TURLEY TESTIFIES IN SENATE GORSUCH CONFIRMATION HEARING

This morning I will testify at the confirmation hearing on the nomination of the Hon. Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court.  The hearing will commence around 9 am at the hearing room of Hart 216. Ironically, it is the same room that I litigated much of the Porteous impeachment case before final arguments before the 100 Senators on the Senate floor.  Below is my written testimony.

The Committee has assembled an impressive array of witnesses to discuss Judge Gorsuch’s background and jurisprudence. I will focus my remarks on two specific areas. First, there has been a long debate over the proper standard or criteria for evaluating a nominee for the Supreme Court. Exploring many of these past criteria reveal an exceptionally strong nominee in Neil Gorsuch. Second, while many of Judge Gorsuch’s views are likely to overlap with those of Justice Scalia, the one area of likely divergence would be his approach to agency decisionmaking and the Chevron doctrine. I will address cases that are illustrative of Judge Gorsuch’s views on agency review, statutory interpretation, and more generally the Separation of Powers: Hwang v. Kansas State University, Elwell v. Oklahoma, ex rel. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 693 F.3d 1303, 1313 (10th Cir. 2012), De Niz Robles v. Lynch, Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, United States v. Nichols, and TransAm Trucking, Inc. v. Administrative Review Board. These cases reveal a powerful intellect and voice committed to core principles of constitutional law. Judge Gorsuch’s would bring valuable and needed contributions to both of these areas. We stand at a critical crossroad for the country with fundamental changes occurring in our constitutional system. There could not be a better time for the addition of a justice who has a deep understanding and fealty to the original design of our government. I believe that Judge Gorsuch is such a nominee.

The panel of expert witnesses will include Mr. Jeff Lamken (Partner, MoloLamken); Professor Lawrence Solum (Georgetown University); Professor Jonathan Turley (GW Law School); Ms. Karen Harned (Executive Director, National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center); Ms. Heather McGhee (President, Demos); Ms. Fatima Goss Grave (National Women’s Law Center); Pat Gallagher (Sierra Club); Ms. Eve Hill (Brown Goldstein Levy).

Here is my testimony: Testimony.Turley.Gorsuch.Senate Judiciary

I want to thank Thomas Huff and Seth Tate for some late night proofing of this testimony.