Neil McGill Gorsuch ( ;
born August 29, 1967) is an American lawyer and judge who serves as an
associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is any member of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 18 ...
. He was
nominated
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* ...
by President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
on January 31, 2017, and has served since April 10, 2017.
Gorsuch was born in and spent his early life in
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, then lived in
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...
, while attending
Georgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boar ...
. He earned a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, a
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, and after practicing law for 15 years, received a
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
degree in law from the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, which he attended as a
Marshall Scholar
The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
. His doctoral thesis concerned the morality of
assisted suicide, under the supervision of the Catholic legal philosopher
John Finnis
John Mitchell Finnis, , (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher, jurist and scholar specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law, emeritus, at Notre Dame Law School and a ...
.
From 1995 to 2005, Gorsuch was in private practice with the law firm of
Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick
Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC is an American law firm based in Washington, DC. The "uber-elite, D.C.-based litigation boutique" was founded in 1993 by three former Harvard Law School classmates, Michael K. Kellogg, Peter W. Hub ...
. He was Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
from 2005 until his appointment to the Tenth Circuit. President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
nominated Gorsuch to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
* District of Colorado
* District of Kansas
* Dist ...
on May 10, 2006, to replace Judge
David M. Ebel, who took
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
in 2006.
Gorsuch is a proponent of
textualism
Textualism is a formalist theory in which the interpretation of the law is primarily based on the ordinary meaning of the legal text, where no consideration is given to non-textual sources, such as intention of the law when passed, th ...
in
statutory interpretation
Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation. Some amount of interpretation is often necessary when a case involves a statute. Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and a straightforward meani ...
and
originalism
In the context of United States law, originalism is a theory of constitutional interpretation that asserts that all statements in the Constitution must be interpreted based on the original understanding "at the time it was adopted". This conc ...
in interpreting the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
.
[ Along with Justice ]Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 199 ...
, he is an advocate of natural law jurisprudence. Gorsuch clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992 and U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
justices Byron White
Byron "Whizzer" Raymond White (June 8, 1917 April 15, 2002) was an American professional football player and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 until his retirement in 1993.
Born and raised in Colo ...
and Anthony Kennedy
Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Presid ...
from 1993 to 1994. He is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside a justice for whom he once clerked (Kennedy). During his tenure on the Supreme Court he has written notable opinions in landmark cases such as '' Bostock v. Clayton County'', ''McGirt v. Oklahoma
''McGirt v. Oklahoma'', 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which ruled that, as pertaining to the Major Crimes Act, much of the eastern portion of the state of Oklahoma remains as Native American lands of the pr ...
'', and ''Kennedy v. Bremerton School District
''Kennedy v. Bremerton School District'', 597 U.S. ___ (2022), is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held, 6–3, that the government, while following the Establishment Clause, may not suppress an individual ...
''.
Early life and education
Gorsuch was born on August 29, 1967, in Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, to Anne Gorsuch Burford (née McGill; 1942–2004) and David Ronald Gorsuch (1937–2001). He was the eldest of three children, and is a fourth-generation Coloradan. Both of Gorsuch's parents were lawyers, and his mother served in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1976 to 1980. In 1981, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
to be the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon pro ...
, becoming the first woman to hold that position. At his mother's appointment, Gorsuch's family moved to Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...
. He attended Georgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boar ...
, a prestigious Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
prep school, where he was two years junior to Brett Kavanaugh
Brett Michael Kavanaugh ( ; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since ...
, alongside whom he later clerked at the Supreme Court and eventually served as a Supreme Court justice.[Neil Gorsuch - Religion](_blank)
Denverpost.com, February 10, 2017; accessed February 25, 2017. While attending Georgetown Prep, Gorsuch served as a United States Senate page
A United States Senate Page (Senate Page or simply Page) is a high-school age teen serving the United States Senate in Washington, D.C. Pages are nominated by senators, usually from their home state, and perform a variety of tasks, such as delive ...
in the early 1980s. He graduated from Georgetown Prep in 1985.
After high school, Gorsuch attended Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and graduated '' cum laude'' in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
. While at Columbia, Gorsuch was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
.[ He was also a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. As an undergraduate student, he wrote for the '']Columbia Daily Spectator
The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' (known colloquially as the ''Spec'') is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after ''The Harvard Crimson'', and has ...
'' student newspaper. In 1986, he co-founded the alternative Columbia student newspaper ''The Fed
The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...
''.
Gorsuch then attended Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
, receiving a Harry S. Truman Scholarship
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academic ...
to attend.[Neil M. Gorsuch '91 nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court](_blank)
, ''Harvard Law Today'', January 31, 2017. He was described as a committed conservative who supported the Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
and congressional term limits on "a campus full of ardent liberals". Former President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
was one of Gorsuch's classmates at Harvard Law. Gorsuch was an editor of the ''Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
The ''Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy'' is a law review for conservative and libertarian legal scholarship. It was established by Harvard Law School students Spencer Abraham and Stephen Eberhard in 1978, leading to the founding of the Fed ...
'',[ and graduated from Harvard Law in 1991 with a ]Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
'' cum laude''.
In 2004, Gorsuch received a Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
in law (legal philosophy) from the University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, where he completed research on assisted suicide and euthanasia as a postgraduate student of University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
.[ ][ A ]Marshall Scholarship
The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
enabled him to study at Oxford in 1992–93, where he was supervised by the natural law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...
philosopher John Finnis
John Mitchell Finnis, , (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher, jurist and scholar specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law, emeritus, at Notre Dame Law School and a ...
of University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
. His thesis was also supervised by Professor Timothy Endicott Timothy Endicott (born 9 July 1960) is a Canadian legal scholar and philosopher specializing in constitutional law and language and law. He is the Vinerian Professor of English Law in the University of Oxford, and Fellow of All Souls College, Univer ...
of Balliol College, Oxford.[ In 1996, Gorsuch married Louise, an Englishwoman and champion equestrienne on Oxford's riding team whom he met during his stay there.][
]
Early legal career
Clerkships
Gorsuch served as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992. After spending a year at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, Gorsuch clerked for Supreme Court Justices Byron White
Byron "Whizzer" Raymond White (June 8, 1917 April 15, 2002) was an American professional football player and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 until his retirement in 1993.
