Gorsuch Rejects Trump's Claim of Loyalty from Supreme Court Appointees

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch rejected President Trump's suggestion that high court members owe loyalty to the president who appointed them. He said his loyalty goes to the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Supreme Court for its 6-3 ruling in February that invalidated his broadest tariffs. Gorsuch and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, both Trump appointees, joined the six-justice majority. The president directed especially sharp attacks at them for their votes.

In a Truth Social post last month, Trump claimed justices appointed by Democratic presidents "stick together like glue, totally loyal to the people and ideology that got them there."

"Certain Republican Appointees," he added, "let the Democrats push them around, always wanting to be popular, politically correct, or even worse, wanting to show how 'independent' they are, with very little loyalty to the man who appointed them or, more importantly, the ideology from which they came to be Nominated and Confirmed."

Gorsuch told CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford that a justice does not owe a president loyalty.

"My loyalty is to the Constitution, the laws of the United States," he said. "That's the oath I took. It's really just that simple."

Gorsuch, who joined the court in 2017 at age 49, said the Constitution grants federal judges life tenure for a reason.

"Think about it," he told Crawford. "You've given nine old people life tenure. But you give them life tenure if you believe their job is only to apply the law fairly without regard to anybody or anything else or politics or any of the noise."

Gorsuch said the federal judiciary's structure works.

"Do I care what people say left, right, center about me? Nah," he said.

Gorsuch and co-author Janie Nitze released a children's book, "Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence," on Tuesday.

Trump has also suggested the Supreme Court will strike down his executive order to end birthright citizenship. He attended oral arguments last month and posted on social media, "based on the questioning by Republican Nominated Justices that I watched firsthand in the Court, we lose."

Democrats have criticized the court too, most recently for last week's ruling that weakened a key Voting Rights Act provision. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the high court "illegitimate" and its conservative justices "extremists."

That decision, along with the court's 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and its 2024 presidential immunity ruling, has spurred reform calls. Maryland Democratic Rep. Johnny Olszewski proposed a constitutional amendment Monday for 18-year justice terms. Democrats have pushed to expand the court, but those efforts have stalled in Congress, where most bills need 60 Senate votes.

Congress fixed the court's size at nine justices in 1869. Gorsuch said that setup has "worked reasonably well," matching a 2019 comment from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

He advised reform advocates to study the court's history and weigh change consequences.

"You may have some great ideas about reforming things and they might be right," Gorsuch said. "Make sure you know what you're reforming before you tinker with it. Once you start tinkering, you expect other people to tinker. And then where does it end?"