What To Know About Neil Gorsuch

Sophia Paiste, Writer

Neil Gorsuch is the man that has been chosen to replace Antonin Scalia in the Supreme Court. At 49 years old, Gorsuch is the youngest person in 25 years to be appointed to the Supreme Court. He is a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. He was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2006 and confirmed by the Senate orally.

According to ABC, “Gorsuch clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. He attended Harvard Law and has a Ph.D. from Oxford, where he was a Marshall scholar. In legal circles, he’s considered a gifted writer. Like Scalia, he’s a textualist and an originalist.”

If the book Gorsuch wrote, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, tells anything, he has a strong opinion on assisted suicides. Gorsuch believes euthanasia of all forms of assisted suicide shouldn’t be legalized. Neil has opposed police officers in the United States v. Carlos case, stating that the police officers violated the Fourth Amendment when they entered a home with signs posted that read ‘no trespassing.’ He is also a defender of the First Amendment, agreeing that religious liberties should always be granted. In both the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor cases, Gorsuch sided with the Christian employers.

Supreme Court advisers for Donald Trump have said Gorsuch has a lot of experience, which is true. Neil has attended Columbia University, Harvard Law School (where he was in Barack Obama’s graduating class), and has a doctorate in legal philosophy from Oxford. Gorsuch has also clerked for both Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy.

Jonathan Turley, who’s an expert on the constitution, said that Gorsuch is a “very intelligent person” who would not be that different from Scalia, according to ABC news. Gorsuch has a “coherent and consistent view of the Constitution,” Turley said. Gorsuch has not made his position on abortion clear; only his view on assisted suicide is known, which is what helped him get confirmed.