Born and raised in Colo ...
and Anthony Kennedy
Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Presid ...
from 1993 to 1994. His work with White occurred right after White retired from the Supreme Court; therefore, Gorsuch assisted White with his work on the Tenth Circuit, where White sat by designation.[ Gorsuch was part of a group of five law clerks assigned that year that included ]Brett Kavanaugh
Brett Michael Kavanaugh ( ; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since ...
, who described Gorsuch at the time, saying: "He fit into the place very easily. He's just an easy guy to get along with. He doesn't have sharp elbows. We had a wide range of views, but we all really got along well."
Private law practice
Instead of joining an established law firm, Gorsuch decided to join the two-year-old boutique firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel (now Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick
Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC is an American law firm based in Washington, DC. The "uber-elite, D.C.-based litigation boutique" was founded in 1993 by three former Harvard Law School classmates, Michael K. Kellogg, Peter W. Hub ...
), where he focused on trial work.[ After winning his first trial as lead attorney, a jury member told Gorsuch he was like ]Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
.[ He was an associate in the Washington, D.C., law firm from 1995 to 1997 and a partner from 1998 to 2005.] Gorsuch's clients included Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz. At Kellogg Huber, Gorsuch focused on commercial matters, including contracts, antitrust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
, RICO
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
RICO was en ...
, and securities fraud
Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in lo ...
.[
In 2002, Gorsuch wrote an op-ed criticizing the Senate for delaying the nominations of ]Merrick Garland
Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since March 2021 as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of ...
and John Roberts
John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including '' Nat ...
to the , writing, "the most impressive judicial nominees are grossly mistreated" by the Senate.
In 2005, at Kellogg Huber, Gorsuch wrote a brief
Brief, briefs, or briefing may refer to:
Documents
* A letter
* A briefing note
* Papal brief, a papal letter less formal than a bull, sealed with the pope's signet ring or stamped with the device borne on this ring
* Design brief, a type of ed ...
denouncing class action lawsuit
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
s by attorneys on behalf of shareholder
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...
s. In the case of '' Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Broudo'', Gorsuch opined, "The free ride to fast riches enjoyed by securities class action attorneys in recent years appeared to hit a speed bump" and "the problem is that securities fraud litigation imposes an enormous toll on the economy, affecting virtually every public corporation in America at one time or another and costing businesses billions of dollars in settlements every year".[
]
U.S. Department of Justice
Gorsuch served as Principal Deputy to the Associate Attorney General, Robert McCallum, at the United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
from 2005 until 2006. As McCallum's principal deputy, he assisted in managing the Department of Justice's civil litigation components, which included the antitrust, civil, civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
, environment, and tax divisions.
While managing the United States Department of Justice Civil Division
The United States Department of Justice Civil Division represents the United States, its departments and agencies, members of Congress
A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official bod ...
, Gorsuch was tasked with all the "terror litigation" arising from the president's War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
, successfully defending the extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored Kidnapping, forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had t ...
of Khalid El-Masri
Khaled El-Masri (also Khalid El-Masri and Khaled Masri, Levantine Arabic pronunciation: , ar, خالد المصري) (born 29 June 1963) is a German and Lebanese citizen who was mistakenly abducted by the Macedonian police in 2003, and handed ov ...
, fighting the disclosure of Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse photographs, and, in November 2005, traveling to inspect the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Gorsuch helped Attorney General Alberto Gonzales prepare for hearings after the public revelation of NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–07)
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...
, and worked with Senator Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, Graham chaired the Senate Committee on ...
in drafting the provisions in the Detainee Treatment Act
The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) is an Act of the United States Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on 30 December 2005. Offered as an amendment to a supplemental defense spending bill, it contains provisions re ...
that attempted to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over the detainees.
Judge on Tenth Circuit (2006–2017)
In January 2006, Philip Anschutz recommended Gorsuch's nomination to Colorado's U.S. senator Wayne Allard
Alan Wayne Allard (born December 2, 1943) is an American veterinarian and politician who served as a United States Representative (1991–1997) and United States Senator (1997–2009) from Colorado, as well as previously a Colorado State Senator ...
and White House Counsel Harriet Miers
Harriet Ellan Miers (born August 10, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party since 1988, she previously served as White House Staff Secretary f ...
.[ On May 10, 2006, President ]George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
nominated Gorsuch to the seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
* District of Colorado
* District of Kansas
* Distri ...
vacated by Judge David M. Ebel, who was taking senior status
Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
.[ Like Ebel, Gorsuch was a former clerk of Justice White. The ]American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated him "well qualified" in 2006.[
On July 20, 2006, Gorsuch was confirmed by unanimous ]voice vote
In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...
in the U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
. He was Bush's fifth appointment to the Tenth Circuit. When Gorsuch began his tenure at Denver's Byron White United States Courthouse
The Byron White United States Courthouse is a courthouse in Denver, Colorado, currently the seat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. It formerly housed courthouses of the United States District Court for the District of C ...
, Justice Kennedy administered the oath of office.
During his time on the Tenth Circuit, ten of Gorsuch's law clerks went on to become Supreme Court clerks, and he was sometimes regarded as a "feeder judge In the United States, feeder judges are prominent judges in the American federal judiciary whose law clerks are frequently selected to become law clerks for the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Feeder judges are able to place comparatively many ...
". One of his former clerks, Jonathan Papik
Jonathan James Papik (born January 7, 1982) is an associate justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Biography
Papik earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from University of Northwestern – St. Paul, graduating '' summa cum laude'', and a Juris ...
