Supreme Court Nominee Calls Trump’s Attacks On Judiciary ‘Demoralizing’

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Publish Date:
February 8, 2017
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The New York Times
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Summary

Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, privately expressed dismay on Wednesday over Mr. Trump’s increasingly aggressive attacks on the judiciary, calling the president’s criticism of independent judges “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”

The remarks by Judge Gorsuch, chosen by Mr. Trump last week to serve on the nation’s highest court, came as the president lashed out at the federal appellate judges who are considering a challenge to his executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The president called their judicial proceedings “disgraceful” and described the courts as “so political.”

“This is highly unusual,” said Michael W. McConnell, a former federal judge who directs the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford University. “Mr. Trump is shredding longstanding norms of etiquette and interbranch comity.”

Mr. McConnell called Mr. Trump’s comments “extremely self-defeating and self-destructive” because of their potential to sway judges to rule against Mr. Trump.

“Judges who hear criticism of this sort are not going to be inclined to knuckle under; it’s going to stiffen their spines to be even more independent,” said Mr. McConnell, who was nominated to his judgeship by President George W. Bush.

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