WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday announced he will vote against Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch. Murphy met with Judge Gorsuch on February 16, 2017. 

“Confirming a Supreme Court Justice is one of the most important responsibilities of a U.S. Senator. It’s a vote we cast knowing full well that the tenure and influence of the nominee before us will likely be greater and longer lasting than our own in the Senate. After meeting with Judge Gorsuch and reviewing hours of his testimony before the Judiciary committee, I have decided to oppose his nomination. I am deeply concerned about the politicization of the Court, and its recent capture by corporate and special interests. I am convinced Judge Gorsuch would exacerbate that slide, and continue the activist bent of the existing Court. For that reason, I cannot support him.

“Judge Gorsuch is a well-trained, very intelligent lawyer who has the right disposition to serve on our nation's highest court. But that is not the end of the analysis I am required to conduct. I am concerned by Judge Gorsuch’s record of putting corporate interests before the public interest. His past decisions demonstrate a resistance on his part to put victims’ and employees’ needs above those of large corporations. He has regularly sided with employers over workers, and corporations’ religious rights over the rights of employees to make personal health care decisions. And while he admirably claims to rest his decision on the law rather than on political views, his consistent support for the powerful over the powerless does not seem coincidental.

“The Roberts Court has swung dramatically in favor of the rights of corporations and special interests over those of individual Americans. I would have supported a mainstream nominee, but the risk that Judge Gorsuch will inject his political judgment into a process that already too often favors the rights of special interests or corporations over the rights of individuals is too great for him to earn my support.”