, became an associate justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court
The Nebraska Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Nebraska. The court consists of a chief justice and six associate justices. Each justice is initially appointed by the governor of Nebraska; using the Missouri Plan, each jus ...
in 2018.
Freedom of religion
Gorsuch advocates a broad definition of religious freedom
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...
that is inimical to church–state separation advocates.
In ''Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius'' (2013), Gorsuch wrote a concurrence when the ''en banc
In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...
'' circuit found the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Pres ...
's contraceptive mandate
A contraceptive mandate is a government regulation or law that requires health insurers, or employers that provide their employees with health insurance, to cover some contraceptive costs in their health insurance plans.
In 1978, the United States ...
on a private business violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 (November 16, 1993), codified at through (also known as RFRA, pronounced "rifra"), is a 1993 United States federal law that "ensures that interests in religiou ...
. That ruling was upheld 5–4 by the Supreme Court in '' Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.'' (2014).[Citron, Eric]
Potential nominee profile: Neil Gorsuch
, SCOTUSblog.com, January 13, 2017. When a panel of the court denied similar claims under the same act in ''Little Sisters of the Poor
The Little Sisters of the Poor (french: Petites Sœurs des pauvres) is a Catholic religious institute for women. It was founded by Jeanne Jugan. Having felt the need to care for the many impoverished elderly who lined the streets of French towns ...
Home for the Aged v. Burwell'' (2015), Gorsuch joined Judges Harris Hartz
Harris L Hartz (born January 20, 1947) is an American jurist and lawyer who serves as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Early life and education
Hartz was born in 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland. He grew up in Far ...
, Paul Joseph Kelly Jr.
Paul Joseph Kelly Jr. (born 1940) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. His chambers are in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Education and career
Born in Freeport, New York, Kelly received ...
, Timothy Tymkovich
Timothy Michael Tymkovich (born November 2, 1956) is the United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Early life and education
Born in Denver, Colorado, Tymkovich is a third-generation Coloradan. Hi ...
, and Jerome Holmes
Jerome A. Holmes (born November 18, 1961) is an American lawyer serving as the Chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He is the first African American to serve on the Tenth Circuit.
Early ...
in their dissent to the denial of rehearing ''en banc''. That ruling was vacated and remanded to the Tenth Circuit by the ''per curiam
In law, a ''per curiam'' decision (or opinion) is a ruling issued by an appellate court of multiple judges in which the decision rendered is made by the court (or at least, a majority of the court) acting collectively (and typically, though not ...
'' Supreme Court in '' Zubik v. Burwell'' (2016).[
In '' Pleasant Grove City v. Summum'' (2007), he joined Judge ]Michael W. McConnell
Michael William McConnell (born May 18, 1955) is an American constitutional law scholar who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2002 to 2009. Since 2009, McConnell has been a ...
's dissent from the denial of rehearing ''en banc'', taking the view that the government's display of a donated Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
monument in a public park did not obligate the government to display other offered monuments. The Supreme Court subsequently adopted most of the dissent's view, reversing the Tenth Circuit's judgment. Gorsuch has written, "the law ..doesn't just apply to protect popular religious beliefs: it does perhaps its most important work in protecting unpopular religious beliefs, vindicating this nation's long-held aspiration to serve as a refuge of religious tolerance".[
]
Administrative law
Gorsuch has called for reconsideration of '' Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.'' (1984), in which the Supreme Court instructed courts to grant deference to federal agencies' interpretation of ambiguous laws and regulations. In ''Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch'' (2016), Gorsuch wrote for a unanimous panel finding that court review was required before an executive agency could reject the circuit court's interpretation of an immigration law.
Alone, Gorsuch added a concurring opinion
In law, a concurring opinion is in certain legal systems a written opinion by one or more judges of a court which agrees with the decision made by the majority of the court, but states different (or additional) reasons as the basis for their deci ...
, criticizing ''Chevron'' deference and '' National Cable & Telecommunications Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services'' (2005) as an "abdication of judicial duty" and writing that deference is "more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers' design".
In ''United States v. Hinckley'' (2008), Gorsuch argued that one possible reading of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is a federal statute that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. The Walsh Act organizes sex offenders into three tiers according to the crime committed, and mand ...
likely violates the nondelegation doctrine
The doctrine of nondelegation (or non-delegation principle) is the theory that one branch of government must not authorize another entity to exercise the power or function which it is constitutionally authorized to exercise itself. It is explicit ...
. Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by Presiden ...
had held the same view in their 2012 dissent in ''Reynolds v. United States
''Reynolds v. United States'', 98 U.S. 145 (1878), was a Supreme Court of the United States case that held that religious duty was not a defense to a criminal indictment. ''Reynolds'' was the first Supreme Court opinion to address the First Amen ...
''.
Interstate commerce
Gorsuch has been an opponent of the dormant Commerce Clause
The Dormant Commerce Clause, or Negative Commerce Clause, in American constitutional law, is a legal doctrine that courts in the United States have inferred from the Commerce Clause in Article I of the US Constitution. The primary focus of the d ...
, which allows state laws to be declared unconstitutional if they too greatly burden interstate commerce
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amo ...
. In 2011, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that the dormant Commerce Clause did not prevent the Oklahoma Water Resources Board
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) is an agency in the government of Oklahoma under the Governor of Oklahoma. OWRB is responsible for managing and protection the water resources of Oklahoma as well as for planning for the state's long-ran ...
from blocking water exports to Texas. A unanimous Supreme Court affirmed that ruling in ''Tarrant Regional Water District
The Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) is a water district in Texas. It provides raw water for over 2.1 million people, implements vital flood control measures and creates recreational opportunities for the residents of 11 North Texas Counties. ...
v. Herrmann'' (2013).
