65 Facts About Gorsuch

Neil McGill Gorsuch is an American lawyer and judge who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Gorsuch was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31,2017, and has served since April 10,2017.

Gorsuch was born in and spent his early life in Denver, Colorado, then lived in Bethesda, Maryland, while attending Georgetown Preparatory School.

Gorsuch earned a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University, a Juris Doctor from Harvard University, and after practicing law for 15 years, received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in law from the University of Oxford, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar.

Gorsuch was Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice from 2005 until his appointment to the Tenth Circuit.

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Gorsuch is a proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in interpreting the United States Constitution.

Gorsuch clerked for Judge David B Sentelle of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit from 1991 to 1992 and US Supreme Court justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994.

Gorsuch is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside a justice for whom he once clerked.

Gorsuch was the eldest of three children, and is a fourth-generation Coloradan.

Gorsuch attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a prestigious Jesuit prep school, where he was two years junior to Brett Kavanaugh, alongside whom he later clerked at the Supreme Court and eventually served as a Supreme Court justice.

Gorsuch then attended Harvard Law School, receiving a Harry S Truman Scholarship to attend.

Gorsuch was described as a committed conservative who supported the Gulf War and congressional term limits on "a campus full of ardent liberals".

In 2004, Gorsuch received a Doctor of Philosophy in law from the University of Oxford, where he completed research on assisted suicide and euthanasia as a postgraduate student of University College, Oxford.

Gorsuch's thesis was supervised by Professor Timothy Endicott 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.

Gorsuch served as a law clerk for Judge David B Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit from 1991 to 1992.

Gorsuch was an associate in the Washington, DC, law firm from 1995 to 1997 and a partner from 1998 to 2005.

At Kellogg Huber, Gorsuch focused on commercial matters, including contracts, antitrust, RICO, and securities fraud.

In 2002, Gorsuch wrote an op-ed criticizing the Senate for delaying the nominations of Merrick Garland and John Roberts to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, writing, "the most impressive judicial nominees are grossly mistreated" by the Senate.

In 2005, at Kellogg Huber, Gorsuch wrote a brief denouncing class action lawsuits by attorneys on behalf of shareholders.

Gorsuch served as Principal Deputy to the Associate Attorney General, Robert McCallum, at the United States Department of Justice from 2005 until 2006.

Gorsuch helped Attorney General Alberto Gonzales prepare for hearings after the public revelation of NSA warrantless surveillance, and worked with Senator Lindsey Graham in drafting the provisions in the Detainee Treatment Act that attempted to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over the detainees.

On July 20,2006, Gorsuch was confirmed by unanimous voice vote in the US Senate.

When Gorsuch began his tenure at Denver's Byron White United States Courthouse, Justice Kennedy administered the oath of office.

In Hobby Lobby Stores v Sebelius, Gorsuch wrote a concurrence when the en banc circuit found the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate on a private business violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

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Gorsuch has called for reconsideration of Chevron USA, Inc v Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc, in which the Supreme Court instructed courts to grant deference to federal agencies' interpretation of ambiguous laws and regulations.

In Gutierrez-Brizuela v Lynch, 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.

Gorsuch has been an opponent of the dormant Commerce Clause, which allows state laws to be declared unconstitutional if they too greatly burden interstate commerce.

In 2011, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that the dormant Commerce Clause did not prevent the Oklahoma Water Resources Board from blocking water exports to Texas.

In 2013, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that federal courts could not hear a challenge to Colorado's internet sales tax.

In Energy and Environmental Legal Institute v Joshua Epel, 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.

Gorsuch 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".

In Riddle v Hickenlooper, 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.

Gorsuch added a concurrence noting that although the standard of review of campaign finance in the United States is unclear, the Colorado law would fail even under intermediate scrutiny.

In Planned Parenthood v Herbert, 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.

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.

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.

In 2013, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that intent does not need to be proven under a bank fraud statute.

Gorsuch was 49 years old at the time of the nomination, making him the youngest nominee to the Supreme Court since the 1991 nomination of Clarence Thomas, who was 43.

Gorsuch's confirmation hearing before the Senate started on March 20,2017.

Gorsuch was sworn into office on Monday, April 10,2017, in two ceremonies.

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.

Gorsuch wrote a dissent, joined by Thomas and Alito, arguing that the Court should have fully heard the arguments of the case.

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.

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.

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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 DC Circuit case challenging the Trump administration's ban on bump stocks.

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.

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.

In February 2019, Gorsuch sided with three of the Court's other conservative justices voting to reject a stay to temporarily block a law restricting abortion in Louisiana.

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.

Gorsuch joined Roberts, Kavanaugh, and the four Democratic appointees in the majority in both cases while Thomas and Alito dissented.

Gorsuch is a proponent of originalism, the idea that the Constitution should be interpreted as perceived at the time of enactment, and of textualism, the idea that statutes should be interpreted literally, without considering the legislative history and underlying purpose of the law.

Gorsuch 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".

Gorsuch has been considered to follow in Scalia's footsteps as a textualist in statutory interpretation of the plain meaning of the law.

Gorsuch has been active in several professional associations throughout his legal career, including the American Bar Association, the American Trial Lawyers Association, Phi Beta Kappa, the Republican National Lawyers Association, and the New York, 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 Joe Biden.

Gorsuch has timeshare ownership of a cabin on the headwaters of the Colorado River outside Granby, Colorado, with associates of Philip Anschutz.

Gorsuch enjoys the outdoors and fly fishing and on at least one occasion went fly fishing with Scalia.

Gorsuch raises horses, chickens, and goats, and often arranges ski trips with colleagues and friends.

Gorsuch is a co-author of The Law of Judicial Precedent, published by Thomson West in 2016.

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.

Gorsuch attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a Jesuit Catholic high school in North Bethesda, Maryland, from which he graduated in 1985.

Gorsuch's wife, Louise, is British-born; the two met while Neil was studying at Oxford.

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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