Pro-life and pro-gun supporters support the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court even though both groups agree that he has not written enough on these issues from the bench to clearly construe his opinions, the Washington Examiner reports.
Even without clear rulings on these issues, however, the Heritage Foundation's John Malcolm said Gorsuch's constitutionalist and originalist approach to jurisprudence is appealing.
"I look at a bright, honest judge who has in my view a proper understanding of the important but limited role judges play in our system of government and somebody who has an approach to judging constitutional and statutory issues that is one that I agree with and respect," Malcom told the Examiner.
"I will put my faith in a judge like that to reach the right result whatever that result is."
The Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed similarly acknowledged that "we don't really have the ability to speculate on [Gorsuch's view on abortion] based on his body of work as a judge."
However, in a book Gorsuch wrote on assisted suicide titled: "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia," the judge said that "the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong" and that if such an act is ever justified by Americans then the most vulnerable people could end up receiving less protection under the law.
Views such as these appear to give the groups faith that Gorsuch will make rulings to their liking, and they have invested large sums to get the judge confirmed, as well as preparing to contact some two million people in targeted states to boost support for him.
The National Rifle Association is also using its resources to help his confirmation, even though the group's spokesman told the Examiner, in a way similar to pro-lifers, that "if you call and ask us to tick off a bunch of different opinions where he says, where he addresses Second Amendment specifically, there's not many judges you're going to find that with, anyway."