In 2013, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that federal courts could not hear a challenge to Colorado's internet sales tax. A unanimous Supreme Court reversed that ruling in '' Direct Marketing Ass'n v. Brohl'' (2015).[ In 2016, the Tenth Circuit panel rejected the challenger's dormant commerce clause claim, with Gorsuch writing a concurrence.
In ''Energy and Environmental Legal Institute v. Joshua Epel'' (2015), Gorsuch held that Colorado's mandates for renewable energy did not violate the commerce clause by putting out-of-state coal companies at a disadvantage. He wrote that the Colorado renewable energy law "isn't a price-control statute, it doesn't link prices paid in Colorado with those paid out of state, and it does not discriminate against out-of-staters".
]
Campaign finance
In ''Riddle v. Hickenlooper'' (2014), Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel of the Tenth Circuit in finding that it was unconstitutional for a Colorado law to set the limit on donations for write-in candidates at half the amount for major party candidates. He added a concurrence noting that although the standard of review of campaign finance in the United States
The financing of electoral campaigns in the United States happens at the federal, state, and local levels by contributions from individuals, corporations, political action committees, and sometimes the government. Campaign spending has rise ...
is unclear, the Colorado law would fail even under intermediate scrutiny.
Civil rights
In '' Planned Parenthood v. Herbert
Herbert may refer to:
People Individuals
* Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert
Name
* Herbert (given name)
* Herbert (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Herbert Mountains, Coats Land
* Herbert Sound, Graham Land
Australia
* Herbert ...
'' (2016), Gorsuch wrote for the four dissenting judges when the Tenth Circuit denied a full rehearing of a divided panel opinion that had ordered the Utah governor to resume the organization's funding, which Herbert had blocked in response to a video controversy.
In ''A.M. v. Holmes'' (2016), the Tenth Circuit considered a case in which a 13-year-old child was arrested for burping and laughing in gym class. The child was handcuffed and arrested based on a New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
statute that makes it a misdemeanor to disrupt school activities. The child's family brought a federal § 1983 civil rights action against school officials and the school resource officer
The United States Department of Justice defines School Resource Officer (SRO) as "sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools." SROs are employed by a local police or sheriff's agency and work closely w ...
who made the arrest, arguing that it was a false arrest
False arrest, Unlawful arrest or Wrongful arrest is a common law tort, where a plaintiff alleges they were held in custody without probable cause, or without an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. Although it is possible to sue ...
that violated the child's constitutional rights. In a 94-page majority opinion, the Tenth Circuit held that the defendants enjoyed qualified immunity
In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statu ...
from suit.[ Majority finding on qualified immunity, pp. 93-94; Gorsuch dissent, pp. 1-4.] Gorsuch wrote a four-page dissent, arguing that the New Mexico Court of Appeals had "long ago alerted law enforcement" that the statute that the officer relied upon for the child's arrest does not criminalize noises or diversions that merely disturb order in a classroom.
Criminal law
In 2009, Gorsuch wrote for a unanimous panel finding that a court may still order criminals to pay restitution even after it missed a statutory deadline. The Supreme Court affirmed that ruling 5–4 in ''Dolan v. United States'' (2010).[
In ''United States v. Games-Perez'' (2012), Gorsuch ruled on a case where a felon owned a gun in violation of (g)(1), but alleged that he did not know that he was a felon at the time. Gorsuch joined the majority in upholding the conviction based on Tenth Circuit precedent, but filed a concurring opinion arguing that said precedent was wrongly decided: "The only statutory element separating innocent (even constitutionally protected) gun possession from criminal conduct in §§ 922(g) and 924(a) is a prior felony conviction. So the presumption that the government must prove mens rea here applies with full force." In the 2019 case ''Rehaif v. United States'', the Supreme Court overruled this decision, with Gorsuch joining.
In 2013, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that intent does not need to be proven under a bank fraud statute. A unanimous Supreme Court affirmed that ruling in ''Loughrin v. United States'' (2014).][ In 2015, Gorsuch wrote a dissent to the denial of rehearing ''en banc'' when the Tenth Circuit found that a convicted sex offender had to register with Kansas after he moved to the Philippines. A unanimous Supreme Court reversed the Tenth Circuit in ''Nichols v. United States'' (2016).][
]
Death penalty
Gorsuch favors a strict reading of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA).[ In 2015, he wrote for the court when it permitted Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to order the execution of Scott Eizember, prompting a 30-page dissent by Judge Mary Beck Briscoe. After the state's unsuccessful execution of Clayton Lockett, Gorsuch joined Briscoe when the court unanimously allowed Pruitt to continue using the same lethal injection protocol. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling 5–4 in ''Glossip v. Gross'' (2015).]
List of judicial opinions
During his tenure on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
* District of Colorado
* District of Kansas
* Dist ...
