{"id":7279,"date":"2017-04-06T06:34:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T10:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7279"},"modified":"2017-04-06T06:46:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T10:46:01","slug":"talking-some-gorsuch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7279","title":{"rendered":"talking some gorsuch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You know (\u2026 and for the record, I know \u201cyou know\u201d isn\u2019t the wisest way to begin a blog post\u2026),<\/em> but you know, I don\u2019t mind talking about politics. Granted, I don\u2019t always like<\/em> politics, but I don\u2019t mind talking about it. I don\u2019t mind talking about politics or even\u00a0the icky, sticky, controversial issues, as long, of course, as it’s done respectfully.<\/p>\n

What I do mind are (1) the inability<\/em> to talk about political issues \u2014 when ignorance, intolerance, or some other attitude or emotion shuts down all other points of view \u2014 and (2) playing<\/em> politics.<\/p>\n

In that context, I\u2019d like to \u201ctalk some Gorsuch” today. While I often chuckle with the proper noun sounding more like some foreign, foreign language to me, I instead speak of Neil Gorsuch, the 49 year old federal appellate judge and current candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Before we can \u201ctalk some Gorsuch,\u201d we need to address two additional, relevant aspects. First, we need to remember the procedure for affirming a Supreme Court justice. Second, we need to acknowledge the judicial ongoings of the past year.<\/p>\n

First, as set forth by the Constitution, candidates for the high court are nominated by the President, with the \u201cAdvice and Consent of the Senate\u201d necessary for appointment. Note that the Constitution does not set forth any actual qualifications for service; therefore, the President may nominate the person of his choice.<\/p>\n

While not everyone nominated by the President has received a floor vote in the Senate, a nominee’s confirmation may be prolonged via the filibuster. Regardless, the Senate typically confirms the President\u2019s nominee unless there exist serious, outstanding questions and concerns. Ideological differences or dislike for the nominating President are characteristically not enough to deny confirmation. (ie. Pres. Ronald Reagan\u2019s nominee, Justice Anthony Kennedy, was confirmed in \u201988 by a vote of 97-0; Pres. Bill Clinton\u2019s nominee, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, was confirmed in \u201993 by a vote of 96-3; and the last nominee to be rejected was in 1987.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Second, remember what happened solely\u00a0one year ago. Justice Antonin Scalia was considered as \u201cthe intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Court’s conservative wing,\u201d but he passed away unexpectedly in February of 2016. As is his purview, President Obama then nominated appellate judge Merrick Garland to succeed Scalia. Noting that ideological differences are not disqualifiers, Garland was fully qualified to be the next member of the Supreme Court. Senate Republican leadership denied him both\u00a0hearings and\u00a0a vote; they denied Garland\u2019s mere consideration as a justice, proclaiming\u00a0the next president should make the choice\u2026 a president, who would be inaugurated almost a year later.<\/p>\n

In the Intramuralist\u2019s semi-humble but honest opinion, the Senate Republican leadership played<\/em> politics. There were no serious, outstanding concerns regarding Garland.<\/p>\n

Now to \u201ctalking Gorsuch”\u2026<\/p>\n

Like Scalia, Neil Gorsuch is a proponent of textualism and originalism of the Constitution. His fairness and temperament have been raved about from all sides of the proverbial, partisan aisle. By all accounts, Gorsuch is also fully qualified to be the next member of the Supreme Court.\u00a0The Senate Democratic leadership, however, has decided this week to oppose him.<\/p>\n

In the Intramuralist\u2019s again semi-humble but honest opinion, the Senate Democratic leadership is taking its turn,\u00a0playing<\/em> politics.<\/p>\n

So now the Republican leadership in the Senate plans to change the rules in lowering the threshold for the number of votes necessary for confirmation. Before the immediate grimace at the obvious, partisan rule manipulation, note\u00a0that the Democratic leadership changed the threshold rules three years ago when they<\/em> were in the majority. Unfortunately, though, too many of us only jeer or cheer based on who<\/em> is doing the rule changing. If it was wrong for one, it’s wrong for both, and thus, neither party can claim to be handling the confirmation process with total honesty, integrity, and even semi-<\/em>humility.<\/p>\n

Friends, I have no desire to be harsh; it’s simply that the Intramuralist so\u00a0desires what is good and true and right. The challenge is when either the Republicans or Democrats play<\/em> politics, they each engage in something less than that.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear: \u00a0both parties too often engage in something less than what is good, true, and right.<\/p>\n

Wanting something more\u2026 wanting something better\u2026 always, regardless of party\u2026<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know (\u2026 and for the record, I know \u201cyou know\u201d isn\u2019t the wisest way to begin a blog post\u2026), but you know, I don\u2019t mind talking about politics. Granted, I don\u2019t always like politics, but I don\u2019t mind talking about it. I don\u2019t mind talking about politics or even\u00a0the icky, sticky, controversial issues, as … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “talking some gorsuch”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[621],"class_list":["post-7279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-neil-gorsuch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7279"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7288,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279\/revisions\/7288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}