Facing his sixth hour of questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Neil Gorsuch seemed to get a little unnerved when he was asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., about his originalist interpretation of the Constitution — a document, Klobuchar noted, that refers to the president as male.
“When the Constitution refers 30-some-odd times as ‘his’ or ‘he’ when describing the president of the United States, you would see that as, ‘Well, back then they actually thought a woman could be president of the United States even though women didn’t have a right to vote’?” Klobuchar asked.
“Senator, I’m not looking to take us back to quill pens and horses and buggies,” Gorsuch said. “We live in the 21st century.”
Klobuchar then asked the 49-year-old federal judge from Colorado to answer her question.
“Of course women could be president of the United States!” Gorsuch growled. “I’m the father of two daughters, and I hope one of them turns out to be president.”
Gorsuch is a member of the Federalist Society, a group of conservative and libertarian law scholars who believe in a textualist or originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whom Gorsuch was nominated to replace, was a leading member of the group.
“The Constitution is no less protective of the people’s liberties than it was 200 years ago,” he said.
The exchange wasn’t the first time women’s rights were raised during Gorsuch’s hearing.
Earlier in the day, Gorsuch told Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that he was never asked by President Trump if he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case protecting a woman’s right to an abortion.
“No, sir,” Gorsuch replied. “Senator, I would have walked out the door. It’s not what judges do.”
Gorsuch, who serves an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Law School, also dismissed the claim by a former student that he showed a lack of respect for women during a classroom discussion last spring about gender roles in the workplace.
In a letter to the committee, the student, Jennifer R. Sisk, said Gorsuch had implied that “he believes many female job applicants unfairly manipulate companies by hiding plans to begin families.”
Via the Associated Press:
Federal law bans employers from making hiring decisions based on a woman’s plans to start a family. But Sisk, who worked for the Obama administration’s Interior Department and Democratic former Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, said Gorsuch emphasized that employers may legally ask the question — and that they do so to protect their companies.
During the hearing, Gorsuch explained that he had asked students if they had endured this “inappropriate question.”
“I am shocked it still happens every year that I get women, not men, raising their hand,” Gorsuch said.
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