Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch preached the value of civility in a speech Thursday at the Trump Hotel in Washington.
“To be worthy of our First Amendment freedoms, we have to all adopt certain civil habits that enable others to enjoy them as well,” Gorsuch said. “It’s no exaggeration to say, I think, that to preserve our civil liberties, we have to constantly work on being civil with one another.”
Gorsuch spoke at the Trump Hotel for a “Defending Freedom Luncheon” hosted by the Fund for American Studies, a conservative group celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Gorsuch praised Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg at length and also spoke fondly of Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Justice Antonin Scalia. The newest justice’s remarks come ahead of the new term’s first day of oral arguments scheduled for Monday, which will include the re-argument of an immigration case the high court heard before Gorsuch’s arrival in April.
“In the United States, we do not have a shared common culture in the classic sense,” Gorsuch said. “Instead, Americans are bound together by ideas.”
Opponents of Trump and Gorsuch criticized the newest justice’s decision to speak at the venue because of the president’s financial interest in the hotel. About 20 abortion-rights activists from NARAL Pro-Choice America gathered outside the hotel in anticipation of the event, chanting “stolen court” in opposition to Gorsuch’s presence.
Roger Ream, Fund for American Studies president, said at the luncheon that the Trump Hotel was selected to host the event before Trump won the presidency because it was “new and elegant.” He noted other locations were being used to help celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary this week.
“We didn’t choose any of these venues for political reasons,” Ream said.
Gorsuch avoided discussion of current events, but he was preceded onstage by Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, who told Gorsuch not to be ashamed of criticism from the New York Times.
Gorsuch was seated with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ahead of his speech.
Disclaimer: The author is a 2017 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at the Fund for American Studies, which hosted the event.
