Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, fresh off his bitch slap of Diane Feinstein took out Sen Sheldon Whitehouse today. Whitehouse tried to get Gorsuch to agree with him that the donors who contributed 10 million to help get him confirmed should be named publicly. Current law does not allow that. Funny Whitehouse never asked that of Kagan or Sotomayor, both of whom had much bigger war chests.
Whitehouse persisted but Gorsuch explained that his job was to interpret the law and decide on it’s constitutionality. He told Whitehouse that if he wants the names of the donors, it’s his job to pass a law that would allow it.
“We have this $10 million that is being spent on behalf of your confirmation,” the Rhode Island Democrat posed to President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. “Do you think for instance, that we on this panel ought to know who is behind that?”
Gorsuch responded by noting “that’s a policy question for this body.”
“Well, it’s also a question of disclosure,” Whitehouse continued. “You could ask right now that as a matter of courtesy, as a matter of respect to the process, that anybody funding this should declare themselves so that we can evaluate who is behind this effort, right?”
“That wouldn’t be a policy determination. That would be your values determination.”
“It would be a politics question,” Gorsuch answered. “I’m not, with all due respect, Senator, going to get involved in politics.”
“If this body wishes to pass legislation, that’s a political question for this body, and there’s ample room for this body to pass disclosure laws for dark money or anything else it wishes to, that can be tested in the courts, so Senator, with all due respect, the ball’s in your court.”