U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Neil Gorsuch (L) after nominating him to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Neil
Gorsuch for a lifetime job on the U.S. Supreme Court, picking the 49-year-old
federal appeals court judge to restore the court's conservative majority and
help shape rulings on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, the death
penalty and religious rights.
The Colorado native faces a potentially contentious
confirmation battle in the U.S. Senate after Republicans last year refused to
consider Democratic President Barack Obama's nominee to fill the vacancy caused
by the February 2016 death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia.
The Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, indicated
his party would mount a procedural hurdle requiring 60 votes in the 100-seat
Senate rather than a simple majority to approve Gorsuch, and expressed
"very serious doubts" about the nominee. Liberal groups called for an
all-out fight to reject Gorsuch while conservative groups and Republican
senators heaped praise on him like "outstanding," "impressive"
and a "home run."
Gorsuch, the son of a former Reagan administration
official, is the youngest nominee to the nation's highest court in more than a
quarter century, and he could influence the direction of the court for decades.
He is a judge on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was
appointed to that post by Republican President George W. Bush in 2006.
Announcing the selection to a nighttime crowd in the
White House East Room flanked by the judge and his wife, Trump said Gorsuch's
resume is "as good as it gets." Trump, who took office on Jan. 20 and
has sparked numerous controversies, said he hopes Republicans and Democrats can
come together on this nomination for the good of the country.
"Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a
brilliant mind, tremendous disciple, and has earned bipartisan support,"
Trump told an audience that included Scalia's widow.
"Depending on their age, a justice can be active
for 50 years. And his or her decisions can last a century or more, and can
often be permanent," Trump added.
Gorsuch is considered a conservative intellectual,
known for backing religious rights and writing against euthanasia and assisted
suicide, and is seen as very much in the mold of Scalia, a leading conservative
voice on the court for decades.
"I respect ... the fact that in our legal order
it is for Congress and not the courts to write new laws," Gorsuch said, as
Trump looked on. "It is the role 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, stretching for results he prefers rather than those
the law demands."
A senior administration official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the choice of Gorsuch was seen by the White House
as a significant departure from Supreme Court nominations from the recent past,
given that many justices have come from the eastern United States. Gorsuch
lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he raises horses and is a life-long
outdoorsman.
The official said a screening committee helped in the
selection process that included Vice President Mike Pence, White House counsel
Don McGahn, chief of staff Reince Priebus and top strategist Steve Bannon.
Gorsuch became the youngest U.S. Supreme Court nominee
since Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1991 selected conservative
Clarence Thomas, who was 43 at the time. Gorsuch was in the same 1991
graduating class from Harvard Law School as Obama.
The selection of Gorsuch, who was on a
list of about 20 judges suggested by conservative legal activists, unified
Republicans in a way not seen since Trump's Nov. 8 election victory, with even
critics within the party such as South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham singing
the nominee's praises.
Trump made his choice between two U.S.
appeals court judges, Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman of the Philadelphia-based 3rd
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a source involved in the selection
process.
The Senate confirmed Gorsuch for his
current judgeship in 2006 by voice vote with no one voting against him.
Democrats signaled it may not be easy
this time.
"Judge Gorsuch has repeatedly sided
with corporations over working people, demonstrated a hostility toward women's rights,
and most troubling, hewed to an ideological approach to jurisprudence that
makes me skeptical that he can be a strong, independent justice on the
court," Schumer said.
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