Center for Biological Diversity

For Immediate Release, January 31, 2017

Contact:  Brett Hartl, (202) 817-8121, bhartl@biologicaldiversity.org
Bill Snape, (202) 536-9351, bsnape@biologicaldiversity.org

Trump Announces Supreme Court Nominee

Neil Gorsuch Would Cement Conservative Majority on Court for Years

WASHINGTON— President Trump today nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacant seat left by Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. Gorsuch's track record on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals suggests that he will consistently rule in favor of wealthy corporate interests at the expense of environmental safeguards, civil rights and social justice.

“The nomination of Judge Gorsuch is yet another distressing sign that Trump is taking America to a dark place where right-wing ideology and profiteering politics reign supreme,” said KierĂ¡n Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Gorsuch will make it dangerously difficult to implement key environmental laws that protect our climate, keep our air and water free of pollution and prevent our most endangered species from going extinct.”

Trump's pick for the Supreme Court was made possible only by the extraordinary, unprecedented, year-long blockade by Senate Republicans of President Obama's pick of D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland. Never before has a sitting president had his Supreme Court pick completely ignored due to purely political and ideological opposition.

“We should never forget that this was a stolen seat,” Suckling said. “Gorsuch should be filibustered, and every Democrat of conscience should vote against his confirmation. Putting him onto our highest court could inflict incredible, irreversible damage upon our nation's natural heritage.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.2 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

www.biologicaldiversity.org

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