Sen. Sasse: Justice Kennedy Should See Gorsuch Nomination as 'Comforting Sign'

Supreme Court justice nominee Neil Gorsuch's performance on Monday during his first day of confirmation hearings should ease any fears on the right — including any conservative justices considering retirement during Donald Trump's presidency, says Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse.

Democrats were "hyperventilating" at the prospect of Gorsuch filling the vacant seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Sasse said Monday on Fox News Channel's "Special Report."

But that, Sasse said, is not because Gorsuch won't be a good jurist, but "because there's a whole bunch of Democrats on the committee who frankly want a judge to be a super legislator."

That isn't what the Founding Fathers wanted, and is not what the Constitution requires, Sasse said. Democrats are simply unhappy their candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost the election and they weren't able to install Obama nominee Merrick Garland to fill the conservative seat.

"The reality is, there's a guy in front of us now who knows what a judge's job is, and I think he should be confirmed 100-0," Sasse said. "There's a bunch of Democrats who want to vote against him because of their own politics and partisanship but it's hard to figure out what they are actual arguments are."

Sasse said he has no inside information on talk that conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy plans to retire possibly as soon as this summer.

But, he added, "If you are Justice Kennedy and you look at what this president has done nominating such a fundamentally stable, honorable man to be the next justice, I think there's a number of folks who hope Justice Kennedy will see that as a comforting sign."

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