title:  The Supreme Court Delivered A MAJOR Blow To Neil Gorsuch As He Was Testifying
text: One of the selling points of Donald Trump s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is that his decisions are actually so mainstream and widely respected that he s never been overturned. Well, that argument wasn t true before he testified, but today it s even less true. One of decisions was unanimously overturned by the very court he s applying for, while he was testifying on his own behalf in front of Congress. To my recollection, no opinion I have authored has been reversed by a reviewing court or affirmed with significant criticism,  he wrote in a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee this weekend.Source: Daily CallerBefore this week, Gorsuch had had at least eight cases reviewed by the higher court. Seven were upheld by the court.Two opinions he joined were overturned by the high court. One was Direct Marketing Association v. Brohl, a case concerning whether federal courts had jurisdiction to hear a challenge to a state tax law. The second case concerned a sentencing issue. Gorsuch did not write the opinion in either case.His streak was broken on Tuesday. The case was about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which ensures that students with disabilities are provided with a  free appropriate public education  from the federal government.Under Gorsuch s opinion in Luke P., a school district complies with the law so long as they provide educational benefits that  must merely be  more than de minimis. De minimis  is a Latin phrase meaning  so minor as to merit disregard.  So Gorsuch essentially concluded that school districts comply with their obligation to disabled students so long as they provide those students with a little more than nothing.Gorsuch s decision was even too much for the hardline conservatives on the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the unanimous opinion, saying that the  de minimis  criteria is far too low.When all is said and done, a student offered an educational program providing  merely more than de minimis  progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an education at all. For children with disabilities, receiving instruction that aims so low would be tantamount to  sitting idly . . . awaiting the time when they were old enough to  drop out. Source: Think ProgressWhile this certainly doesn t disqualify Gorsuch from the office (the fact that he s only under consideration because Republicans stole the seat is what disqualifies him), it is a problem for the Trump administration. Trump rightfully took a lot of heat for mocking a reporter with a disability while on the campaign trail. With the latest Supreme Court decision, that can of worms opened right back up in an already contentious nomination hearing.Featured image via Wikimedia.