Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
What you should know about Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch
What you should know about Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch
Apr 11, 2026 3:18 PM

Today the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuchto replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. President Trump will swear in Judge Gorsuchearly next week.

Here is what you should know about the nextassociate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Neil Gorsuch

Age: 49

Birthplace: Denver, Colorado

Education: B.A. from Columbia University; J.D. from Harvard Law School; PhD in Law from University College at Oxford University.

Current judgeship:U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (appointed by George W. Bush).

Previous roles: In the early 1990s, Judge Gorsuch clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. He served in private practice at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, and served as principal deputy to the associate attorney general and acting associate attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice.

Religious denomination: Episcopalian

Family: Judge Gorsuch is married and has two daughters. His mother served as President Reagan’s head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Judicial philosophy: Judge Gorsuch is considered a proponent of originalism, a manner of interpreting the Constitution that begins with the text and attempts to give that text the meaning it had when it was adopted, and textualism, a method of statutory interpretation that relies on the plain text of a statute to determine its meaning.

Positions and rulings

Religious Liberty:Gorsuch was on the Tenth Circuit when they heard the religious liberty case,Hobby Lobby Stores vs. Sebelius.The court ruled federal law prohibited the requirement from applying to closely held corporations, a position upheld by the Supreme Court. In his opinion Gorsuch wrote that theReligious Freedom Restoration Act applied to the owners of Hobby Lobby: “The Act doesn’t just apply to protect popular religious beliefs: it does perhaps its most important work in protecting unpopular religious beliefs, vindicating this nation’s long-held aspiration to serve as a refuge of religious tolerance.”

The Tenth Circuit also heard the case ofLittle Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged vs. Burwell.In his dissent, Gorsuch wrote:

The opinion of the panel majority is clearly and gravely wrong—on an issue that has little to do with contraception and a great deal to do with religious liberty. When a law demands that a person do something the person considers sinful, and the penalty for refusal is a large financial penalty, then the law imposes a substantial burden on that person’s free exercise of religion. All the plaintiffs in this case sincerely believe that they will be violating God’s law if they execute the documents required by the government. And the penalty for refusal to execute the documents may be in the millions of dollars. How can it be any clearer that the law substantially burdens the plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion?

This is a dangerous approach to religious liberty. Could we really tolerate letting courts examine the reasoning behind a religious practice or belief and decide what is core and what is derivative? A Christian could be required to work on December 25 because, according to a court, his core belief is that he should not work on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus but a history of the calendar and other sources show that Jesus was actually born in March; a December 25 work requirement therefore does not substantially burden his core belief. Or a Jewish prisoner could be provided only non-kosher food because the real purpose of biblical dietary laws is health, so as long as the pork is well-cooked, etc., the prisoner’s religious beliefs are not substantially burdened. The Supreme Court has refused to examine the reasonableness of a sincere religious belief—in particular, the reasonableness of where the believer draws the line between sinful and acceptable—at least since Thomas v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division, 450 U.S. 707, 715 (1981), and it emphatically reaffirmed that position in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2751, 2778 (2014).

Worker protections:While on the Tenth Circuit, Gorsuch heard the case, TransAm Trucking Inc. v. Administrative Review Board.The majority determineda trucker had been wrongfully fired after he unhitched his trailer and drove away when the truck’s brakes froze. In his dissent, Gorsuch said pany had given the driverthe legal option to stay with his trailer and wait for help, which he declined, instead operating the truck in a way not permitted by pany.

