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East Oregonian
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
GORSUCH: Conservative Coloradan judge in image of Scalia
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the right’s most powerful voice on
the high court.
With Scalia’s wife, Maureen,
sitting in the audience, Trump
took care to praise the late justice.
Gorsuch followed, calling Scalia a
“lion of the law.”
Gorsuch thanked Trump for
entrusting him with “a most solemn
assignment.” Outlining his legal
philosophy, he said: “It is the rule of
judges to apply, not alter, the work
of the people’s representatives. A
judge who likes every outcome he
reaches is very likely a bad judge.”
Some Democrats, still smarting
over Trump’s unexpected victory
in the presidential election, have
vowed to mount a vigorous chal-
lenge to nearly any nominee to what
they view as the court’s “stolen
seat.”
President Barack Obama nomi-
nated U.S. Circuit Court Judge
Merrick Garland for the vacancy
after Scalia’s death, but Senate
Republicans refused to consider the
pick, saying the seat should be filled
only after the November election.
Senate
Democratic
leader
Charles Schumer said he has
“serious doubts” that Gorsuch is
within what Democrats consider
the legal mainstream, saying he
“hewed to an ideological approach
to jurisprudence that makes me
skeptical that he can be a strong,
independent justice on the court.”
Trump’s choice of Gorsuch
marks perhaps the most significant
decision of his young presidency,
one with ramifications that could
last long after he leaves office. After
a reality television buildup to Tues-
day’s announcement — including
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Judge Neil Gorsuch
in East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, as he
announces Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court.
a senior Trump adviser saying
more than one court candidate was
heading to Washington ahead of
the event— the actual reveal was
traditional and drama-free.
For some Republicans, the
prospect of filling one or more
Supreme Court seats over the next
four years has helped ease their
concerns about Trump’s experience
and temperament.
Three justices are in their late
70s and early 80s, and a retirement
would offer Trump the opportunity
to cement conservative dominance
of the court for many years.
Gorsuch would restore the court
to the conservative tilt it held with
Scalia on the bench. But he is not
expected to call into question
high-profile rulings on abortion,
gay marriage and other issues in
which the court has been divided
5-4 in recent years.
If confirmed, Gorsuch would
join the court that is often the final
arbiter for presidential policy.
Justices upheld Obama’s signature
health care law in 2012 and could
eventually hear arguments over
Trump’s controversial refugee and
immigration executive order.
Gorsuch’s writings outside the
court offer insight into his conser-
vative leanings. He lashed out at
liberals in a 2005 opinion piece for
National Review, written before he
became a federal judge.
“American liberals have become
addicted to the courtroom, relying
on judges and lawyers rather than
elected leaders and the ballot box,
as the primary means for effecting
their social agenda on everything
from gay marriage to assisted
suicide to the use of vouchers
for private-school education,” he
wrote.
Gorsuch has won praise from
conservatives for his defense of
religious freedom, including in a
case involving the Hobby Lobby
craft stores. He voted in favor of
privately held for-profit secular
corporations, and individuals
who owned or controlled them,
who raised religious objections to
paying for contraception for women
covered under their health plans.
The judge also has written
opinions that question 30 years of
Supreme Court rulings that allow
federal agencies to interpret laws
and regulations. Gorsuch has said
that federal bureaucrats have been
allowed to accumulate too much
power at the expense of Congress
and the courts.
Like Scalia, Gorsuch identifies
himself as a judge who tries to
decide cases by interpreting the
Constitution and laws as they were
understood when written.
He also has raised questions
about criminal laws in a way that
resembles Scalia’s approach to
criminal law.
University of Michigan law
professor Richard Primus said
Gorsuch “may be the closest thing
the new generation of conservative
judges has to Antonin Scalia.”
Gorsuch, like the other eight
justices on the court, has an Ivy
League law degree. The Colorado
native earned his bachelor’s degree
CHOLERA: Harvested birds can be
eaten, but should be cooked thoroughly
Continued from 1A
Avian cholera is a bacte-
rial disease that spreads
through bird-to-bird contact,
ingestion of food or water
containing the bacteria or
by scavenging infected
carcasses. The bacteria can
survive in soil and water
for up to four months,
according to the USGS.
