Donald Trump Announces Supreme Court Pick Neil Gorsuch

President Trump on Tuesday announced Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, a reliably conservative federal appeals court judge in Denver, as his nominee for the open seat on the Supreme Court of the United States. The seat has been open since Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, and the selection of a replacement could affect the balance of power on the court for a generation.

The choice of Gorsuch, who is 49, pleased the Republican base. He is the author of a book arguing that euthanasia and assisted suicide are always wrong, and he fashions himself a devoted adherent of "originalism," a theory of constitutional and legal interpretation that Scalia championed.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, issued a statement questioning whether Gorsuch would be an appropriate "mainstream" pick who would defend the constitution from "abuses of the Executive Branch" and protect the rights of all Americans.

"Given his record, I have very serious doubts about Judge Gorsuch's ability to meet this standard," the statement said.

But there are many ways in which Gorsuch would fit right in. He graduated from Harvard Law, as many justices have over the years, and was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford. At Harvard, he was a classmate of Barack Obama's.

On CNN, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican and former rival of Trump's, called the nomination a "home run."

The newly chosen nominee is no stranger to the halls of power. Though he grew up in Colorado, his mother was chosen by President Ronald Reagan as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency when he was a teenager, and the family moved to Washington, D.C.

And despite Schumer's protestations, Gorsuch is a relatively conventional, though certainly conservative, choice; he was nominated by George W. Bush to the 10th Circuit Appeals Court, where he now sits.

In other words, he might well have been nominated to the highest court by a President Rubio or a President Cruz.

He was also a friend of the late Scalia:

Observers have compared Gorsuch's clear and lively writing style to that of Scalia, who was known for his scathing wit.

Aside from filling Scalia's vacancy with another conservative, what else does Gorsuch add to the court?

Writing for the Washington Times, Ryan Owens said Gorsuch could "counteract Justice Elena Kagan’s apparent influence on Justice Anthony Kennedy and gently escort Justice Kennedy back to his conservative roots.”

Owens notes Gorsuch once served as a clerk under Kennedy and likely has his ear; Gorsuch also clerked for Justice Byron White, who famously wrote a dissent in Roe v. Wade.

Unlike Justice Elena Kagan, who had served as solicitor general but not as a judge prior to her nomination, Gorsuch has a voluminous history of opinions which will doubtless be thoroughly scrutinized in the months to come.

Conservatives praise Gorsuch for his views on religious liberty. He sided with Hobby Lobby in the company's well-known case opposing Obamacare's provision requiring employers' health insurance plans to include coverage of birth control.

He has also come out for limits on executive discretion in interpreting statutes.

“I am proud to announce the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for justice of the Supreme Court,” Trump said at the announcement. “This has been the most transparent and most important Supreme Court selection process in the history of our country and I wanted the American people to have a voice in this nomination. Judge Gorsuch has a superb intellect, an unparalleled legal education, and a commitment to interpreting the Constitution according to its text. He will make an incredible justice as soon as the Senate confirms him.”

Once Scalia's seat was open in 2016, Republican presidential candidates at the time, along with the Republicans in the Senate, pledged to prevent President Obama from filling the seat. With control of the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell prevented Obama's nominee of Merrick Garland from even getting an up-or-down confirmation vote and never held a hearing.

This left the position to be filled by Trump, who pledged to fill the seat with a conservative in the tradition of Scalia.

As Trump noted in his speech announcing his decision, many voters made their decision in the 2016 election based on the presidential power to appoint justices.

With only 52 Republicans in the senate, and 60 votes needed to confirm a justice, Trump doesn't face an easy path to getting his nominee on the bench. Republicans have just two options to appoint Trump's nominee: They need to either convince enough Democrats to go along with the selection, or they will need to dismantle the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

Dismantling the filibuster is typically called the "nuclear option," because it is seen as setting a precedent that can't be undone.

Democrats used the nuclear option on the filibuster for lower court nominees and executive branch appointees under Obama, which now benefits Trump as he fills his Cabinet. Schumer has already implied that Democrats would filibuster almost any Trump nominee, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat for Oregon, recently made it explicit.

“This is a stolen seat. This is the first time a Senate majority has stolen a seat,” Merkley said in an interview. “We will use every lever in our power to stop this.”

This makes the Republicans' use of the nuclear option even more probable.

Watch Gorsuch give a speech at the Federalist Society:

Photo credit: Federalist Society