, Gorsuch authored 212 published opinions. Some of those are:
* ''United States v. Hinckley''
550 F. 3d 926
(2008), on principles of interpretation and construction of a statute, according to Plain meaning rule, plain meaning and context
* ''United States v. Ford''
550 F. 3d 975
(2008) on entrapment and email Evidence (law), evidence
* ''Blausey v. US Trustee'', 552 F. 3d 1124 (2009), on Legal procedure, procedure
* ''Williams v. Jones'', 583 F. 3d 1254 (2009), dissent, on murder and evidence
* ''Wilson v. Workman'', 577 F. 3d 1284 (2009), ''habeas corpus'' writ procedure
* ''Fisher v. City of Las Cruces'', 584 F. 3d 888 (2009), Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourth Amendment excessive force claims against police officers
* ''Strickland v. United Parcel Service, Inc.'', 555 F. 3d 1224 (2009), on gender discrimination and harassment, arguing that if men are treated as equally badly as women, there is no Claim (legal), claim
* ''American Atheists, Inc. v. Davenport'', 637 F. 3d 1095 (2010), on crosses displayed on highways
* ''Flitton v. Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc.'', 614 F. 3d 1173 (2010), on jurisdiction over attorney fees in a gender discrimination and retaliation case
* ''Laborers' International Union of North America, Laborers' International Union, Local 578 v. NLRB'', 594 F. 3d 732 (2010), dismissing the union's challenge to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finding that the union committed an unfair labor practice by persuading a company to dismiss a worker who did not pay union dues
* ''McClendon v. City of Albuquerque'', 630 F. 3d 1288 (2011), dismissing class action lawsuit over inhumane jail conditions
* ''Public Service Company of New Mexico, Public Service Co. of New Mexico v. NLRB'', 692 F. 3d 1068 (2012), dismissing a union's claim that the NLRB was wrong to not find an unfair labor practice, when an employer dismissed a worker for deliberately disconnecting a customer's gas supply (no evidence that it treated this employee differently)
* ''United States v. Games-Perez'', 695 F. 3d 1104 (2012), on imprisonment without trial
* ''United States v. Games-Perez'', 667 F. 3d 1136 (2012), on Criminal procedure, criminal law procedure
* ''Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius'', 723 F. 3d 1114 (2013), on the Affordable Care Act and Freedom of religion, religious freedom
* ''Niemi v. Lasshofer'', 728 F. 3d 1252 (2013) fugitive disentitlement doctrine
* ''Riddle v. John Hickenlooper, Hickenlooper'', 742 F. 3d 922 (2014), stating: "No one before us disputes that the act of Campaign finance in the United States, contributing to political campaigns implicates a 'basic constitutional freedom,' one lying 'at the foundation of a free society' and enjoying a significant relationship to the right to speak and associate—both expressly protected First Amendment activities. ''Buckley v. Valeo'', 424 U.S. 1, 26 (1976)"
* ''Yellowbear v. Lampert'', 741 F. 3d 48 (2014), freedom to practice religion in prison
* ''Teamsters Union, Teamsters Local union, Local Union No. 455 v. NLRB''
765 F. 3d 1198 (2014)
denying a labor union's claim that a lockout entitled employees to back pay, under the NLRA 1935, 29 USC § 158(a)(1)
* ''United States v. Krueger'', 809 F. 3d 1109 (2015), regarding the Fourth Amendment and search and seizures
* ''International Union of Operating Engineers v. NLRB''
635 Fed. Appx. 480 (2015)
on NLRB's review of an unfair labor practice by a union, removing an employee from an eligible work list and refusing her the right to review
* ''United States v. Arthurs'' (2016), evidence
* ''United States v. Mitchell'' (2016), evidence, tracking without a Warrant (law), warrant
* ''NLRB v. Community Health Services''
812 F.3d 768 (2016)
dissenting, arguing against an NLRB decision that interim earnings should not be disregarded when calculating back pay for employees whose hours were unlawfully reduced
* ''TransAm Trucking v. Administrative Review Board''
833 F. 3d 1206 (2016)
, dissenting against the majority's judgment that an employee was unjustly dismissed.
* ''Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch'', 834 F.3d 1142 (2016), on United States administrative law, U.S. administrative law, Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.#Opposition, doubting the doctrine of Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.#Importance, deference to the federal government by courts in '' Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.'', 467 U.S. 837 (1984)
Nomination to Supreme Court
During the 2016 United States presidential election, 2016 U.S. presidential election, candidate Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
included Gorsuch, as well as his circuit colleague Timothy Tymkovich
Timothy Michael Tymkovich (born November 2, 1956) is the United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Early life and education
Born in Denver, Colorado, Tymkovich is a third-generation Coloradan. Hi ...
, in a list of 21 judges whom Donald Trump Supreme Court candidates, Trump would consider nominating to the Supreme Court if elected. After Trump took office in January 2017, unnamed advisers listed Gorsuch in a shorter list of eight, who they said were the leading contenders to be nominated to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
On January 31, 2017, Trump announced his Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination, nomination of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.[ Gorsuch was 49 years old at the time of the nomination, making him the youngest nominee to the Supreme Court since the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination, 1991 nomination of Clarence Thomas, who was 43.] It was reported by the Associated Press that, as a courtesy, Gorsuch's first call after the nomination was to President Obama's pick for the same position, Merrick Garland
Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since March 2021 as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of ...
, Chief Judge of the . Obama had nominated Garland on March 16, 2016, but Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley did not schedule a hearing for him, leaving Garland's nomination to expire on January 3, 2017. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell invoked the so-called "Biden Rule" (of 1992) to justify the Senate's refusal to consider Garland's nomination in a general election year.
Trump formally transmitted his nomination to the Senate on February 1, 2017. The American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
unanimously gave Gorsuch its top rating—"Well Qualified"—to serve as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. His confirmation hearing before the Senate started on March 20, 2017.
On April 3, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination with a party-line 11–9 vote. On April 6, 2017, Democrats Filibuster in the United States Senate, filibustered (prevented cloture#United States, cloture) the confirmation vote, after which Republicans invoked the "nuclear option", allowing a filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee to be broken by a simple majority vote.
On April 4, BuzzFeed and ''Politico'' ran articles highlighting similar language occurring in Gorsuch's book ''The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia'' and an earlier law review article by Abigail Lawlis Kuzma, Indiana's deputy attorney general. Academic experts contacted by ''Politico'' "differed in their assessment of what Gorsuch did, ranging from calling it a clear impropriety to mere sloppiness."[Bryan Logan (April 4, 2016]
Neil Gorsuch is accused of plagiarism amid a heated Supreme Court confirmation fight
, businessinsider.com; accessed April 15, 2017.
John Finnis
John Mitchell Finnis, , (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher, jurist and scholar specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law, emeritus, at Notre Dame Law School and a ...
