At 11:00 a.m. EDT on Monday, March 20, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its hearing on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. SCOTUSblog will live-blog the entire hearing. Below the jump is an overview of the blog’s coverage of the nomination up to this point.
Before the official nomination, as reports suggested that Gorsuch was a leading contender, Eric Citron analyzed the judge’s key decisions on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and I provided a biographical sketch.
On the night of the nomination, a team of staffers live-blogged, Amy Howe reported on the announcement, Mark Walsh provided a “view” from the East Room, and Molly Runkle rounded-up early coverage and commentary. That night and over the course of the week, the blog also gathered and posted reactions to the nomination from politicians and interest groups, Gorsuch’s extra-judicial writings and speeches and his decisions on the 10th Circuit.
Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the former special counsel to Sen. Patrick Leahy and the Senate Judiciary Committee for the nominations of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, outlined the confirmation process and explained what procedural opportunities Democratic senators may have to delay or prevent confirmation. Molly and I reported on early statements and actions from key Senate leaders, administration players and outside groups.
At his request, the blog published an op-ed from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Amy reported on Gorsuch’s Senate questionnaire. Stephen Wermiel wrote an explainer for his regular feature, “SCOTUS for law students,” on attempts to predict how a nominee might vote on particular issues and cases in the future. Mark reviewed cert memos – memoranda written by law clerks recommending a grant or denial in petitions for a writ of certiorari – from Gorsuch’s time as a law clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy and retired Justice Byron White.
The blog, along with lawyers from the law firm of Goldstein & Russell, P.C., produced a series of posts examining Gorsuch’s views on a variety of topics to provide a sense of how Gorsuch might change the court, if at all. Amy introduced the series. Edith Roberts analyzed Gorsuch’s jurisprudence on arbitration, Tejinder Singh on the First Amendment, Kevin Russell on civil rights and separation of powers and federalism, Eric on administrative law, and Amy on class actions, abortion, religion and reproductive rights, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and the Fourth Amendment. I also posted a collection of links to helpful outside coverage and commentary.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY