{"id":163932,"date":"2017-03-17T13:21:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T17:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=163932"},"modified":"2017-03-20T10:44:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T14:44:53","slug":"neil-gorsuch-ruled-life-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/neil-gorsuch-ruled-life-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"How President Trump’s SCOTUS pick Neil Gorsuch has ruled on life issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The confirmation hearing process for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee,\u00a0Neil Gorsuch<\/a>, is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 20. Gorsuch, from\u00a0the 10th\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0in Denver, has never ruled on an abortion case, but he is considered conservative and pro-life in his views. A few cases he has ruled on offer clues as to how he could rule in the future on life issues.<\/p>\n

Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Gorsuch supported Hobby Lobby<\/a> when the\u00a0company took on the Obama administration and the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. Hobby Lobby argued that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the company had the right to refuse to offer certain forms of contraception that violate its\u00a0religious\u00a0beliefs. The company was willing to provide most forms of birth control to employees through its\u00a0insurance plan but did not wish to cover IUDs<\/a> or emergency contraception, such as Plan B or Ella, since research has shown these forms of birth control to cause abortions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not only did Gorsuch\u00a0vote in favor of Hobby Lobby, along with the majority of the 10th Circuit, but he\u00a0later wrote that he would have taken it a step farther, allowing individual owners\u2014not just for-profit corporations\u2014to challenge the ACA mandate.<\/p>\n

Little Sisters of the Poor v.\u00a0Burwell<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Gorsuch also sided with the Little Sisters<\/a> of the Poor in their case against the ACA contraception mandate. He was a part of the dissenting opinion written in support of the Little Sisters:<\/p>\n

All the plaintiffs in this case sincerely believe that they will be violating God\u2019s law if they execute the documents required by the government. And the penalty for refusal to execute the documents may be in the millions of dollars. How can it be any clearer that the law substantially burdens the plaintiffs\u2019 free exercise of religion?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Planned Parenthood v. Gary Herbert<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In 2015, Utah became the fifth state to vote to defund Planned Parenthood due to the scandal involving Planned Parenthood’s participation in the alleged sale of fetal body parts. Planned Parenthood would lose $275,000 in taxpayer funding;\u00a0therefore, it challenged this decision. After a federal judge sided with the state, Planned Parenthood appealed to the 10th Circuit Court, which sided with the corporation. A\u00a0rehearing was requested, which the court denied<\/a>. Gorsuch\u00a0dissented, writing<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Respectfully, this case warrants rehearing. As it stands, the panel opinion leaves litigants in preliminary injunction disputes reason to worry that this court will sometimes deny deference to district court factual findings; relax the burden of proof by favoring attenuated causal claims our precedent disfavors; and invoke arguments for reversal untested by the parties, unsupported by the record, and inconsistent with principles of comity.<\/p>\n

Preliminary injunction disputes like this one recur regularly and ensuring certainty in the rules governing them, and demonstrating that we will apply those rules consistently to all matters that come before us, is of exceptional importance to the law, litigants, lower courts, and future panels alike. I respectfully dissent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outside the courtroom, Gorsuch has also voiced his opinion on life issues. In his book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia<\/a><\/em>, Gorsuch argued that human lives are intrinsically\u00a0valuable and that “intentional killing is always wrong.”<\/p>\n

\u201cTo act intentionally against life is to suggest that its value rests only on its transient instrumental usefulness for other ends,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

In addition, on page 82 of the book, Gorsuch stated:<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Roe, the Court explained that, had it found the fetus to be a ‘person’ for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment, it could not have created a right to abortion because no constitutional basis exists for preferring the mother\u2019s liberty interests over the child\u2019s life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Time will tell exactly where Gorsuch will fall on life issues that come before the U.S. Supreme Court if he is indeed appointed after the hearings. While some anti-abortion activists, such as Andy Schlafly<\/a>, a lawyer\u00a0at the Legal Center for Defense of Life, are wary about Gorsuch, abortion advocates<\/a> are even more concerned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The confirmation hearing process for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee,\u00a0Neil Gorsuch, is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 20. Gorsuch, from\u00a0the 10th\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0in Denver, has never ruled on an abortion case, but he is considered conservative and pro-life in his views. A few cases he has ruled on offer clues as to how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":163948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow President Trump's SCOTUS pick Neil Gorsuch has ruled on life issues<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/neil-gorsuch-ruled-life-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How President Trump's SCOTUS pick Neil Gorsuch has ruled on life issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The confirmation hearing process for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee,\u00a0Neil Gorsuch, is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 20. Gorsuch, from\u00a0the 10th\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0in Denver, has never ruled on an abortion case, but he is considered conservative and pro-life in his views. A few cases he has ruled on offer clues as to how […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/neil-gorsuch-ruled-life-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-17T17:21:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-20T14:44:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/32637149682_33f9bbbe6c_k.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" 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