Trump taps conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court

President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, a fast-rising conservative judge with a writer’s flair, to the Supreme Court Tuesday night, setting up a fierce fight with Democrats over a jurist who could shape America’s legal landscape for decades to come.

At 49, Gorsuch is the youngest Supreme Court nominee in a quarter-century. He’s known on the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals for clear, colloquial writing, advocacy for court review of government regulations, defense of religious freedom and skepticism toward law enforcement.

“Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan support,” Trump declared, announcing the nomination in his first televised prime-time address from the White House.

Gorsuch’s nomination was cheered by conservatives wary of Trump’s own fluid ideology. If confirmed by the Senate, he will fill the seat left vacant by the death last year of Antonin Scalia, long the right’s most powerful voice on the high court.

With Scalia’s wife, Maureen, sitting in the audience, Trump took care to praise the late justice. Gorsuch followed, calling Scalia a “lion of the law.”

Gorsuch thanked Trump for entrusting him with “a most solemn assignment.” Outlining his legal philosophy, he said: “It is the rule of judges to apply, not alter, the work of the people’s representatives. A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge.”

Some Democrats, still smarting over Trump’s unexpected victory in the presidential election, have vowed to mount a vigorous challenge to nearly any nominee to what they view as the court’s “stolen seat.” President Barack Obama nominated U.S. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland for the vacancy after Scalia’s death, but Senate Republicans refused to consider the pick, saying the seat should be filled only after the November election.

Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said he has “serious doubts” that Gorsuch is within what Democrats consider the legal mainstream, saying he “hewed to an ideological approach to jurisprudence that makes me skeptical that he can be a strong, independent justice on the court.”

Trump’s choice of Gorsuch marks perhaps the most significant decision of his young presidency, one with ramifications that could last long after he leaves office. After a reality television buildup to Tuesday’s announcement — including a senior Trump adviser saying more than one court candidate was heading to Washington ahead of the event– the actual reveal was traditional and drama-free.

For some Republicans, the prospect of filling one or more Supreme Court seats over the next four years has helped ease their concerns about Trump’s experience and temperament. Three justices are in their late 70s and early 80s, and a retirement would offer Trump the opportunity to cement conservative dominance of the court for many years.

Gorsuch would restore the court to the conservative tilt it held with Scalia on the bench. But he is not expected to call into question high-profile rulings on abortion, gay marriage and other issues in which the court has been divided 5-4 in recent years.

If confirmed, Gorsuch would join the court that is often the final arbiter for presidential policy. Justices upheld Obama’s signature health care law in 2012 and could eventually hear arguments over Trump’s controversial refugee and immigration executive order.

He served for two years in George W. Bush’s Department of Justice before Bush nominated him to the appeals court. His mother was Anne Gorsuch Burford, who was head of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Reagan administration.

Gorsuch was among the 21 possible choices for the court Trump released during the campaign. Other finalists also came from that list, including Thomas Hardiman, who serves alongside Trump’s sister on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and William Pryor, a federal appeals court judge and Alabama’s attorney general from 1997 to 2004.

Texas voices

The positive reaction from Texas Republicans was swift and strong.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, praised the nominee, saying, “Like the renowned justice he is set to replace, Judge Gorsuch is brilliant and immensely talented. He has impeccable qualifications, having clerked at the Supreme Court, excelled in private practice, served at the highest levels of the Justice Department, and garnered a stellar reputation over the past decade as an appellate judge.”

Added Cruz: “More importantly, though, he also mirrors Justice Scalia in that he has a proven track record of honoring the Constitution, following the text of the law, and refraining from imposing his policy preferences from the bench.”

There’s no such thing as a smooth confirmation process in today’s Washington, but Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, foresees an easier path for Gorsuch than some of the other nominees Trump might have chosen.

“The President has picked a mainstream nominee unanimously supported by Democrats in the past,” Cornyn said. “I hope my colleagues across the aisle will allow an up-or-down vote on this bipartisan, highly qualified nominee.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, commended Trump for making “an outstanding selection ... There is no other candidate in America who embodies the legal intellect and judicial temperament of the late Antonin Scalia more than Judge Gorsuch.”

Likewise, the negative reaction from Texas Democrats was fast and furious.

“Loser President Donald Trump has only been in office for 12 days, and he’s already shown a blatant disregard for everyday families, checks and balances, and American values,” Texas Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Manny Garcia said.

“It is no surprise he has chosen Judge Neil Gorsuch for the nation’s High Court. Gorsuch has a record of siding with rich and powerful corporations against workers. Trump only cares about Trump, not everyday working families.”

Texas abortion rights activists branded Gorsuch as a threat to women’s rights.

Ed Espinoza, executive director of the pro-LGTBQ and pro-choice group Progress Texas, noted that “Gorsuch has amassed a list of rulings favoring corporations over consumers and the environment, and sided with Hobby Lobby in a case that denied women employees health insurance coverage for contraception.”

Espinoza added that “America deserves a consensus nominee for the Supreme Court who will follow the law, not one that will rubber stamp a Trump agenda.”

Staff writer John Gravois contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Trump taps conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court."