Humans are not at high
risk of infection, though
Reishus said people should
avoid handling dead birds.
Because the disease kills
waterfowl so quickly,
Reishus said it is unlikely
hunters have killed any
sick birds. However, as
a
precaution,
hunters
should wear gloves when
cleaning harvested ducks
or geese and disinfect their
waders and decoys to avoid
spreading the bacteria.
Harvested birds can still
be eaten, but should be
cooked thoroughly, Reishus
said. Hunting season for
ducks and geese closed
across the region on Sunday.
Reishus said avian
cholera tends to hit areas
from Columbia University in three
years, then a law degree from
Harvard. He clerked for Supreme
Court Justices Byron White, a
fellow Coloradan, and Anthony
Kennedy before earning a philos-
ophy degree at Oxford University
and working for a prominent Wash-
ington law firm.
He served for two years in
George W. Bush’s Department of
Justice before Bush nominated him
to the appeals court. His mother
was Anne Gorsuch Burford, who
was head of the Environmental
Protection Agency in the Reagan
administration.
Gorsuch was among the 21
possible choices for the court Trump
released during the campaign.
Other finalists also came from that
list, including Thomas Hardiman,
who serves alongside Trump’s
sister on the Philadelphia-based 3rd
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and
William Pryor, a federal appeals
court judge and Alabama’s attorney
general from 1997 to 2004.
If Democrats decide to filibuster
Gorsuch’s nomination, his fate
could rest in the hands of Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump has encouraged McConnell
to change the rules of the Senate
and make it impossible to filibuster
a Supreme Court nominee — a
change known in the Senate as the
“nuclear option.”
A conservative group already has
announced plans to begin airing $2
million worth of ads in support of
the nominee in Indiana, Missouri,
Montana and North Dakota, four
states that Trump won and in which
Democrats will be defending their
Senate seats in 2018.
PENDLETON
where ducks and geese are
heavily concentrated. The
Columbia Basin has always
been a major wintering area
for mallards, he said, and
this year’s colder-than-usual
winter may be clustering
birds even closer together
than in years past.
ODFW is asking the
public to report sick or dead
birds by calling 1-866-968-
2600 or email wildlife.
health@state.or.us.
———
Contact George Plaven
at 541-966-0825.
PARK: Hermiston currently without rec director
Continued from 1A
ration work,” he said.
On the recreation side
of things, Hermiston is
currently missing its recre-
ation director after Dan
Earp left for a job at a larger
parks department in Carson
City, Nevada. Fetter said
he received 32 qualified
applications, however, and
has narrowed them down to
five applicants that he plans
to interview Monday.
If parents are looking for
more recreational oppor-
tunities for their children
after being cooped up for
so much of the winter,
Fetter suggested they bring
them to auditions for the
Missoula Children’s Theater
production of “Princess
and the Pea,” sponsored by
the Desert Arts Council.
Auditions are Feb. 20 at
the Hermiston Conference
Center at 3 p.m., with a
performance date of Feb.
25 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at
Hermiston High School.
Tickets will be available
at the conference center or
the parks and recreation
department.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Democrats force delays in votes
on three Cabinet nominees
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Senate Democrats
blocked committee votes on
three of President Donald
Trump’s
highest-profile
Cabinet picks Tuesday as
spiraling partisan hostility
over the fledgling adminis-
tration’s refugee curbs and
other initiatives seemed to
seep into Congress’ work
on nominations.
In an unusual step, Demo-
crats boycotted planned
Senate Finance Committee
votes on Rep. Tom Price,
R-Ga., to become health
secretary and financier
Steven Mnuchin to head
the Treasury Department.
They accused both men of
lying about their financial
backgrounds, and since
committee rules require at
least one Democrat to be
present, Republicans could
not hold roll calls.
“He didn’t tell the truth,”
the committee’s top Demo-
crat, Sen. Ron Wyden of
Oregon, said of reports that
Price received preferential
treatment in purchasing
stock in a biotech company.
