Tonight, President Donald J. Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacant SCOTUS seat formerly occupied by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Neil Gorsuch has world class academic and legal credentials. He received his undergrad from Columbia, his law degree from Harvard, and his doctorate from Oxford. He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals, for the District of Columbia Circuit and on the U.S. Supreme Court.
If confirmed, Gorsuch would be the first former law clerk to serve on the bench alongside his or her old boss. He would also be the only Protestant to serve on the Court. Judge Gorsuch sided with conservatives in the landmark Hobby Lobby decision when it came before the 10th Circuit.
Legal experts say Gorsuch is a natural successor to Scalia in judicial interpretation and witty thought.
In an earlier Facebook post, Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University â and widely acclaimed thinker in social conservative circles â issued the following praise for Gorsuch:
âHe would be a superb Supreme Court justice. He is intellectually extremely gifted and is deeply committed to the (actual) Constitution and the rule of law. He will not manufacture ârightsâ or read things into the Constitution that arenât there or read things out of the Constitution that are.â
Gorsuch wrote a book entitled The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. A quote from that book reads, âTo act intentionally against life is to suggest that its value rests only on its transient instrumental usefulness for other ends.â Gorsuch is also quoted as saying, there is ââno Constitutional basis for preferring the motherâs liberty interests over the childâs life.â
It seems he takes very seriously the fact that SCOTUS justices swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. Gorsuch said in his speech today that immediately after acceptin the nomination that he recognizes that it is the duty of Congress â not the Courts â to create laws.
