AGAINST SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
Gorsuch has gone to extreme lengths to fight for tearing down the separation of church and state. Serving on the 10th Circuit Court, he vigorously opposed a majority ruling that displaying the Ten Commandments in a monument on a courthouse lawn violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution (that prohibits the establishment of a state religion.). Similarly, he was in the minority objecting to a court ruling that when the Utah Highway Patrol erected 12 foot high crosses, that violated the establishment clause.
4) GORSUCH UPHOLDS POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER
As summarized in The Gorsuch Record : “Whether upholding summary judgment in favor of a school district where a boy with mental and physical disabilities was abused and repeatedly subjected to confinement in a small room… or holding that a police officer had not used excessive force against a nine-year-old when she put him in a twist-lock hold that broke the child’s collarbone… Judge Gorsuch repeatedly forgives constitutional abuses by government officials.” Gorsuch has issued rulings and opinions that upheld the conviction of a defendant on the basis of statements he made without getting the Miranda warning, and the conviction of a man on a Native American reservation after a prosecutor improperly advised the jury this conviction would “end the cycle of violence” on the reservation. And over and over he has upheld police brutality and murder. He upheld police putting painful handcuffs on a middle school student accused of making fake burping noises in class. He has consistently upheld murder by police in cases where there was no credible threat to the life of safety of anyone.
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