Trump's SC pick Neil Gorsuch, an echo of Scalia in philosophy and style

Neil Gorsuch, a federal appellate judge from Colorado, nominated by US President Donald Trump as the new Supreme Court Justice, has a solidly conservative pedigree that has earned him comparison to the combative justice he would replace, Antonin Scalia.

If confirmed by the Senate, 49-year-old Gorsuch will be the youngest justice to join America's highest court since William Rehnquist in 1971.

Known for a florid pen, a sense of humour and unimpeachable conservative positions on religious liberty, guns, business regulation and administrative power, Gorsuch may be the perfect candidate to emulate the operatic flamboyance and preference for legal textualism and originalism of Justice Scalia, who died nearly a year ago.

Gorsuch currently serves as a judge on the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, the city where he was born. He was appointed to that post in 2006 by Republican President George W. Bush.

He has a reputation as a brilliant writer of legal opinions, and has followed the well worn path from Harvard Law school, graduating the same year as former President Barack Obama, to the federal bench. Gorsuch attended Columbia University as an undergraduate, and received his doctorate in legal philosophy as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University.

He spent several years in private practice and worked in George W. Bush's Justice Department. He clerked for not one but two Supreme Court justices, first Byron White and later Anthony Kennedy, currently the high court's "swing justice".

Gorsuch likes to fly-fish and hunt and he is also an adjunct law professor at the University of Colorado. If his appointment is confirmed, he would become the only Protestant on the current bench. The other justices are Jewish and Catholic.

His family is well-connected in Republican establishment politics.

Gorsuch's mother, Anne Burford, was the first woman to head the Environmental Protection Agency, serving during the Reagan administration.

He is revered by conservatives, though, and ruled in favour of religious liberty arguments in two high profile cases dealing with access to contraception. He has also been highly critical of liberals for turning to the courts rather than the legislature to forward their social agendas on issues like gay marriage and assisted suicide.

He argued against euthanasia in his 2006 book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.

There are many parallels between Gorsuch and the Scalia. Both subscribe to originalist interpretations of the constitution, meaning they view the document as stable and not subject to reinterpretation as society changes.

Gorsuch described Scalia as a "lion of the law" while accepting Trump's nomination.

While sitting on the bench of the 10th Circuit, Gorsuch sided with groups that successfully challenged the Obama administration's requirements for employers to provide health insurance that includes contraception in the Hobby Lobby Stores v Sebelius case.

Gorsuch has also expressed concern about "executive overreach", a criticism that was often directed at the Obama administration's use of presidential orders to overcome congressional gridlock.

His nomination met immediate resistance from Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, who said that he held "hostile views" and was "outside the mainstream".

--IANS

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