Supreme Court

Judge Gorsuch's Law School Résumé Under Scrutiny

Could there be some exaggerating going on here?

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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Donald Trump lauded Judge Gorsuch’s work with the less fortunate while in law school. It was a little nugget intended to appeal to those worried that the latest Supreme Court nominee might be some sort of heartless, right-wing automaton singularly focused on rolling back the rights of women and minorities. “See, he can’t be too bad, he volunteered to work with the poor!” In the end, we’ll all let his record as a jurist speak for itself, but it’s one of those things presidents say about nominees to help craft the narrative.

Unfortunately, no one seems to remember the Judge’s volunteerism.

Yet for “roughly three dozen students who participated in the two programs while Mr. Gorsuch was at Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991,” they have no memory of Gorsuch ever being involved, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal.

Could this be yet another boneheaded misstep by the Trump administration? It certainly seems like it. When the Journal confronted the White House with this problem, their only defense was to refer the paper to one county prosecutor:

“What I am prepared to do is corroborate that Neil Gorsuch was in the Harvard Defenders,” Edel told the Journal. “I have a specific recollection of talking to him about one case, but I don’t want to go into the details… I’d like to leave it there.”

Hardly a resounding confirmation.

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Ultimately, this doesn’t really matter. If he never did anything with these groups it would indicate a fundamental dishonesty worth worrying about, but my guess is Judge Gorsuch attended training and probably took a matter or two and quit. Whether or not Judge Gorsuch padded his résumé by playing up the extent of his actual involvement in a couple of student groups two decades ago doesn’t bear on his fitness for the Court today.

But making this law school work a highlight of Trump’s remarks does serve as yet another reminder that this administration is dangerously incompetent and can’t help but commit unforced error after unforced error.

Which is a shame, because the victims of Bowling Green deserve better from their government.

Few Recall Gorsuch’s Volunteer Work at Harvard [Wall Street Journal]
Questions arise about Neil Gorsuch’s volunteer claims while at Harvard Law School [Salon]

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