Neil Gorsuch, the newest justice on the United States supreme court, did not seem shy about making his voice heard on Monday as he took his seat on the bench for the first time to hear arguments.
The first test of new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch's impact will come this week in a case that pits a Missouri church against a state constitutional amendment in a clash over religious liberty.
The case, brought by a longtime U.S. Census Bureau worker against the Merit Systems Protection Board, revolved around a highly technical question about which court should hear the worker's appeal.
"I'm sorry for taking up so much time", Gorsuch said, before continuing a bit longer.
Roberts issued the standard welcome for new justices, wishing Gorsuch "a long and happy career in our common calling". If Gorsuch participates in that one, the cases that could be in front of him include North Carolina's bid to revive its voter-ID law and an appeal by California residents seeking to carry handguns in public. The justices could also decide whether to hear a case concerning claims by undocumented Central American women and their children who were apprehended immediately after entering the United States surreptitiously in late 2015. Mitch McConnell, before the vote, smugly commented "the most consequential decision" he had ever made was deciding in February 2016 that the next president of the United States would appoint the person to fill Antonin Scalia's seat on the court.
Throughout the one-hour argument, Gorsuch stepped in three times, posing a series of questions each time, Reuters reports.
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Some were watching to see if Gorsuch might recuse himself; he had routinely done so as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit when his former law firm had a case there or a controversy involved someone he knew.
Town of Chester, New York v Laroe Estates is the case which could lead to the Colorado justice standing and walking out of the courtroom.
"Wouldn't it be a lot easier if we just followed the plain text of the statute?" asked Gorsuch, who has been described by supporters and opponents as a "textualist" who believes courts should carefully follow the wordings of the laws under review. As practiced by Scalia during his three decades on the Supreme Court, this conservative approach is sometimes summed up as "textualism".
Katyal, who has argued numerous cases before the high court, represents the town of Chester. Katyal introduced Gorsuch during his confirmation hearing and his endorsement infuriated some of his fellow Democrats who fought against Gorsuch.
Gorsuch interjected: "No, just to continue to make it up".
Katyal is also scheduled to argue before the justices on April 25 on behalf of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY.N in a case over out-of-state injury claims. The other involves deadlines in securities class actions, SCOTUSblog reports here.
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