美国国家公共电台 NPR Judge Gorsuch's Writings Signal He Would Be A Conservative On Social Issues

 

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President Trump¹'s pick for the U.S. Supreme² Court goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation³ hearing next week. For more than 10 years as a federal appeals court judge, Neil Gorsuch has been writing judicial⁴ opinions - some in the majority, some in the dissent⁵, all opinions that strongly hint at what kind of justice he would be. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg takes a closer look at the judge's legal views.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE⁶: From the get-go, Donald Trump made clear he would nominate someone to the Supreme Court in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative justice whose seat has remained vacant since his sudden death more than a year ago. Those who have read Judge Gorsuch's opinions expect him to fulfill⁷ that billing. Here's Richard Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine.

RICHARD HASEN: On issues like abortion⁸ and affirmative action and gun rights and states' rights, we can expect him overall to be a reliable conservative vote and someone who's going to forcefully and eloquently⁹ put forward conservative positions on the court.

TOTENBERG: Not that Gorsuch has ruled on all of these issues - he has not. But the legal road signs are there, and indeed they are among the reasons he was picked. Gorsuch, for instance, has never actually ruled directly on an abortion case, but he has ruled on questions involving contraception and public funding for Planned Parenthood, funding unrelated to abortion. On this question, he was in dissent, ruling for a state governor's power to cut off federal funding for women's health services provided by Planned Parenthood.

One of his most controversial opinions involve the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores which employs 13,000 workers, most of them women. The company refused to comply with the federal law requiring for-profit corporations to provide health insurance plans that cover birth control. Gorsuch, in a majority of the appeals court, ruled that the corporation had a religious right not to provide birth control coverage¹⁰. A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court would later agree, ruling for the first time that certain for-profit corporations have religious rights.

What makes this case particularly interesting is a concurring¹¹ opinion that Gorsuch wrote about the corporate¹² owners' rights. All of us face the problem of complicity, he wrote. All must answer to what degree we are willing to be involved in the wrongdoing of others. Here, he noted¹³, the owners believe that for their company providing insurance that includes coverage for birth control drugs or devices violates their faith.

In many ways, he continued, this case is a tale of two statutes¹⁴. One, the Affordable¹⁵ Care Act, compels the owners to provide such inclusive health coverage. The other, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, says they need not. And the tiebreaker, Gorsuch said, is the religious protection law because it is a, quote, "super-statute" that trumps¹⁶ others except in special circumstances.

CAROLINE FREDRICKSON: What does that mean, and how far does that go?

TOTENBERG: Caroline Fredrickson is president of the liberal American Constitution Society.

FREDRICKSON: To what extent do people with religious beliefs - do they have to follow the law if they believe it violates their conscience? What is the outer limit of that?

TOTENBERG: What if, for example, a hotel or restaurant owner has a religious belief that bars serving African-Americans or non-Christians or gay people? Indeed there are a variety of such legal clashes working their way up to the Supreme Court right now. Melissa Hart, director of the Colorado University Constitutional Law Center, is a Gorsuch admirer, but...

MELISSA HART: I think it's also reasonable for those who support marriage equality to be concerned.

TOTENBERG: But Mark Rienzi of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty says that in some ways, that is Congress' command in the law it passed overwhelmingly in 1993.

MARK RIENZI: It says that the baseline rule in America will be that we respect religious diversity. And for the most part, we're not going to force people to violate their religious beliefs unless we have a really good reason to.

TOTENBERG: He says that the notion of wrongful complicity is more important than the rights of employees to have health insurance even though for most women of child-bearing age, contraception is their largest regular health expense.

Other Gorsuch decisions relating to religion will undoubtedly¹⁷ come up in next week's confirmation hearings - among them, a vigorous dissenting¹⁸ opinion concerning a plan by the Utah Highway Patrol Association to erect¹⁹ a series of 12-foot crosses along the roadside on public land as a memorial to fallen troopers. Judge Gorsuch's colleagues on the appeals court ruled that the crosses had to go because a reasonable observer would take them as a sign of the state's endorsement²⁰ of Christianity. The Supreme Court declined review, leaving in place the decision forbidding the crosses.

Although Gorsuch has not written directly about abortion, he did write a book called "The Future Of Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia," terminology²¹ that is offensive to advocates of so-called death-with-dignity laws. In the book, he writes that human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable, and the intentional²² taking of human life by private persons is always wrong. But he describes the court's decisions on abortion in a straightforward²³ way without adding almost anything in the way of a personal opinion.

The book, academic in tone but lucid²⁴ in presentation, seems to conclude that there is no necessary connection between the right to abortion and a right to assisted suicide. It does, however, quite clearly subscribe²⁵ to the notion adopted in most state laws that individuals have the right to hasten their own deaths by refusing nutrition, water or medical treatment. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

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1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

4 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

5 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。

8 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

9 eloquently   

adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地)

参考例句：

• I was toasted by him most eloquently at the dinner. 进餐时他口若悬河地向我祝酒。
• The poet eloquently expresses the sense of lost innocence. 诗人动人地表达了失去天真的感觉。

10 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

11 concurring   

同时发生的，并发的

参考例句：

• Concurring with expectations, the degree of polymorphism was highest in the central. 正如所料，多型性程度在中部种群中最高。
• The more an affect arises from a number of causes concurring together, the greater it is. 同时凑合起来以激起一个情感的原因愈多，则这个情感将必愈大。

12 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

13 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

14 statutes   

成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程

参考例句：

• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Each agency is also restricted by the particular statutes governing its activities. 各个机构的行为也受具体法令限制。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

15 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

16 trumps   

abbr.trumpets 喇叭；小号；喇叭形状的东西；喇叭筒v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去式 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造

参考例句：

• On the day of the match the team turned up trumps. 比赛那天该队出乎意料地获得胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Every time John is late getting home he trumps up some new excuse. 每次约翰晚回家都会编造个新借口。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 undoubtedly   

adv.确实地，无疑地

参考例句：

• It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
• He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。

18 dissenting   

adj.不同意的

参考例句：

• He can't tolerate dissenting views. 他不能容纳不同意见。
• A dissenting opinion came from the aunt . 姑妈却提出不赞同的意见。

19 erect   

n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的

参考例句：

• She held her head erect and her back straight.她昂着头，把背挺得笔直。
• Soldiers are trained to stand erect.士兵们训练站得笔直。

20 endorsement   

n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注

参考例句：

• We are happy to give the product our full endorsement.我们很高兴给予该产品完全的认可。
• His presidential campaign won endorsement from several celebrities.他参加总统竞选得到一些社会名流的支持。

21 terminology   

n.术语；专有名词

参考例句：

• He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
• The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。

22 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

23 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

24 lucid   

adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的

参考例句：

• His explanation was lucid and to the point.他的解释扼要易懂。
• He wasn't very lucid,he didn't quite know where he was.他神志不是很清醒，不太知道自己在哪里。

25 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。