, who supervised Gorsuch's dissertation at Oxford, said, "The allegation is entirely without foundation. The book is meticulous in its citation of primary sources. The allegation that the book is guilty of plagiarism because it does not cite secondary sources which draw on those same primary sources is, frankly, absurd." Kuzma said, "I have reviewed both passages and do not see an issue here, even though the language is similar. These passages are factual, not analytical in nature, framing both the technical legal and medical circumstances of the 'Baby Doe Law, Baby/Infant Doe' case that occurred in 1982." In his book on Gorsuch, John Greenya described how Gorsuch was challenged during his confirmation hearings concerning some of his dissertation advisor's more strident views, which Gorsuch generally disagreed with.
On April 7, 2017, the Senate confirmed Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court by a 54–45 vote, with three Democrats (Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin, and Joe Donnelly) joining all Republicans in attendance.
Gorsuch received his commission on April 8, 2017. He was sworn into office on Monday, April 10, 2017, in two ceremonies. The chief justice of the United States administered the constitutional oath of office in a private ceremony at 9 a.m. at the Supreme Court, making Gorsuch the 101st associate justice of the Court. At 11 a.m., Justice Kennedy administered the judicial oath of office in a public ceremony at the White House Rose Garden.
Tenure as associate justice (2017–present)
Banking regulation
Gorsuch wrote his first U.S. Supreme Court decision for a unanimous court in ''Henson v. Santander Consumer USA Inc.'', 582 U.S. ___ (2017). Gorsuch and the Court ruled against the borrowers, holding that Banco Santander, Santander in this case is not a debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act since it purchased the original defaulted car loans from Citigroup, CitiFinancial for pennies on the dollar, making Santander the owner of the debts and not merely an agent.[Henson v. Santander Consumer USA Inc.]
, U.S. Supreme Court, June 12, 2017. When the act was enacted, regulations were put on institutions that collected other companies' debts, but the act left unaddressed businesses collecting their own debts.
Freedom of speech
Gorsuch joined the majority in ''National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra'' and ''Janus v. AFSCME'', which both held unconstitutional certain forms of compelled speech.
LGBT rights
In 2017, in ''Pavan v. Smith'', the Supreme Court "summarily overruled" the Arkansas Supreme Court's decision to deny same-sex married parents the same right to appear on the birth certificate. Gorsuch wrote a dissent, joined by Thomas and Alito, arguing that the Court should have fully heard the arguments of the case.
In 2020, Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion in the combined cases of '' Bostock v. Clayton County'', ''Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda'', and ''R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission'', ruling that businesses cannot discriminate in employment against LGBTQ people. He argued that discrimination based on sexual orientation was illegal discrimination on the basis of sex, because the employer would be discriminating "for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex". The ruling was 6–3, with Gorsuch joined by Chief Justice Roberts and the Court's four Democratic appointees. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh dissented from the decision, arguing that it improperly extended the Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
In October 2020, Gorsuch agreed with the justices in an "apparently unanimous" decision to deny an appeal from Kim Davis, a county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In June 2021, he joined the justices in the unanimous Fulton v. City of Philadelphia decision, ruling in favor of a Catholic adoption agency that had been denied a contract by the City of Philadelphia due to the agency's refusal to adopt to same-sex couples. Gorsuch and Thomas joined Alito's concurrence, which argued for reconsidering, possibly overturning, ''Employment Division v. Smith'', "an important precedent limiting First Amendment protections for religious practices." Also in 2021, Gorsuch was one of three justices, with Thomas and Alito, who voted to hear an appeal from a Washington State florist who had refused service to a same-sex couple based on her religious beliefs against same-sex marriage. In November 2021, Gorsuch dissented from the Court's 6–3 decision to reject an appeal from Mercy San Juan Medical Center, a hospital affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, which had sought to deny a hysterectomy to a transgender patient on religious grounds. The decision to reject the appeal left in place a lower court ruling in the patient's favor; Thomas and Alito also dissented.
Second Amendment
Gorsuch joined Thomas's dissent from denial of certiorari in ''Peruta v. San Diego County'', in which the Ninth Circuit had upheld California's restrictive concealed carry laws.
Gorsuch wrote a statement regarding the denial of an application for a stay presented to Roberts in ''Guedes v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives'', a 2019 United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, D.C. Circuit case challenging the Trump administration's ban on bump stocks. In his statement Gorsuch criticized the Trump Administration's action as well as the justification the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit used for upholding the ban.
Vagueness doctrine
In ''Sessions v. Dimaya'' (2018), the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 to uphold the Ninth Circuit's decision that the residual clause in the Immigration and Nationality Act was unconstitutionally vague. Gorsuch joined Justices Kagan, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor in the opinion, and wrote a separate concurrence reiterating the importance of the vagueness doctrine within Scalia's 2015 opinion in ''Johnson v. United States (2015), Johnson''. In ''United States v. Davis (2019), United States v. Davis'' (2019), Gorsuch wrote the Opinion of the Court striking down the residual clause of the Hobbs Act based on the rationale used in ''Dimaya''.
Abortion
In December 2018, Gorsuch dissented when the Court voted against hearing cases brought by the states of Louisiana and Kansas to deny Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. He and Alito joined Thomas's dissent arguing that it was the Court's job to hear the case.
In February 2019, Gorsuch sided with three of the Court's other conservative justices, rejecting a Stay of proceedings, stay to temporarily block a law Types of abortion restrictions in the United States, restricting abortion in Louisiana. The law that the court temporarily stayed, in a 5–4 decision, would require that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges in a hospital. In June 2020, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's abortion restriction in ''June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo'', a 5–4 decision; Gorsuch was among the four dissenters. In September 2021, the Supreme Court declined a petition to block a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks; the vote was 5–4 with Gorsuch in the majority, joined by Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.
In June 2022, Gorsuch was among the five justices who formed the majority opinion in ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', which ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion, overruling ''Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey''.
Native American law
During his time on the Supreme Court, Gorsuch has frequently departed from his fellow conservative justices in affirming tribal rights; his appointment to the Court was supported by multiple tribes and Native American organizations due to his favorable rulings as a Tenth Circuit judge.
