DENVER -- When Federal Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch takes the spotlight in Washington, D.C. this week, a lot of eyes from Colorado will be watching.
The Colorado-based judge is President Donald Trump’s choice to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It’s always hard to say how a judge is going to affect the ideology of the Supreme Court,” attorney Mark Champoux told Anne Trujillo on this week’s Politics Unplugged. Champoux, a litigator with Davis Graham and Stubbs, was once a law clerk for Judge Gorsuch.
“I think he’s going to be an independent voice on the court. I think he’s always been someone who collegial [sic] so he’s going to be someone who I think works well with the other justices,” Champoux said.
Champoux expects the confirmation hearings to be tough. Many Democrats have already said they will not vote to confirm Judge Gorsuch because Republicans never allowed a vote on Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace Justice Scalia.
“Certainly there is frustration with how things were handled with Garland,” Champoux said, adding he thinks people will see many of those frustrations come out during the hearings. “I also think that a lot of people are recognizing that to move forward at some point you have to move beyond these tactics that both sides have been employing for the last couple of decades to get something a bit more cooperative in confirming judicial nominees.”
Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.
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