At the end of the second day of hearings on Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, People For the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker issued the following statement.

“Judge Gorsuch made one thing clear in his testimony today: he wasn’t interested in giving the American people any sense of his judicial philosophy or his views on even the most basic constitutional questions. Instead he evaded again and again and avoided answering critical questions on the role of money in politics, women’s reproductive rights, the First Amendment and national security. That’s not acceptable. It’s clear that Donald Trump and the right-wing legal organizations that pre-approved Judge Gorsuch’s nomination have a pretty good idea of where he stands on these issues. We deserve to know as much as they do.

“Outside the hearing room, it became even more obvious that the Trump administration is operating under a dark cloud. There’s absolutely no reason the Senate should rush to confirm a Supreme Court nominee to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court while there are so many unanswered questions about how fundamentally compromised the Trump administration is. We should hit the pause button until we’re sure we have all the facts about the role Russia played in the 2016 elections and its connections with the Trump campaign.”

People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy organization founded to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.

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