Sen. Sasse: Gorsuch Condemned Attacks On ‘Brothers Or Sisters Of The Robe’

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 12: Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., listens as Secretary of Defense nominee James Mattis testifies during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017. (P... UNITED STATES - JANUARY 12: Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., listens as Secretary of Defense nominee James Mattis testifies during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) MORE LESS
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Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch apparently further criticized President Donald Trump’s attacks on the judiciary in a meeting with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE).

Sasse said on “Morning Joe” on Thursday that Gorsuch told him that any attack on “brothers or sisters of the robe” is an attack on all judges.

A day earlier, Gorsuch made news in another meeting, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), for saying Trump’s attacks on Judge James Robart were “disheartening” and “demoralizing.” Robart put a nationwide temporary hold on Trump’s immigration order. Trump responded by calling Robart a “so-called judge.”

“Disheartening is a great word,” Sasse said of Trump’s criticism. “Judge Gorsuch and I actually talked about that, and frankly he got pretty passionate about it. I asked him about the ‘so-called judges’ comment, because we don’t have so-called judges or so-called presidents or so-called senators, and this is a guy who kind of welled up with some energy and he said any attack on any of — I think his term to me was ‘brothers or sisters of the robe’ is an attack on all judges, and he believes in an independent judiciary.”

“And I think what I saw in that guy was he got some energy about it, was this isn’t about somebody who’s just been nominated to Supreme Court,” Sasse continued. “This is a guy who if he were on traffic court in Colorado, or in Nebraska, would have the same view.”

Sasse said that Gorsuch’s comments and understanding of the separation of powers are reason to support his nomination for the high court.

On Thursday, Trump attacked Blumenthal on Twitter—“now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?”—seemingly in response to Blumenthal going public with Gorsuch’s statements.

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  1. Avatar for denisj denisj says:

    This is going to be very interesting! Will Trump withdraw the nomination? What will the judge be willing to say in public hearings? The D’s have a huge opportunity to force public statements that might cause major ripples in the public discourse and Trumps hope that the ACA includes mental health benefits.

  2. See, the problem for me is this: Scalia would have said the same thing. And Scalia is hardly a good role model for SCOTUS judge in my book.

    So, even if he did say this stuff, it does NOT mean that he won’t be a flaming narrow-minded asshole just like Scalia.

  3. Wouldn’t it be easier and much less painful to just withdraw ?

  4. Trump: You Lie.

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