“He misled the Congress
and he misled the American
people.”
The tactic infuriated
Republicans, even though
the GOP boycotted a
committee vote on Gina
McCarthy to head the
Environmental Protection
Agency in 2013 when
Democrats ran the Senate.
“They ought to stop
posturing and acting like
idiots,” said committee
Chairman Orrin Hatch,
R-Utah. “Are they that
bitter about Donald Trump?
The answer has to be yes.”
At the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Democrats crit-
icized Sen. Jeff Sessions,
R-Ala., Trump’s nominee
for attorney general, in
speeches that lasted as long
as 30 minutes apiece.
After
four-and-a-half
hours, panel Chairman
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa,
adjourned the session
and set a new meeting for
Wednesday.
“He’s been the fiercest,
most dedicated defender
in Congress of the Trump
agenda,”
California’s
Dianne Feinstein, the senior
Democrat on Judiciary, said
of Sessions.
The clashes came as the
opening days of the Trump
administration have seen
little of the honeymoon
period new presidents
usually experience. The
chief battleground has been
Trump’s executive order
temporarily blocking refu-
gees worldwide and anyone
from seven Muslim-ma-
jority nations.
With liberal groups
pressing them to fight
Trump and a brutal battle
looming over his imminent
pick for the Supreme
Court vacancy, Tuesday’s
delaying tactics let Demo-
crats signal they will use
their limited power as the
congressional minority to
hamper the GOP.
Republicans said they
would try reconvening
the Finance committee
Wednesday to see if Demo-
crats would cooperate.
Hatch planned to discuss
the standoff with Wyden.
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
all but taunted Democrats
in remarks to reporters. “It
is time to get over the fact
that they lost the election,”
he said. “The president is
entitled to have his Cabinet
appointments considered.
None of this is going to lead
to a different outcome.”
Price, Mnuchin and
Sessions still seem certain
to win eventual Senate
confirmation, and other
nominees made progress.
The
full
Senate
confirmed Elaine Chao to
be transportation secretary,
while committees advanced
three other Trump picks,
including wealthy GOP
contributor Betsy DeVos to
head the Education Depart-
ment.
Price and Mnuchin have
said they’ve done nothing
wrong and Republican
lawmakers have stood by
them.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Another shovelful
Sam Larsen, 6, of Pendleton is followed by his father, Travis, as he shovels snow
from the sidewalk in front of neighbors’ houses on Northwest Fourth Street on
Tuesday in Pendleton.
BRIEFLY
AP Source: Yates
troubled that order
disadvantaged
Muslims
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Acting Attorney
General Sally Yates, fired
by President Donald Trump,
has told others she refused
to enforce his executive
order on refugees because
she felt it was intended to
disadvantage Muslims,
according to a person
familiar with her thinking.
Yates knew that her firing
was likely, but she did not
want to resign and leave
the problem unresolved for
another lawyer to deal with,
according to the person, who
is familiar with the situation
but was not authorized to
discuss it by name. The
person spoke about Yates
to The Associated Press on
Tuesday.
Trump fired Yates
Monday night in an abrupt
move that has sent a clear
message to his future
Cabinet about his tolerance
for public dissent.
The president will soon
have in place like-minded
political appointees, not
officials inherited from the
Obama administration like
Yates, who refused to allow
the Justice Department to
defend his immigration
orders in court. And the
Trump appointees surely
will be less inclined to
publicly disagree with him.
But his haste in firing a
top holdover official, his
spokesman’s admonishment
that career employees
should “either get with the
program or go” and Trump’s
comments about issues he
wants federal prosecutors
to investigate all illustrate
how he moves aggressively
to ensure his directives
are carried out, even at
agencies like the Justice
Department that cherish
their independence.
Over the decades, there
has “been respect for
the independence of the
Justice Department as a law
enforcement agency,” said
Bill Baer, a high-ranking
department official during
the Obama administration.
“There is reason for grave
concern that the incoming
president views the Justice
Department just as another
political weapon to go after
people who disagree with
him.”
White House spokesman
Sean Spicer said Yates was
“rightfully removed” from
“a position of leadership.”