Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch isn’t having much luck with the Twin State delegation.
Most notably, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Monday he will vote against Gorsuch in his bid to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
“As of now I do not believe I can support Judge Gorsuch. He did not answer basic questions and was selected by extreme interest groups with an agenda,” Leahy said via Twitter.
Leahy also has submitted follow-up questions to Gorsuch on such topics as the Citizens United ruling and said he is still undecided on whether he would vote to end a filibuster in a so-called cloture vote, which needs 60 votes under current Senate rules.
“I am never inclined to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee. But I need to see how Judge Gorsuch answers my written questions, under oath, before deciding,” Leahy said.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., weighed in late last week, saying he would oppose Gorsuch’s nomination by President Donald Trump.
“Americans deserve a Supreme Court justice who respects the rights of workers to be treated fairly instead of bowing to big business,” Sanders said in a release, ticking off such issues as voting rights, Citizens United and abortion rights and accusing Gorsuch of a “thick fog of evasion.”
In New Hampshire, where Democrats have to hew to the center, U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan both also said they would oppose the Gorsuch nomination.
“His record on women’s reproductive rights is very troubling and, despite the many questions raised to him during his nomination hearing, he did not provide any assurances that he would defend the important precedent of Roe v. Wade. I cannot support a Supreme Court justice who would turn back the clock on women’s reproductive rights,” said Shaheen.
Shaheen also referred to Republicans’ “unprecedented obstruction” last year in denying President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing, much less a vote, and said, “As Judge Gorsuch’s nomination comes to the floor, I will support a 60-vote threshold for approval, an appropriate high bar that has been met by seven of the eight current Supreme Court justices.”
For her part, Hassan, a former hospital attorney, also cited the 60-vote threshold for ending debate and said Gorsuch is “not in the mainstream.”
“While Judge Gorsuch is by all accounts a man of great integrity in his personal life, his record demonstrates that he has too often shown a disregard for the impact that his decisions have on the lives of real Americans, consistently putting big corporations before the rights and liberties of hard-working people and families,” Hassan said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Senate Judiciary vote on the nomination is expected next week.
Nanny State Politics?
There was bad news and good news on the toke-and-smoke front in Montpelier. The Vermont House put off a bill from state Rep. Chip Conquest, D-Wells River, that would have legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults for their personal use. Conquest, speaking around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday, gave an eloquent statement in support of the measure — modeled on a law in Washington, D.C.
“We have become culturally accustomed to marijuana being illegal, and like many things about culture, the reasons for it go unexamined. It is always difficult to change culture, but it is time to admit that we lack a rational justification for continuing this prohibition,” Conquest said. “It’s time for Vermont to take a Vermont approach to the use of marijuana by adults.”
But with the support not there among nanny-state Democrats, House lawmakers avoided a vote on the measure, saying they need to do more work on teen prevention.
Meanwhile, last week, after a narrow vote the Senate tabled a bill sponsored by Windsor County state Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Vt., that sought to raise the legal age for smoking tobacco from 18 to 21. No wonder Upper Valley Young Liberals were trying to elect someone from their generation to the Vermont Senate last year.
New Post for Dunne
Former state Sen. Matt Dunne, D-Hartland, has landed a new gig with a high-powered tech focus. Dunne, who gave up a job with Google to run for governor last year, has started a part-time position with the MIT Media Lab.
“I’ll be working with a group of innovators at the media lab who believe technology can play a role in rebuilding common ground in the U.S. and will be exploring some approaches to achieve that goal,” Dunne said by email. For now, Dunne is working out of the Engine Room co-worker space in White River Junction.
John P. Gregg can be reachedat jgregg@vnews.com.