Neil Gorsuch (29 August 1967-) was an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 8 April 2017, succeeding Antonin Scalia. He previously served as a circuit court judge from 2006 to 2017, when he was appointed to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump.
Biography[]
Neil Gorsuch was born in Denver, Colorado, United States on 29 August 1967, the son of EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch Burford; he moved to Washington DC after his mother was appointed to the EPA in 1981. Gorsuch received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1988 and received a doctorate of philosophy in law from Oxford University in 2004, and Gorsuch worked as a lawyer in DC from 1995 to 2005. Gorsuch became a circuit court judge in 2006, and he was known for favoring the original interpretation of the US Constitution, an ultra-conservative interpretation that led to him opposing euthanasia and birth control due to his beliefs in "religious freedom". By January 2017, he was one of the judges that Donald Trump had in mind to succeed deceased Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. On 31 January 2017, Trump nominated Gorsuch for the US Supreme Court; at age 49, he was the youngest Supreme Court nominee in 25 years. His nomination was confirmed in a 54-45 vote, with Democrats Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin, and Joe Donnelly joining the Republicans in voting him in.