WASHINGTON—Pledging to defend the highest laws of the United States as objectively and consistently as possible, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch vowed Monday that if confirmed, he would interpret the Constitution in accordance with former Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s original intent. “The Constitution is not a living document to be reinterpreted in light of new values, but one that was meant to be understood according to the opinion originally laid down by Justice Scalia,” said Gorsuch, who promised to strictly adhere to the letter of Scalia’s jurisprudence when ruling on all cases before the court. “When Justice Scalia first wrote his opinions on subjects like civil rights and the commerce clause, he set down a blueprint that all justices should follow. Our job should always be to respect those original words, not to redefine them to fit modern attitudes.” Gorsuch added that Scalia’s original intent was still a reliable guide to evaluating the nation’s laws, even if the country we lived in was no longer one the associate justice would have recognized.

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