Justice Gorsuch Calmly Schools CBS When Hit with Smears Against Conservatives

Gorsuch: “I worry when more and more Americans think that people in the other political party are not just wrong — fine — but are evil. I worry when we are unable to speak to one another and listen to one another.”

GARRETT: “But in a recent poll, 70 percent say Gorsuch and the other current justices contribute to that problem, deciding cases on ideology rather than being fair and impartial. There are people who watch this right now and say I thought I understood what Roe vs. Wade meant in our country. I thought I understand what affirmative action in college admission meant, and this court has told me I didn’t understand what those things meant and I wrongly relied on things that I thought were settled. What would you say to those?”

Gorsuch: “I would say those are deeply complex legal questions on which reasonable minds can, of course, and do disagree. And that when it comes to Roe vs. Wade, for example, what did the court decide? Decided that we the people should answer that question, not nine people sitting in Washington, D.C.”

GARRETT: “How about affirmative action?”

Gorsuch: “Much the same thing. What did we decide? We decided that all people are created equal, that it’s not acceptable in this country to discriminate on the basis of race.”

GARRETT: “And, for those who would say but I feel something’s been ripped away from me, you would say?”

Gorsuch: “I would say that we’re taking it back to you. In a democracy, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re the sovereign. Those famous three first words of the Constitution empower you. Do you really want me deciding everything for you?”

GARRETT: “And for a woman in a state where she no longer has the rights she once relied on, is that cold comfort?”

Gorsuch: “Major, all I can say is I don’t know better than you do on these questions. And that most major Western democracies have decided these questions through the ballot box.”

GARRETT: “Does this court today or in the future have to understand and care about its public perception?”

Gorsuch: “You raise a really interesting question about the place that unelected judges have in a democracy. An independent judiciary, our founders fought a revolution for it because they knew what it was like to have a judiciary that was responsive to the crown, to a whimsical king. And they didn’t want that for this country.”