Nicole Gaudiano and Erin Kelly

USA Today

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, "avoided answers like the plague" during their meeting Tuesday.

The New York Democrat told reporters he pressed Gorsuch for his views on whether a "Muslim ban" could be constitutional, a reference to Trump's executive order indefinitely banning Syrian refugees and temporarily suspending admission of other refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries that have been linked to terrorism.

Schumer also asked for Gorsuch's opinions on whether Trump's comments on voter fraud undermine democracy and what the framers intended with the Constitution's anti-bribery "Emoluments Clause," which bans presidents from receiving gifts from foreign leaders. Some have argued Trump's refusal to divest from his business empire could lead to a violation of that clause.

"This president is testing fundamental underpinnings of our democracy and it’s institutions," Schumer said after the meeting. "These times deserve answers and Judge Gorsuch did not provide them. I have serious, serious concerns about this nominee."

Schumer called Gorsuch a "smart, polite and capable man who loves being a judge," but he said Trump's troubled relationship with the judiciary and his attacks on the rule of law make it imperative that the next Supreme Court nominee serve as an independent check on the administration when it overreaches.

"The bar for a Supreme Court nominee to prove they can be independent, has never, never been higher," he said.

The meeting came days after the conservative Judicial Crisis Network claimed Democrats were refusing to meet with Gorsuch, who serves on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Schumer said last week he needed time to review Gorsuch’s 10-year record before scheduling a meeting.

Matt House, Schumer’s communications director, noted last week that most GOP senators refused to meet last year with Merrick Garland, former President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. Republicans declined to hold a hearing or a vote on Garland, saying the new president should get to pick the next justice. There has been a vacancy on the court since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last February.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Gorsuch in March. His nomination would then go to the full Senate for a vote.

Gorsuch will likely have to survive a procedural vote that requires 60 senators to agree to proceed to an up-or-down vote on his confirmation. That would require support from some Democrats, since Republicans hold only 52 seats. If there are not 60 votes to bring the nomination to the floor, Republicans could try to change Senate rules to lower the threshold for Supreme Court nominations to 51 votes.