Neil Gorsuch
Neil McGill Gorsuch (/ˈɡɔːrsʌtʃ/ GOR-sutch;[2] born August 29, 1967) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31, 2017, and has served since April 10, 2017.
"Gorsuch" redirects here. For the surname, see Gorsuch (surname).
Neil Gorsuch
Gorsuch spent his early life in Denver, Colorado, then lived in Bethesda, Maryland, while attending Georgetown Preparatory School. Upon graduating, he matriculated at Columbia University, where he became an established writer. Gorsuch received his legal education at Harvard Law School and in 2004, after 10 years as a practicing attorney, obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in jurisprudence from the University of Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship. His doctoral thesis concerned the morality of assisted suicide and was written under the supervision of legal philosopher John Finnis.
From 1995 to 2005, Gorsuch was in private practice with the law firm of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick. He was the principal deputy associate attorney general at the United States Department of Justice from 2005 until his appointment to the Tenth Circuit. President George W. Bush nominated Gorsuch to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on May 10, 2006, to replace Judge David M. Ebel, who achieved senior status that same year.
Gorsuch is a proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in interpreting the United States Constitution.[3][4][5] Along with Justice Clarence Thomas, he is an advocate of natural law jurisprudence.[6] Gorsuch clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992 and U.S. Supreme Court justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994. He is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside a justice for whom he once clerked (Kennedy).[7] During his tenure on the Supreme Court he has written the majority opinion in landmark cases such as Bostock v. Clayton County on LGBT rights, McGirt v. Oklahoma on Native American law, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District on personal religious observance, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis on free speech, and Ramos v. Louisiana on juries' guilty verdicts.
Early life and education
Gorsuch was born on August 29, 1967, in Denver, Colorado.[8] His parents were Anne Gorsuch Burford (née McGill; 1942–2004) and David Ronald Gorsuch (1937–2001).[9][10] He was the eldest of three children,[11] and is a fourth-generation Coloradan.[12] John McGill, his maternal grandfather, was a surgeon, and his paternal grandfather, John Gorsuch, was an established lawyer in Denver, Colorado.[13] Both of Gorsuch's parents were also attorneys.[14] They encouraged their children to engage in debate, often spontaneously.[15] From 1976 to 1980, Anne Burford served in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1976 to 1980. In 1981, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the first woman to serve as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[16][15] Her conservative views contrasted with those of her husband, who was a liberal.[17]
Gorsuch attended Christ the King Roman Catholic School, a private grade school in Denver. The school's moral lessons influenced him and he was remembered by classmates for assuming strong stances. He assisted his mother in her campaign for the Colorado legislature at age nine.[15] After her appointment, Gorsuch's family moved to Bethesda, Maryland. He enrolled in Georgetown Preparatory School,[18] a selective Jesuit college-preparatory school, arriving as a freshman in 1981.[19] He was two years junior to future justice Brett Kavanaugh, a classmate he later clerked with at the Supreme Court. Gorsuch was a member of Georgetown Prep's debate, forensics, and international relations clubs,[20] and served as a United States Senate page in the early 1980s.[21] He graduated in 1985 as student body president; in contrast to Kavanaugh, he was described as a fairly outgoing and extroverted student.[20][22]
Gorsuch attended Columbia University after high school, graduating in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in political science. He undertook a heavier courseload to graduate in three years.[23] As an undergraduate, he wrote for the Columbia Daily Spectator[24] and co-founded the satirical student publication The Fed in 1986.[25][26] Gorsuch distinguished himself as an active debater and an ardent conservative, publishing pieces that criticized left-wing politics. After a brief stint as a writer for a short-lived journal, he led efforts to establish The Fed as a conservative alternative to liberal campus newspapers.[23] He was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity[27] and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.[28][23][29]
After graduating from Columbia, Gorsuch attended Harvard Law School on a Harry S. Truman Scholarship.[30][31] He was an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy[32][28] and was a member of the Lincoln's Inn Society, the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, and the Harvard Defenders program.[33][34] Gorsuch was described as a committed conservative who supported the Gulf War and congressional term limits on "a campus full of ardent liberals".[35] Despite his contrasting political views, he was generally well-liked by students.[36] Philip C. Berg, a classmate and close friend, remembered him as "very sensitive" and non-confrontational, recalling when he received Gorsuch's support in coming out.[33] Gorsuch graduated in 1991 with a Juris Doctor, cum laude. Future President Barack Obama was among his classmates.[37]
Early legal career
Clerkships
Gorsuch served as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992. After spending a year at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, Gorsuch clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994.[28][31][38] His work with White occurred right after White retired from the Supreme Court; therefore, Gorsuch assisted White with his work on the Tenth Circuit, where White sat by designation.[28] Gorsuch was part of a group of five law clerks assigned that year that included Brett Kavanaugh, who described Gorsuch at the time, saying: "He fit into the place very easily. He's just an easy guy to get along with. He doesn't have sharp elbows. We had a wide range of views, but we all really got along well."[39]
Private law practice
