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Gorsuch, the
newest member to the nation's top court, spoke about the value
of an independent judiciary during an evening event at Harvard
University that also featured fellow Justice Stephen Breyer.
Gorsuch reflected on how the "government can lose in its own
courts and accept the judgement of those courts without an army
to back it up."
He said 95 percent of all U.S. cases are resolved at the trial
court level, with few reaching the appellate level or Supreme
Court, a fact that he said indicated that litigants were
satisfied that justice had been done.
"I know a lot of cynicism about government and the rule of law,
but I don't share it," he said.
Gorsuch, whose confirmation to the lifetime job restored the
court's conservative majority following Justice Antonin Scalia's
death in February 2016, formally joined the Supreme Court on
April 10.
Gorsuch served on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals before Trump nominated him in January. Trump was able to
fill the vacancy after Senate Republicans last year refused to
consider President Barack Obama's nominee Merrick Garland.
Breyer, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and
is a member of the liberal wing of the nine-member court,
stressed during his comments the value of international values.
"The values you are talking about are very widespread across the
world," he said. "Interest in democracy, human rights and so
forth and rule of law."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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