WAPO: Neil Gorsuch regrets to inform the Senate that he is not God
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is, by all accounts, a rare human being. Human being, actually, might be putting it too mildly. “I’m not God,” he told Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to clear up any concerns Franken might have had on that point.
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It was good to have him there to explain that he was neither God nor perfect, as a sub-Gorsuch mind might easily have become confused after listening to a few hours of his testimony. With an Endlessly Patient Smile he explained the law, federalism and the function of the legislative branch in simple terms that even a senator could understand. Some chafed at this treatment, briefly.
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On the bright side, for senators not used to having their jobs explained to them at length by someone who seemed to feel that he was doing them a favor, this offered a fun taste of what it is like to be a woman every day. Gorsuch often works to build compassion in these ways.
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There is no virtue he holds in higher regard than humility. As he told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) about Byron White, “I wouldn’t have become a judge but for watching his example. And the humility with which he approached the job, and I don’t mean a phony humility, I mean a real humility, every day. He always said two heads were better than one. He’d sit down on my office, plunk himself down in a chair across the desk, and we’d talk about a case. … So what does the great Justice Gorsuch think about this one? … As he was working through each case himself, he’d want to bounce ideas off of this know-nothing 20-year-old, 20-something-year-old kid. And that, to me, taught me everything about what it means to be a judge.”
What a powerful illustration of humility: a tale of a wise jurist who came to a 20-something Gorsuch suspecting that, after all, young Justice Gorsuch might know best.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/03/22/neil-gorsuch-regrets-to-inform-the-senate-that-he-is-not-god/
