Asked about Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that guaranteed abortion rights nationwide, Judge Neil Gorsuch stopped short Tuesday of fully endorsing the decision, but suggested he would “consider it as precedent” and viewed it as “worthy as treatment of precedent like any other. “
“It has been reaffirmed, the reliance interest considerations are important there, and all of the other factors that go into analyzing precedent have to be considered. It is a precedent of the United States Supreme Court,” Gorsuch said at the second day of his confirmation hearings. “It was reaffirmed in Casey in 1992, and in several other cases. So a good judge will consider it as precedent of the United States Supreme Court worthy as treatment of precedent like any other. “
The comments came in a line of questions from Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that sought to inoculate Gorsuch from questions from Democratic senators that would probe him on controversial cases. Grassley also asked him about controversial rulings on gun rights, campaign finance and other issues, and Gorsuch responded by opining broadly about precedent while arguing that divulging his personal views on these cases would hinder is abilities as a judge.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the top Dem on the committee, returned to the Roe v. Wade decision in her questioning and pointed to comments made by Trump on the campaign trailing vowing to appoint a Supreme Court justice who would overturn the ruling.
Gorsuch elaborated on what he told Feinstein in their private meeting earlier on in the confirmation process.
“Part of the value of precedent, it has lots of value, it has value in and of itself because it’s our history, and our history has value intrinsically. But it also has an instrumental value in this sense: it adds to the determinacy of law,” Gorsuch said. “We have lots of tools that allow us to narrow the realm of admissible dispute between parties. So that we can — people can anticipate and organize their affairs.”
