“I’m asking you a question, please answer the question,” Mr. Franken said, as the nominee demurred.

When Judge Gorsuch began to defend his vote again, the senator cut in. “That’s absurd,” said Mr. Franken, a veteran of “Saturday Night Live” in a previous life. “Now, I had a career in identifying absurdity. And I know it when I see it.”

Judge Gorsuch said earlier that the case of the truck driver was “one of those that you take home at night.” But the law, he argued on Tuesday, was clear: “The law said the man is protected and can’t be fired if he refuses to operate an unsafe vehicle.”

In fact, Judge Gorsuch said, the driver had unhitched his vehicle from the trailing cargo to get to safety in frigid weather. “He chose to operate,” Judge Gorsuch said, adding, “I think by any plain understanding, he operated the vehicle.”

The nominee expressed no fondness for this particular law — “I’ve been stuck on a highway in Wyoming in a snowstorm,” he noted — but said it was his duty to observe it.

Gorsuch talks about ‘dark money.’

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, said shadowy groups had spent millions of dollars in “dark money” to support Judge Gorsuch’s nomination. The senator asked the judge to urge his supporters to disclose what they had spent.

Judge Gorsuch declined, saying that would be a political move. He noted that the Supreme Court had allowed Congress to require disclosure of political spending.

“With all respect, the ball’s in your court,” Judge Gorsuch said.

An ‘originalist.’

Judge Gorsuch has called himself an originalist, meaning that he tries to interpret the Constitution as it was understood by the people who drafted and ratified it. On Tuesday, he said his approach could keep pace with contemporary realities.