Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch may be the most optimistic lawyer in America today — which is surprising because he just published a book looking at where America’s experiment in constitutional governance is struggling.
He rejects the notion of treating judges as political figures, siding with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in dismissing President Trump’s suggestion there are “Trump judges” and “Obama judges” whose decisions are predictable based on who appointed them.
But that doesn’t mean all is well in the legal world, where he does acknowledge a gap between what judges are supposed to be doing — deciding cases based on the laws written by Congress — and the expectations of many Americans, who want judges to shape outcomes.
“If you don’t like the law, you go across the street. You change it. It’s not my job to do their job,” he told The Washington Times from his Supreme Court chambers, on the other side of First Street from the U.S. Capitol. “We need to understand the separation of powers … To me it’s what keeps us free.”
That sentiment pervades his book “A Republic, If You Can Keep It,” which is being released Tuesday. The title is taken from a famous line Benjamin Franklin is said to have told an enthusiastic questioner about the outcome of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.
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