Administrative law:Gorsuch was one of the judges on the Tenth Circuitwho wrote ina 2016 opinionthat the Chevron doctrine allowed “executive bureaucracies to swallow huge amounts of core judicial and legislative power and concentrate federal power in a way that seems more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers’ design.” Gorsuch called Chevron a “Goliath of modern administrative law,” and argued it may be time to face “the behemoth.” He suggested the judiciary rather than the executive branch should have the last word on the meaning of the law. However, in his Senate confirmation hearing he responded to Sen. Klobuchar’s claim about overturning Chevron by saying, “I would try e at it with as open a mind as a man could muster.” (For more on the Chevron doctrine, see this explainer.)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Beyond civility: Ginsburg, Scalia, and friendship
The first presidential debate provided an accurate and disheartening summary of our current political climate – three men shouting over each other for 90 minutes. Opposite sides of the political spectrum cannot seem to agree on basic truths or mon ground. The majority of Trump and Biden voters say that they have few or no close friends who voted for the opposite party. A thriving society requires that we are able to debate important questions and find solutions together. What...
Half of Gen Z supports Marxism/socialism. Here’s why.
A new poll reveals the disquieting extent of young Americans’ support for Marxism. However, it also divulges the reasons behind the popularity of collectivism and the seeds of its destruction. The number of young Americans who have a favorable view of Marxism has increased five-fold in just one year. According to the new survey, nearly one-third of the members of Gen Z – Americans between the ages of 16 and 23 – deem “Marxism” worthy of support. The term’s favorability...
This church is rebuilding Detroit’s economic life
When reflecting on the church’s economic responsibility, some of us may envision an assortment of needs-based “outreach programs,” from food pantries and homeless shelters to short-term mission trips and fundraising drives. While these can be powerful channels for loving and serving our neighbors, we should consider the basic vision for human flourishing that precedes them. In addition to meeting immediate material needs, we are also called to affirm the dignity, callings, and gifts that people already have. “Solidarity means more...
What Nicholas Kristof got right
Recently, Nicholas Kristof’s published an op-ed about the Social Progress Index, a multi-year study of the quality of life in 163 countries. Kristof writes, “New data suggest that the United States is one of just a few countries worldwide that is slipping backward.” While at first reading this sounds like bad news, I think the data (and underlying science) is a bit plicated than they might appear. The SPI seeks to offer “a new way to define the success of...
COVID-19’s entrepreneurial creativity
The “new normal” of the COVID-19 pandemic has settled in and, with it, a new host of challenges. Businesses have adapted to the changing needs and desires of individuals in creative ways, sometimes radically changing their products, structures, and strategies. Through the dynamic process of creative destruction, firms that do not adapt to changing customer needs will close their doors panies with real solutions will arise. Businesses in a variety of spheres have demonstrated that they are able to solve...
The facts on Amy Coney Barrett and banning contraception
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee spent days prodding Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett over the hypothetical possibility that the government may one day outlaw birth control. One exchange in particular encapsulated politicians’ inability to grasp the proper role of government, the law, and economic incentives. Judge Barrett followed the example set by Ruth Bader Ginsburg during her 1993 hearings, when she declined to state her position on any matter that could e before her on the bench. Barrett...
Redemption, not retreat: Betsy DeVos’ vision for redeeming U.S. education
The American people must limit the overreach of the federal government and the intrusion of the public school bureaucracy so that the family can reclaim its proper role in the education of its children, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said Monday night. In a tour de force speech at Hillsdale College, she contrasted the growth federal power with the shrinking power of America’s parents – and the dwindling returns America’s children receive from U.S. public schools. “I’d like to work...
6 quotes: Russell Kirk
October 19 is the birthday of Russell Kirk (1918-1994), whose book The Conservative Mind gave shape and direction to a rebounding transatlantic political and philosophical tradition. Kirk rooted conservatism, not in a political platform, but in a deep-seated respect for tradition, faith, order, morality, and precedent. On his birthday, we proudly share six of the greatest quotations from the Sage of Mecosta: Economics depends on morality Sim­i­larly, some peo­ple would like to sep­a­rate eco­nom­ics from morals, but they are un­able...
The forgotten child: Pandemic policies are leaving kids behind
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed many victims, from the millions who have contracted the virus directly to many others who continue to endure its social and economic disruptions. The suffering has been particularly acute for the children who continue to be confined at home, whether struggling to adapt to remote-learning regimens or remaining mysteriously absent altogether. For e and minority families, in particular, the road is even more difficult. As Jonathan Chait recently put it, “The social damage will not...
Four years later, are the ‘deplorables’ better off?
Donald Trump strode into office in 2016 with a mission and a mandate. The mission was to e a champion for those who were being overlooked by the establishment. The mandate was to overturn the “swamp” and make real changes. Hillary Clinton infamously termed those who backed Trump a “basket of deplorables.” The term became emblematic of both the disdain shown by Hillary and the status of Trump’s base as underdogs. Populism is defined as the revolt of ordinary people...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved