Political Quotes

“Mr. President, like several in this Chamber, I was asked for my input to the President on whom to nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court. After much reflection, I recommended to the Vice President that Judge Neil Gorsuch of Denver, CO, should fill the Scalia seat on the Supreme Court. I am, of course, very pleased that my advice was considered. I offered that recommendation before I had an opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Judge Gorsuch, although, in fairness, we had an opportunity in the Senate to review Judge Gorsuch and his credentials in 2006 when this body voted to confirm him by voice vote to the U.S. Court of Appeals where he now sits. After spending time with this exceptionally talented jurist and after reviewing his performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, my level of respect for him has only grown. Judge Gorsuch checks the box on every measure of what I am looking for in a Supreme Court nominee. Intellectual capacity, experience, independence, integrity--he has all of these. There is no question that he has the intellectual capacity to meet the challenge. Yes, we acknowledge he is an Ivy League graduate from Columbia and Harvard Law, and that actually describes many people at the top of the legal profession, but that alone is not what makes Judge Gorsuch exceptional. Judge Gorsuch did something that most practicing lawyers don't do. He went on to earn a doctorate in legal philosophy at Oxford.…”