Senator Elizabeth Warren joins the People's Defense to oppose the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on the court steps on March 9. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Democrats step up anti-Gorsuch efforts amid liberal pressure

Senate Democrats revved up their Supreme Court message machine on Wednesday, orchestrating back-to-back hits on President Donald Trump’s nominee — even as their leader declined to predict a successful filibuster of conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren headlined separate anti-Gorsuch events on Wednesday, ramping up Democrats’ criticism of Gorsuch on the Senate’s last legislative day before his confirmation hearings begin on Monday.


The action comes amid intensifying pressure from liberals, who are frustrated the well-liked judge has had a relatively smooth ride through the confirmation ringer. Underscoring the political stakes for Democrats eager to appease a restive base, Schumer vowed to fight Gorsuch and said he has a “strong presumption against” the nominee.

But Schumer also declined to say whether Democrats would deny Republicans the eight votes needed to break an expected filibuster of Gorsuch’s nomination on the Senate floor. “Each member will make his or her own decision,” Schumer said.

Warren and fellow Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey rallied with liberal activists in below-freezing temperatures outside the Supreme Court to hammer home their party’s central critique of Gorsuch: that his record shows a consistent preference for corporate interests.

After the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, “giant corporations and their right-wing buddies spent millions of dollars to keep that Supreme Court seat open so that Donald Trump could name a replacement,” Warren said to cheers.

Trump “promised to help these giant corporations and their big donors out” while campaigning, Warren added, and the president “paid off on that promise” by nominating Gorsuch to the high court.

Schumer sounded a similar note later Wednesday as he appeared alongside Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and four individuals who they said had been harmed by Gorsuch’s decisions. The Democratic duo blasted Gorsuch’s rulings in key cases on disability discrimination and other workers’ rights issues in an event that had been in the works for weeks.

“He campaigned and talks about helping average folks,” Schumer said of Trump. “His first nominee to the Supreme Court has an instinctive reaction to side with big, special corporate interests over average folks.”

One of the cases highlighted by Senate Democrats was Hwang v. Kansas State, in which Gorsuch wrote the majority ruling against Grace Hwang, a cancer patient and university employee who sued the school after she was denied an extension of her six-month leave of absence.

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“Ms. Hwang’s is a terrible problem, one in no way of her own making, but it’s a problem other forms of social security aim to address,” Gorsuch wrote in the ruling. “The Rehabilitation Act seeks to prevent employers from callously denying reasonable accommodations that permit otherwise qualified disabled persons to work — not to turn employers into safety net providers for those who cannot work.”

Hwang died last year. Her two children — David and Katherine — appeared at Wednesday’s news conference, tearfully speaking about Gorsuch’s decision.

“When Judge Gorsuch issued his ruling, he didn’t think about the impact that this had on our family,” Katherine Hwang said as her voice broke. “Our only source of income was lost. We had to rely on loans from friends, disability and jobs my brother and I have.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, center, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, right hold a news conference in opposition to Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch at the on March 15 in Washington, D.C. | Getty

Even as he stopped short of predicting that Gorsuch’s nomination could be stopped, Schumer said he sees “a great deal of skepticism in the caucus about Judge Gorsuch based on his record, and the brave testimony of you four folks is going to further, further put questions in people’s heads about whether” Gorsuch merits confirmation.

Senate Republicans pushed back on Democrats’ messaging, including by circulating a 2009 quote from Schumer that suggests he is applying a different standard for Gorsuch than for Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“Sotomayor has hewed carefully to the text of statutes, even when doing so results in rulings that go against so-called sympathetic litigants.” Schumer said in 2009 during the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Sotomayor, a fellow New Yorker.

One of Gorsuch’s former clerks, Jamil Jaffer, also put out a statement accusing Democrats of “cherry-picking and mischaracterizing” Gorsuch’s judicial record.

"The reality is that Judge Gorsuch is a highly qualified, mainstream nominee with a ten-year record of applying the law in a fair and evenhanded manner to anyone that comes before him,” Jaffer said. “Indeed, his mainstream record is a primary reason he has twice received the ABA's highest rating for a judge and why he is widely respected across party and ideological lines.”

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, chief of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, which may have to defend red-state caucus members who back Gorsuch, said the nominee would have a chance to respond at his hearing to concerns about his record.

“We’ve been really clear that you need to meet the 60-vote standard,” Van Hollen said of fellow Democrats. “As of right now, I think they’re a long way from getting to that number.”