Instead of joining an established law firm, Gorsuch decided to join the two-year-old boutique firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel (now Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick), where he focused on trial work.[15] After winning his first trial as lead attorney, a jury member told Gorsuch he was like Perry Mason.[15] He was an associate in the Washington, D.C., law firm from 1995 to 1997 and a partner from 1998 to 2005.[28][40] Gorsuch's clients included Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz.[41] At Kellogg Huber, Gorsuch focused on commercial matters, including contracts, antitrust, RICO, and securities fraud.[28]
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.[42]
In 2004, Gorsuch received a Doctor of Philosophy in legal philosophy from the University of Oxford, where he completed research on assisted suicide and euthanasia as a postgraduate student at University College.[43][32][28] A Marshall Scholarship enabled him to study at Oxford in 1992–93, where he was supervised by the natural law philosopher John Finnis.[44] His thesis was also supervised by Canadian legal scholar Timothy Endicott of Balliol College, Oxford.[43][45] In 1996, Gorsuch married Louise, an Englishwoman and champion equestrienne on Oxford's riding team whom he met during his stay there.[15][46]
U.S. Department of Justice
Gorsuch served as Principal Deputy to the Associate Attorney General, Robert McCallum, at the United States Department of Justice from June 2005 until July 2006.[28][47] As McCallum's principal deputy, he assisted in managing the Department of Justice's civil litigation components, which included the antitrust, civil, civil rights, environment, and tax divisions.[28]
While managing the United States Department of Justice Civil Division, Gorsuch was tasked with all the "terror litigation" arising from the president's War on Terror, successfully defending the extraordinary rendition of Khalid El-Masri, fighting the disclosure of Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse photographs, and, in November 2005, traveling to inspect the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[48]
Gorsuch helped Attorney General Alberto Gonzales prepare for hearings after the public revelation of NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–07), 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.[49]
U.S. Supreme Court (2017–present)
Banking regulation
Gorsuch wrote his first U.S. Supreme Court decision for a unanimous court in Henson v. Santander Consumer USA Inc., 582 U.S. ___ (2017). The Court ruled against the borrowers, holding that Santander in this case was not a debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act since it purchased the original defaulted car loans from CitiFinancial for pennies on the dollar, making Santander the owner of the debts and not merely an agent.[117] When the act was enacted, regulations were put on institutions that collected other companies' debts, but the act left unaddressed businesses collecting their own debts.[118][119]
First Amendment
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.[120][121]
Gorsuch authored the majority opinion in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), which concerned a public high school football coach who was fired for praying on the field after games. The opinion held that the coach's conduct was protected by both the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment, and that the school's attempt to stop him was not mandated by the amendment's Establishment Clause.[122]
Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023), which held that the Free Speech Clause protected a web designer's freedom to sell custom wedding websites only for opposite-sex weddings, notwithstanding a Colorado law prohibiting businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.
LGBT rights
In 2017, in Pavan v. Smith, the Supreme Court "summarily overruled" the Arkansas Supreme Court's decision to deny same-sex married parents the same right to appear on the birth certificate.[123] Gorsuch wrote a dissent, joined by Thomas and Alito, arguing that the Court should have fully heard the arguments of the case.[124]
In 2020, Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion in the combined cases of Bostock v. Clayton County, Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda, and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, ruling that businesses cannot discriminate in employment against LGBTQ people. He argued that discrimination based on sexual orientation was illegal discrimination on the basis of sex, because the employer would be discriminating "for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex".[125] The ruling was 6–3, with Gorsuch joined by Chief Justice Roberts and the Court's four Democratic appointees.[126][127] Justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh dissented from the decision, arguing that it improperly extended the Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity.[128]
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.[129] In June 2021, he joined the justices in the unanimous Fulton v. City of Philadelphia decision, ruling in favor of a Catholic adoption agency that had been denied a contract by the City of Philadelphia due to the agency's refusal to adopt to same-sex couples.[130] Gorsuch and Thomas joined Alito's concurrence, which argued for reconsidering, possibly overturning, Employment Division v. Smith, "an important precedent limiting First Amendment protections for religious practices."[131] Also in 2021, Gorsuch was one of three justices, with Thomas and Alito, who voted to hear an appeal from a Washington State florist who had refused service to a same-sex couple based on her religious beliefs against same-sex marriage.[132][133][134] In November 2021, Gorsuch dissented from the Court's 6–3 decision to reject an appeal from Mercy San Juan Medical Center, a hospital affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, which had sought to deny a hysterectomy to a transgender patient on religious grounds.[135] The decision to reject the appeal left in place a lower court ruling in the patient's favor; Thomas and Alito also dissented.[136][137] In November 2023, Gorsuch voted with the 6–3 majority to decline to hear a case against Washington State's ban on conversion therapy for minors, allowing the law to stand; Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Alito dissented.[138][139]
Awards and honors
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.[195]