March 21, 2017 01:21 PM UTC

Gorsuch's Bizarre Unforced Error on Partisan Judges

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• by: Colorado Pols

Seth Masket, political science professor at the University of Denver, calls out U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch for a fairly surprising misstatement during confirmation hearings:

Neil Gorsuch: “There no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge in this country. We just have judges” https://t.co/DUb4k0WG7a pic.twitter.com/CwWRYNvVEA

— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) March 21, 2017

Literally 7 states elect supreme court judges in partisan elections. 20 states elect trial court judges in partisan elections. https://t.co/yO0sRlgYlh

— Seth Masket (@smotus) March 21, 2017

Masket is correct: the states of Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia all hold partisan elections to their state supreme courts. In addition, 20 states hold partisan elections for trial court judges. Several other states have a “hybrid” system of partial partisan elections for the judiciary.

So, what’s the deal with this? We don’t think it rises to the level of perjury, being an apparently innocent misstatement. But Gorsuch is being sold as one of the nation’s greatest legal minds, and there’s just no excuse for him not knowing full well that many parts of America indeed have “Republican judges” and “Democratic judges.”

This is not the minor leagues, folks. We are talking about a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court for a 49-year-old judge. Gorsuch’s platitudes about judicial partisan independence may sound good, but they are factually not correct.

And that doesn’t sit well with us.