Gorsuch laments loss of public civility

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, in Austin to discuss his recently released book, told a crowd at the LBJ Presidential Library that “A Republic, If You Can Keep It" was inspired by his concern about a growing lack of public and political civility.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Gorsuch recalled playing hide-and-seek with reporters before President Donald Trump announced his nomination to the nation's highest court in January 2017, touched on his bruising confirmation battle in the U.S. Senate and offered a behind the scenes glimpse of the court's secret deliberations.

But he returned several times to his concerns over the lack of civil discourse, lamenting in particular its impact on young people, most of whom no longer see public service as a viable option.

"Our republic is supposed to be a little raucous," he said Thursday night, noting that things have at least improved since the early days of the republic when federal officials engaged in duels and members of Congress caned each other in the Capitol.

"Can we do a better job? Yeah. Do we need to? Yeah. Sometimes, we need to remember that people with whom we disagree love this country as much as we do," Gorsuch said. "Isn't civility just an outward sign that we accept the equality of the other person, that the other person is our equal and deserves the same treatment we want for ourselves?"

Gorsuch spoke at the library on the University of Texas campus as part of a lecture series named in honor of Tom Johnson, a former Johnson administration official, media executive and chairman of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.

Questioned by moderator Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, Gorsuch said the court's justices discuss cases while sitting around a small, cramped table. Everybody speaks, starting with Chief Justice John Roberts, then going in order of seniority, followed by a more general discussion of the case.

And although members of the Supreme Court frequently disagree — often strongly — on legal issues, they do so with "a tremendous reservoir of mutual respect, admiration and, yes, even love," he said.

Justices shake hands every time they meet, a tradition that has lasted more than 150 years, often eat lunch together, celebrate birthdays and play good-natured practical jokes, like the time Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a huge fan of the New York Yankees, arrived wearing a pinstripe robe emblazoned with a Yankees logo as justices lined up to enter the courtroom, he said.

"Finally, one of them says, 'Sonia, are you really going to wear that in the court?' And she responded, 'No, I was just waiting for one of you to ask,'" Gorsuch said to laughter.

"That's how we treat one another on the Supreme Court," he said.

Asked what advice he would give to the UT students in the audience, Gorsuch urged them to get involved, invoking the experience of Gregory Watson, a UT student who wrote a class paper in 1982 arguing that a proposed constitutional amendment, written in 1789, was still valid because it contained no time limit for ratification.

Given a C for the paper, Watson embarked on a decade of work to prove his professor wrong, gaining the support of enough states to see the 27th Amendment, which bans Congress from voting itself a midterm pay raise, ratified in 1992.

"That may be the most consequential C," Gorsuch said. "Gregory Watson, he was annoyed by that, he was motivated by it, and he got involved."

Thursday's discussion was Gorsuch's second visit to Austin this month. He gave the ceremonial oath of office to Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby during an investiture ceremony on Sept. 6, then spoke at a Texas Supreme Court Historical Society dinner later that night.