Updated March 22, 2017 09:10:24

Photo: Mr Gorsuch said Roe v. Wade should be treated like any other precedent. (Reuters: Jim Bourg)

Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's US Supreme Court pick, has declared he would have no trouble ruling against the President as he tries to stake out his independence amid concerns by Democrats that he would be beholden to the man who nominated him.

With the ideological balance of the Supreme Court at stake, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the second day of its confirmation hearing for Mr Gorsuch, a conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado.

Republicans, who control Congress, have praised Mr Gorsuch, 49, as highly qualified for a lifetime appointment as a justice, while Democrats have questioned his suitability.

Chuck Grassley, the panel's Republican chairman, asked Gorsuch "whether you'd have any trouble ruling against a president who appointed you".

"That's a softball, Mr Chairman," Mr Gorsuch replied.

"I have no difficulty ruling against or for any party, other than based on what the law and facts in the particular case require. And I'm heartened by the support I have received from people who recognise that there's no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge. We just have judges in this country."

Mr Trump has repeatedly assailed the judiciary both as a candidate and since taking office on January 20.

He has condemned federal judges who have put on hold his two executive orders to ban the entry into the United States of people from several Muslim-majority countries.

"A good judge doesn't give a whit about politics or the political implications of his or her decision, (and) decides where the law takes him or her fearlessly," Mr Gorsuch said.

In a Twitter post during the hearing on Tuesday, Mr Trump praised Gorsuch as "the kind of judge we need" for the high court.

If Mr Gorsuch is confirmed by the Senate, as expected, he would restore a narrow 5-4 conservative court majority.

The seat has been vacant for 13 months, since the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia.

Democrats have slim chances of blocking his nomination in the Republican-led Senate.

Senate Democrats and liberal activists have criticised Mr Trump for promising to nominate a jurist who would pass an anti-abortion "litmus test".

Mr Gorsuch said no one in the nomination process ever asked him for commitments or promises on how he would rule in any case.

"I have offered no promises on how I'd rule in any case to anyone. And I don't think it's appropriate for a judge to do so, no matter who's doing the asking," Mr Gorsuch told the committee.

Mr Gorsuch said Supreme Court precedents deserved respect, even as he sidestepped answering whether he thought a series of contentious cases from the past had been decided correctly.

He said it would be "beginning of the end" of the independent judiciary if judges had to indicate how they would rule in future cases.

Mr Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the committee, asked Mr Gorsuch about the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 ruling in the case Roe v Wade, which legalised abortion in the United States — many conservatives want that ruling overturned.

Ms Feinstein asked Mr Gorsuch whether that ruling should be considered a "super precedent" because its central holding has been upheld in subsequent cases.

"It has been reaffirmed many times," Mr Gorsuch responded, although he offered no view on whether it was properly decided.

"A good judge will consider it as precedent of the United States Supreme Court worthy of treatment of precedent like any other."

Reuters

Topics: world-politics, united-states

First posted March 22, 2017 08:40:34