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STATEMENT: Senate Must Demand Answers About SCOTUS Nominee Gorsuch, His Time at DOJ, and Ability to Serve as Independent Check to President Trump
Press Statement

STATEMENT: Senate Must Demand Answers About SCOTUS Nominee Gorsuch, His Time at DOJ, and Ability to Serve as Independent Check to President Trump

Advancing Racial Equity and Justice, Restoring Social Trust in Democracy, Courts

Washington, D.C. — On Monday, the Senate will consider the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. President Donald Trump, who nominated Judge Gorsuch, has promised to bring back waterboarding and “much worse” forms of torture by the government. A recently disclosed document shows that Judge Gorsuch himself signed a brief in 2006 defending Bush administration officials from a lawsuit by people claiming they were tortured by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib and other military facilities in Iraq or Afghanistan. This brief argued that these detainees could not seek to enforce the Geneva Convention in federal courts—an argument rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

Responding to the news in several outlets about Judge Gorsuch’s substantial involvement in national security issues at the U.S. Department of Justice under President George W. Bush, Legal Progress Vice President Michele Jawando issued the following statement:

Serious concerns have been raised about whether Judge Gorsuch would serve as an independent check on any unconstitutional executive orders from President Trump. The American people are demanding that he provide answers about his work for the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush. The Bush DOJ argued that the president had nearly unlimited authority over anything he said was necessary for national security, including the power to indefinitely detain and even torture anyone they deemed a “combatant” in the War on Terror.

The Senate must demand answers from Gorsuch before even considering whether to confirm him. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has demanded more information on Judge Gorsuch’s involvement in this case and other national security cases. This is vital because when Judge Jay Bybee was confirmed to a seat on the 9th Circuit in 2003, U.S. senators did not know that he had signed a memo authorizing waterboarding and other forms of torture by the executive branch. The 9th Circuit halted President Trump’s second version of the Muslim Ban last night, but Judge Bybee dissented, arguing that the ban was legal. With all of these questions about Trump’s unconstitutional actions, the Senate must know more about Judge Gorsuch’s involvement in DOJ’s arguments that the president had nearly unlimited authority over anything he deemed necessary for national security.

Center for American Progress experts are available to speak on this topic. To coordinate, please contact Tanya Arditi at tarditi@americanprogress.org or 202-741-6258.

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