Political Quotes

“I thank my friend, the deputy majority leader, the senior Senator from Texas. I draw support for my conclusion about that language from two other cases that Judge Gorsuch was involved in in the Tenth Circuit, one case dealing with contraception and one case dealing with an effort to defund Planned Parenthood in Utah. In both cases, the Tenth Circuit reached a decision that was pro- women's health, pro-women's health access. The parties were fine with the decisions. They were going back to the district court and they did not apply to have the cases reheard en banc. But in both those cases, Judge Gorsuch took the highly unusual step of trying to get the appeals heard anyway, even though the parties did not want to have them reheard. In my experience as an appellate advocate, that is virtually unheard of. I have talked to litigators in the Tenth Circuit, and they have said the same thing. It is highly rare. The fact that Judge Gorsuch would do it in two cases--both of which involved women's health access--is important. Finally, in his confirmation hearing, Judge Gorsuch was asked directly whether he agreed with the decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 decision that said married couples could not be criminalized for using contraception. He said it was a precedent worthy of respect like all precedents, but he would not agree--he would not say he agreed with the case. Chief Justice Roberts, during his confirmation, said he agreed with the case.…”