In March 2019, Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices (in two plurality opinions) in a 5–4 majority in ''Washington State Dept. of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc.'' The Court's decision sided with the Yakama Nation, striking down a Washington (state), Washington state tax on transporting gasoline, on the basis of an 1855 treaty in which the Yakama ceded a large portion of Washington in exchange for certain rights. In his concurrence, which was joined by Ginsburg, Gorsuch ended his opinion by writing: "Really, this case just tells an old and familiar story. The State of Washington includes millions of acres that the Yakamas ceded to the United States under significant pressure. In return, the government supplied a handful of modest promises. The state is now dissatisfied with the consequences of one of those promises. It is a new day, and now it wants more. But today and to its credit, the Court holds the parties to the terms of their deal. It is the least we can do."
In May 2019, Gorsuch again joined the four more liberal justices in a decision favorable to Native Americans' treaty rights, signing on to Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Sotomayor's opinion to reach a 5–4 decision in ''Herrera v. Wyoming''. The case held that hunting rights in Montana and Wyoming, granted by the U.S. government to the Native American Crow people by an 1868 treaty, were not extinguished by the 1890 grant of statehood to Wyoming.
In July 2020, Gorsuch again joined the liberal justices to make a 5–4 majority in ''McGirt v. Oklahoma
''McGirt v. Oklahoma'', 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which ruled that, as pertaining to the Major Crimes Act, much of the eastern portion of the state of Oklahoma remains as Native American lands of the pr ...
''. The case considered whether much of eastern Oklahoma still remained under the jurisdiction of the "Five Civilized Tribes", given that the Native American Treaties that had designated the region as under their reservation status had never been dissolved by Congress, and, if so, whether crimes committed by Native Americans against other Native Americans on tribal land were under the jurisdiction of Native Courts. The landmark decision in the affirmative, written by Gorsuch, found that "For Major Crimes Act purposes, land reserved for the Creek Nation since the 19th century remains 'Indian country.'" In the opinion, he wrote: "Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word." The case was later reviewed in the June 2022 case Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, which considered whether non-Natives who committed crimes against Natives on Native American territory can be charged under the sole jurisdiction of Native American tribal courts. While the state of Oklahoma had initially argued for the overturning of ''McGirt'', the Court agreed to hear only issues relating to the impacts of ''McGirt''. The 5-4 decision by Justice Brett Kavanaugh
Brett Michael Kavanaugh ( ; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since ...
opposed the more expanded viewpoint of non-Native criminal jurisdiction, with the opinion giving jurisdiction over such crimes to both tribal and federal/state governments. Gorsuch derided the opinion in his dissent, writing, "Where this Court once stood firm, today it wilts."
On June 15, 2022, Gorsuch, Barrett, and the three liberal justices ruled in favor of the Native American Tribes of Texas in the case ''Ysleta del Sur Pueblo v. Texas''. The case concerned a dispute over whether Texas could control and regulate gambling on Texan Native American reservations. The initial conflict had developed from the tribes' having been in a trust with Texas from 1968 to 1987 before being granted a federal trust, resulting in a statute governing the tribes' subjugation to Texas's gambling restrictions. The ruling emphasized that the tribes have the power to regulate electronic bingo games on their land regardless of the state's prohibition of non-prohibited gambling. Thus, as long as a game is not outright prohibited by the state of Texas, the state government cannot impose regulations upon tribal games. Gorsuch emphasized in his opinion that "None of this is to say that the Tribe may offer gaming on whatever terms it wishes ..Other gaming activities are subject to tribal regulation and must conform to the terms and conditions set forth in federal law."
President Trump's tax records
In July 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in two separate 7–2 decisions in ''Trump v. Vance'' that the New York County District Attorney, Manhattan district attorney could access Trump's tax records, but returned the case of Congressional access to the lower courts, pending the outcome of that case. Gorsuch joined Roberts, Kavanaugh, and the four Democratic appointees in the majority in both cases while Thomas and Alito dissented.
Legal philosophy
Gorsuch is a proponent of originalism
In the context of United States law, originalism is a theory of constitutional interpretation that asserts that all statements in the Constitution must be interpreted based on the original understanding "at the time it was adopted". This conc ...
, the idea that the Constitution should be interpreted as perceived at the time of enactment, and of textualism
Textualism is a formalist theory in which the interpretation of the law is primarily based on the ordinary meaning of the legal text, where no consideration is given to non-textual sources, such as intention of the law when passed, th ...
, the idea that statutes should be interpreted literally, without considering the legislative history and underlying purpose of the law. An editorial in the ''National Catholic Register'' opined that Gorsuch's judicial decisions lean more toward natural law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...
philosophy.
In January 2019, Bonnie Kristian of ''The Week'' wrote that an "unexpected civil libertarian alliance" was developing between Gorsuch and Sotomayor "in defense of robust due process rights and skepticism of law enforcement overreach."
Voting alignment
FiveThirtyEight used Lee Epstein et al.'s Judicial Common Space scores (which are not based on a judge's behavior, but rather the ideology scores of either home state senators or the appointing president) to find a close alignment between the conservatism of other appellate and Supreme Court judges such as Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Alito. ''The Washington Post''s statistical analysis estimated that the ideologies of most of Trump's announced candidates were "statistically indistinguishable" and also associated Gorsuch with Kavanaugh and Alito.
Judicial activism
In a 2016 speech at Case Western Reserve University, Gorsuch said that judges should strive to apply the law as it is, focusing backward, not forward, and looking to text, structure, and history to decide what a reasonable reader at the time of the events in question would have understood the law to be—not to decide cases based on their own moral convictions or the policy consequences they believe might serve society best.
