 Stern agreed with Gorsuch, stating that "Alito does not want the court to stretch Title VII beyond its application—as expected by Congress in 1964—and that approach is not textualism", adding that Alito's opinion "elevates the alleged mental processes of long-dead lawmakers over the ordinary meaning of words".Michael D. Shear, a White House correspondent for "The New York Times", stated that "Justice Gorsuch employed a fundamentally conservative principle—a literal reading of the words of a statute—to reach a decision that contrasts sharply with the conclusions of the other conservative justices on the court".Carrie Severino, the president of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network and a former law clerk of Justice Thomas, said that "Justice Scalia would be disappointed that his successor has bungled textualism so badly today, for the sake of appealing to college campuses and editorial boards".