Gorsuch makes it clear that nixing affirmative action was stopping race discrimination

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch responded to criticisms and concerns about recent rulings to reverse prior rulings on abortion and affirmative action on "CBS Mornings" Monday. 

Gorsuch responded to criticism that his rulings are based in ideology rather than constitutional interpretation. He explained that he agrees with his more liberal colleagues 45% of the time, and he has no idea what "an ideologically divided case is." 

In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively ending recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and giving individual states the power to allow, limit, or ban the practice altogether. A year later, SCOTUS rejected the use of race as a factor in college admissions as a violation of the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, effectively ending affirmative action. 

CBS News' correspondent Major Garrett asked Gorsuch about the rulings to overturn such cases when the public thought were "settled."

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Neil Gorsuch CBS interview. (CBS Mornings)

"I'd say those are deeply complex legal questions on which reasonable minds can, of course, and do disagree. And then when it comes to Roe versus Wade, for example, what do the court decide decided that 'We the People' should answer that question, not nine people sitting in Washington, D.C.," Gorsuch said. 

Regarding affirmative action, "What did we decide? We decided that all people are created equal, that it's not acceptable in this country to discriminate on the basis of race." 

Garrett then pressed, "What about people who say, ‘But I feel that something has been taken away from me?’"

"I would say that we're taking it back to you. In a democracy, you're in the driver's seat. You're the sovereign. Those famous three first words of the Constitution empower you. Do you really want me deciding everything for you?" Gorsuch said. 

Gorsuch was appointed by former President Trump to the Supreme Court on April 7, 2017.  (Getty Images)

Garret then pressed on the abortion issue, "And for a woman in a state where she no longer has the rights she once relied on – is that cold comfort?"

"All I can say is I don't know better than you do on these questions, and that most major Western democracies have decided these questions through the ballot box," Gorsuch responded. 

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Gorsuch shared with Fox News Sunday's Shannon Bream Sunday a message for the Biden-Harris administration after it called on Congress to impose term limits and a code of conduct. 

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, July 4, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross)

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"It's there for the moments when the spotlight's on you, when the government's coming after you. And don't you want a ferociously independent judge and a jury of your peers to make those decisions? Isn't that your right as an American?" Gorsuch said. "And so I just say, be careful."

Fox News' Pilar Arias contributed to this report.