Washington owes Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch an apology
By Jonathan Turley, opinion contributor — 06/25/19 10:00 AM EDT
“In our constitutional order, a vague law is no law at all.†Those words began one of the most important decisions of this Supreme Court term, in United States v. Davis. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court sided with a habitual offender in striking down an ambiguous provision allowing enhanced penalties for a “crime of violence.â€
The author of that sweeping decision in favor of a criminal defendant’s rights was Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s first nominee to the Supreme Court. I testified at Gorsuch’s Senate hearing in 2017, favoring his confirmation despite unrelenting attacks on him being a “rubber stamp†and an ideologue. Gorsuch has proven his detractors wrong and, as this term already has proven, he has emerged as one of the most consistent, courageous and principled voices on the Supreme Court. Indeed, a number of senators and pundits in Washington owe Gorsuch an apology for their attacks on someone who is building a legacy that could be one of the most lasting on the Supreme Court.
Gorsuch has been fascinating to watch the last two years. He has departed repeatedly from the right of the Supreme Court to do what he considers to be the right thing. He remains a conservative justice but, like predecessor Antonin Scalia, he has shown a sense of his own “true north†judicial compass. In doing so, he has often made both the left and right of the Supreme Court seem shallow and predictable in their rigidity.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/450163-washington-owes-supreme-court-justice-neil-gorsuch-an-apology
