Summary: President Donald Trump announced his pick Tuesday night for the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal judge from Colorado.
Tuesday night at the White House brought the announcement that people have been speculating over since Donald Trump was elected president. Trump elected federal Judge Neil Gorsuch from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to fill the empty seat left by the late Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court nearly a year ago.
In his address, Trump said, “I have selected an individual whose qualities define, really and I mean closely define, what we’re looking for. Judge Gorsuch, 49, has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan support.”
Gorsuch was appointed by former president George W. Bush in 2006 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. He was confirmed by a unanimous vote soon after. Gorsuch stated in his speech on Tuesday, “I pledge that if I am confirmed, I will do all in my powers to permit to be a faithful server to the constitutional laws of this great country. In our legal order it is for Congress and not the courts to write new laws. It is the role of judges to apply – not alter the work – of the people’s representatives.”
Analysts believe Gorsuch will rule much like Scalia did with a strict originalist view of the U.S. Constitution. He sided with religious employers like Hobby Lobby in the contraceptive case and the Colorado police department in the death of a young man from the stun gun of an officer.
Gorsuch would take a seat on an evenly divided Supreme Court, tipping the majority to the conservative side. Staunch Democrats have vowed to block his nomination, which would place a standstill on the Supreme Court seats and major issues awaiting decisions. The Senate needs 60 votes to confirm any nominee.
Should Gorsuch receive the confirmation from the Senate, he would be yet another Ivy League-educated justice. He received his legal degree from Harvard Law with other degrees from the University of Oxford and Columbia University. He started his legal career as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy and then to Judge David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appels for the D.C. Circuit. He then worked in private practice for several years before becoming the principal deputy to the U.S. associate attorney general during Bush’s administration. His mother was the first female director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under then-President Ronald Regan.
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently comprised of Harvard and Yale alum with Ruth Bader Ginsburg starting at Harvard by transferring to Columbia Law where she graduated. There are three Yale Law graduates with the rest tied to Harvard.
Do you think the Senate will get the 60 votes needed to confirm Gorsuch? Tell us your predictions in the comments below.
To learn more about what the seat Gorsuch is filling, read these articles:
- How Will the Death of Justice Antonin Scalia Change the Supreme Court?
- Justice Antonin Scalia Addresses Right to Privacy
- George Mason University Law School Renamed in Honor of Antonin Scalia
Photo:wikipedia.org