Chris Coons On Justice Neil Gorsuch: His Views On Corporations Are 'Troubling'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Delaware Senator Chris Coons explained his vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch in an interview with Dom Giordano, saying he found Gorsuch's views on the legal rights of corporations disconcerting.
"Judge Gorsuch is very bright. He's an excellent writer. He is a skilled and experienced circuit court judge. My first meeting with him, I thought went very well and I was encouraged. My second meeting with was a little more concerning and then we did four full days of hearings on the Senate Judiciary Committee. At the end of the day, his views on corporations and the balance between granting corporations more power or more rights in our society than individuals really troubled me."
He stated he expects Gorsuch will now position himself on the far-right wing of the court.
"His opinions, and his writing, on, for example, on reversing something called Chevron deference is far to the right of what Justice Scalia advanced and argued. There are some areas where Judge Gorsuch showed himself to be an activist judge who wanted to overturn long settled precedent. There's other areas where he didn't. That's what made this a tough call for me. I wouldn't call him radical, but he will certainly be as conservative as Justice Thomas and I think his views are to the right of Justice Scalia."
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Regarding Donald Trump's decision last week to launch a missile attack against Syria, Coons endorsed the strike but believes a negotiated solution is the only way to bring peace to the region.
"I did support President Trump taking strong action to punish President Assad. We've just passed the six-year anniversary of the Syrian civil war, really of President Assad's war against his own people. More than 400,000 have been killed and he's used every possible weapon of war, from barrel bombs and cluster bombs, scud missiles to poison gas, on many occasions. President Trump's actions raise more questions than they answer and the next step is going to be the hard one. I'll say this, this is not the time to be dramatically cutting the funding for diplomacy because the ultimate resolution of Syria is going to have to be a negotiated agreement."
