On the recordApril 4, 2017
Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Illinois for her important remarks just now and for her leadership and her friendship to so many of us. She has been an extraordinary hero of mine, personally, and so many of us look to her leadership. So I thank her--and for her speaking on the nomination of Judge Gorsuch. Across the street from this Chamber stands the U.S. Supreme Court. Above its doors are the words ``Equal Justice Under Law.'' As Senators, we have a solemn responsibility to ensure that every man and woman who sits on that Court upholds that ideal. As a U.S. Senator, I take that responsibility extremely seriously. Almost two decades after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, I was part of only the second class to integrate the Berkeley, CA, public schools. If the Court had ruled differently, I likely would not have become a lawyer or a prosecutor or a district attorney or the Attorney General of California, and I certainly would not be standing here today as a U.S. Senator. I know from personal experience just how profoundly the Court's decisions touch every aspect of Americans' lives, and for that reason, I rise to join my colleagues in strong opposition to the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. As we know, Judge Gorsuch went through 4 days of hearings in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and here is what we learned: We learned that Judge Gorsuch refused to answer the most basic of questions.…





