Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch may not have realized the powerhouse he took on with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Donald Trump appointed two justices to the court: Neil Gorsuch and then Brett Kavanaugh. Both men are conservative, tilting the court toward the right side far enough to cause problems.
Gorsuch came across as “an egotistical, arrogant, smug ass” during his confirmation hearings. Since he has taken office, he has let his Heritage Foundation side shine darkly onto the other justices. According to The Daily Kos, he is “domineering, lecturing, condescending.”
The justices were arguing the Gill v. Whitford case, which dealt with gerrymandering (redistricting). About an hour into the argument, Gorsuch said:
‘Maybe we can just for a second talk about the arcane matter of the Constitution.’
Gorsuch and his predecessor Antonin Scalia were both originalists and textualists, meaning they took the Constitution literally. Others, such as Justice Ginsburg, believed that the Constitution is a living document that can breathe in the situations of today.
Gorsuch decided this would be a good time to lecture the other intellects on the bench about the Constitution’s text. He said:
‘And where exactly do we get authority to revise state legislative lines? When the Constitution authorizes the federal government to step in on state legislative matters, it’s pretty clear—if you look at the Fifteenth Amendment, you look at the Nineteenth Amendment, the Twenty-sixth Amendment, and even the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2.’
What Gorsuch was really pointing out was a question about why the justices should get involved in gerrymandering at all. That was when the infamous RPG had it. She mowed Gorsuch down with one sentence:
‘Where did “one person, one vote” come from?’
The answer of course, was from the Supreme Court precedent. Witford’s attorney Paul Smith realized the opening Ginsburg had created and said:
‘That’s what Reynolds v. Sims and Baker v. Carr did, and a number of other cases that have followed along since.’
Gorsuch sat silent.
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