In a 2005 ''National Review'' article, Gorsuch argued that "American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom, relying on judges and lawyers rather than elected leaders and the ballot box, as the primary means of effecting their social agenda" and that they are "failing to reach out and persuade the public". He wrote that, in doing so, American liberals are circumventing the democratic process on issues like gay marriage, school vouchers, and assisted suicide, and this has led to a compromised judiciary, which is no longer independent. Gorsuch wrote that American liberals' "overweening addiction" to using the courts for social debate is "bad for the nation and bad for the judiciary".[
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States' rights and federalism
Justin Marceau, a professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law, called Gorsuch "a predictably socially conservative judge who tends to favor state power over federal power". Marceau added that the issue of states' rights is important since federal laws have been used to reel in "rogue" state laws in civil rights cases.
Assisted suicide
In July 2006, Gorsuch's book ''The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia'', developed from his doctoral thesis, was published by Princeton University Press. In the book, Gorsuch makes clear his personal opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide, arguing that the U.S. should "retain existing law [banning assisted suicide and euthanasia] on the basis that human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable, and that the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong."
Statutory interpretation
Gorsuch has been considered to follow in Scalia's footsteps as a textualism, textualist in statutory interpretation
Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation. Some amount of interpretation is often necessary when a case involves a statute. Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and a straightforward meani ...
of the plain meaning of the law. This was exemplified in his majority opinion in ''Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia'', 590 U.S. ___ (2020), which ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 grants protection from employment discrimination due to sexual orientation and gender identity. Gorsuch wrote in the decision, "An employer who fired an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids."
Professional associations and other appointments
Gorsuch has been active in several professional associations throughout his legal career,[ including the ]American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
, the American Association for Justice, American Trial Lawyers Association, Phi Beta Kappa Society, Phi Beta Kappa, the Republican National Lawyers Association, and the New York State Bar Association, New York, Colorado Bar Association, Colorado, and District of Columbia Bar Associations.[
In May 2019 it was announced that Gorsuch would become the new chairman of the board of the National Constitution Center, succeeding former Vice President of the United States, vice president Joe Biden.
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Personal life
Gorsuch and his wife, Marie Louise Gorsuch, a British citizen, met at Oxford. They married at her Church of England parish church in Henley-on-Thames in 1996. They live in Boulder, Colorado and have two daughters.
Gorsuch has timeshare ownership of a cabin on the headwaters of the Colorado River outside Granby, Colorado, with associates of Philip Anschutz.[ He enjoys the outdoors and fly fishing and on at least one occasion went fly fishing with Scalia.] He raises horses, chickens, and goats, and often arranges ski trips with colleagues and friends.[
He has authored two nonfiction books. The first, ''The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia'', was published by Princeton University Press in July 2006. He is a co-author of ''The Law of Judicial Precedent'', published by Thomson West in 2016.][
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Religion
Gorsuch was the first member of a mainline Protestant denomination to sit on the Supreme Court since the retirement of John Paul Stevens in 2010. He and his two siblings were raised Catholic and attended weekly Catholic Mass, Mass. Gorsuch attended Georgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boar ...
, a Jesuit
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, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
Catholic high school in North Bethesda, Maryland, from which he graduated in 1985.[ His wife, Louise, is British-born; the two met while Neil was studying at University of Oxford, Oxford. Louise was raised in the Church of England.] The two married at St. Nicholas' Anglican Church in Henley-on-Thames.
When the couple returned to the United States they joined Holy Comforter, an Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal parish in Vienna, Virginia, attending weekly services. Gorsuch volunteered there as an usher. The Gorsuch family later attended St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder, Colorado, a liberal church with a longstanding open-door policy for the LGBT community. The Episcopal Church and the Church of England are both members of the Anglican Communion, which considers itself both Catholic and Reformed but rejects Papal supremacy, papal authority. During his 2017 confirmation hearing, responding to a Senator's question about his faith, Gorsuch replied, "I attend an Episcopal church in Boulder with my family, Senator." After marrying in a non-Catholic ceremony and joining an Episcopal church, Gorsuch has not publicly clarified his religious affiliation.[
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Awards and honors
Gorsuch received the Edward J. Randolph Award for outstanding service to the Department of Justice and the Harry S. Truman Foundation's Stevens Award for outstanding public service in the field of law.[
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Published works
Books
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Articles
Law journal articles
* Also published as: Cato Institute]
Policy Analysis No. 178
(1992).
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* Transcript published by ''The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.'' 18: 1197.
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Other
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Speeches
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See also
* Donald Trump judicial appointment controversies
* List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 1)
* List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 6)
References
Further reading
Questionnaire for the Nominee to the Supreme Court
submitted to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
* Congressional Research Service Report R44778
''Judge Neil M. Gorsuch: His Jurisprudence and Potential Impact on the Supreme Court''
coordinated by Andrew Nolan, Caitlin Devereaux Lewis, and Kate M. Manuel (2017).
* Congressional Research Service Report R44772
''Majority, Concurring, and Dissenting Opinions by Judge Neil M. Gorsuch''
coordinated by Michael John Garcia (2017).
* Congressional Research Service Legal Sidebar
''The Essential Neil Gorsuch Reader: What Judge Gorsuch Cases Should You Read?''
(2017).
Videos
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Law's Irony lecture
as given at the Federalist Society (video 29 min.) YouTube.
External links
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Selected Resources on Neil M. Gorsuch
Law Library of Congress website
Nominee Spotlight on Judge Neil M. Gorsuch
at the Stanford Law Review Online
Biography
whitehouse.gov
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorsuch, Neil
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American Episcopalians
21st-century American lawyers
21st-century American judges
Alumni of University College, Oxford
American Christians
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Federalist Society members
George W. Bush administration personnel
Georgetown Preparatory School alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
Current Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Lawyers from Denver
People involved in plagiarism controversies
United States court of appeals judges appointed by George W. Bush
United States federal judges appointed by Donald Trump
United States Department of Justice lawyers
University of Colorado Boulder faculty
University of Colorado Law School faculty
Writers from Colorado
Marshall Scholars