Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

WATCH: Al Franken Blasts SCOTUS Nominee Neil Gorsuch

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat, brought the heat to Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Grouch Tuesday during his confirmation hearings for his decision as an appellate judge against a truck driver.

Truck driver Alphonse Maddin sued the TransAm trucking company for wrongful termination after he was fired for abandoning his malfunctioning trailer in subzero temperatures in Illinois. The trailer’s brakes froze and the heat in the cab went out. TransAm fired Maddin for abandoning his post. He sued, saying his termination violated federal safety law. Two of the judges in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor in 2016, with Gorsuch in dissent.

Gorsuch claimed that labor rules forbidding employers for making employees operate dangerous machinery did not apply because he said the dangerous machinery was the inoperable trailer, not the truck’s cab, and that the trailer was not being operated. That rankled Franken, who said that Gorsuch’s opinion “makes me question your judgement.”

“I had a career in identifying absurdity, and I know it when I see it,” the Democrat and former comedian said to Gorsuch.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.