Sen. Angus King is said to be considering the record of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch carefully before he decides whether to support him. Sen. Susan Collins will likely support Judge Gorsuch regardless of his record.
Maybe Sen. King should consider Gorsuch’s remarks to a law school class he taught — that women applying for law firm jobs should be grilled extensively on their plans to start a family, because, according to the judge, it’s widely known that women “manipulate” the interview process.
Maybe the so-called “frozen trucker case” will give King pause. In that case, a truck driver was fired for detaching his tractor from a trailer with frozen brakes. He had sought shelter when he faced hypothermia after three hours in subfreezing temperatures. Seven judges heard Alphonse Maddin’s case and six found that Maddin did not deserve to get fired. Gorsuch thought that he did.
After that decision in August 2016, Gorsuch, who had not been on candidate Trump’s first list of potential nominees, found himself near the top of the second list in September (after Trump delegated the vetting process to the right-wing Federalist Society). Coincidence?
I hope Sen. King will consider the bias that decision shows and vote against cloture of the filibuster of the Gorsuch nomination. The person nominated for the seat that President Obama had the constitutional right to fill should receive at least the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. If Judge Gorsuch can’t get 60 votes, he should get out.
Renee Cote, Auburn
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