It is not uncommon for President’s that put people on the court to be surprised in how they vote after a while…
Justice neil Gorsuch was supposed to be a sure right wing vote….
But it turns out that isn’t so sure anymore, eh?
Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump‘s first Supreme Court appointment, cast the deciding vote in a decision released Tuesday that sided with an immigrant fighting his deportation.
Gorsuch sided with court’s four liberal justices in favor of the immigrant, James Garcia Dimaya, who the government sought to deport after his second first-degree burglary conviction in California.
The Justice Department argued his first-degree burglary conviction constituted a crime of violence, which is an aggravated felony that results in deportation under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
However, the court said Tuesday that the law’s definition of a crime of violence is too vague. …
…
Gorsuch’s choice to side with the liberal justices was expected after he questioned how the court could determine when a crime was violent if Congress had failed to do so during oral argument….
Note….
Will Trump get mad and tweet that he can fire Gorsuch?
Who knows?
image…motherjones.com
Actually Gorsuch reasoning could be considered “conservative” in relation to the law.
Conservatives often criticize various laws as being “vague” and allowing too much discretion to those enforcing them.
That was sort of the issue here.
Antonin Scalia often wrote opinions criticizing vague laws.
Well POLITICALLY ?
It comes out Lefty…..
Chief Justice Roberts is known (as Jack could probably elaborate in more detail) for siding with the politically-liberal side in order to establish some precedent that has conservative implications that are stronger than its liberal implication. Sometimes in such cases, by forging an apparent consensus with his more-liberal brethren and sisters on the Court, he ties them to the conservative principle or principles he wants to establish as precedent for future decisions down the road.