Roy Blunt: “I come today to talk about the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Once again…”

“I come today to talk about the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Once again, throughout the hearings last week, Judge Gorsuch proved that he has the knowledge, he has the temperament, and he has the experience to serve on our Nation's highest Court. He laid out a clear judicial philosophy that adheres to what I think most Americans want to see happen today on the Court and what clearly the Framers of the Constitution thought would happen. In his own words, Judge Gorsuch said: ``I have one client, it's the law.'' That is the way the Founders saw the Supreme Court. They didn't see it as a legislative body. All good judges had to do was to read the law. They didn't have to be happy with the law. They didn't have to approve the law. They didn't have to determine that the law and the Constitution met their exact standard. They just had to determine what the law and the Constitution said. In fact, the first Supreme Court had six judges. There was no thought that it was a legislative body that had to have a tie-breaking judge so you could legislate. They thought six judges were plenty. By the way, they thought they needed six circuits. Each of those judges rode a circuit. So even when there was an appeal to the Supreme Court, one of the judges had already heard the case at the lower level. That judge heard the case again and then listened to see if that judge heard anything new, something that might change their mind.…”