WASHINGTON — Tonight, at 8 PM EST, a very important announcement was officially disclosed to the public: the revealing of President Donald Trump’s nominee for the newest Supreme Court Justice.
Our newest Supreme Court Justice that is filling the vacant seat of late Justice Scalia is Neil Gorsuch, a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, meaning his main occupation is dealing with appeal cases in Colorado. He is the youngest Supreme Court nominee in twenty-five years at 49 years old. Fun fact: Gorsuch attended Harvard Law with our former president, Barack Obama! Gorsuch also graduated from Columbia and Oxford and has served as a clerk for two Supreme Court Justices.
What does this mean for America? Here’s what you need to know about Neil Gorsuch:
1. He speaks strongly in favor of originalism.
Originalism is a popular concept among U.S. conservatives. It’s defined as a concept where “the view that the Constitution should be interpreted as it was understood at the time it was adopted, rather than in a way that changes with the times.” Originalism is associated with Justice Clarence Thomas and late Justice Scalia, who both have adopted it to produce the conservative results they desired.
The approach is favored when wanting to keep judges from interjecting their personal beliefs into interpreting the U.S. Constitution. Originalists know what they are looking for when interpreting the body: the original meaning of the text. Usually, that is easy to anticipate and simple to apply when appropriate. Originalists argue “rights implicating abortion, sex and sexual orientation equality, and capital punishment are often thus described as issues that the Constitution does not speak to, and that hence should not be recognized by the judiciary.”
However, those who oppose the concept argue that constitutions are meant to be endurable over time, and that interpretation of the law must be flexible and responsive to the changing circumstances surrounding the amendment process. Justice Breyer argues that the original intent of the Constitution was to promote democracy and that “originalist” decisions can have the opposite result.
2. He is a strong supporter of religious freedom rights.
According to The Denver Post, “Gorsuch is best known nationally for taking the side of religious organizations that opposed parts of the Affordable Care Act that compelled coverage of contraceptives.” Under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), employers must provide certain types of contraceptives in their health plans.
In the famous case of Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, Gorsuch asserted that the plaintiffs, the owners of the Hobby Lobby franchise David and Barbara Green, should not have to compromise their religious faith to comply with secular court rulings, also referencing a case where an Amish employer refused to pay social security taxes, claiming it was in violation of his religion’s teachings.
Originally, the Greens had refused to provide coverage for a certain type of contraception that prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. They argued they were facing million-dollar fines for not complying and, in 2012, sued under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Supreme Court later ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, which is now not required to subsidize contraceptives that its owners find distasteful.
3. He is skeptic of administrative regulations and interpretation of the law.
The Supreme Court has a long-standing precedent where it will refer and yield to administrative interpretation of the law, meaning the Court will concur generally with the expertise of federal agencies when deciphering legal statutes in order to advance the process.
This is one area where his views differ from that of Scalia’s. The Justice, whose seat he will be filling if Gorsuch gets confirmed by the Senate, has long stood with this precedent, believing it to be relevant. Gorsuch, however, explains his doubt of the precedent:
“Under Chevron the people aren’t just charged with awareness of and the duty to conform their conduct to the fairest reading of the law that a detached magistrate can muster. Instead, they are charged with an awareness of Chevron; required to guess whether the statute will be declared ‘ambiguous’… and required to guess whether an agency’s interpretation will be deemed ‘reasonable.’ Who can even attempt all that, at least without an army of perfumed lawyers and lobbyists?”
His dissent of the long-standing precedent may affect the future of federal bureaucrats’ presence in interpreting the law for what they deem fit at that given time, as Obama did with labor, environmental, and Internet regulations and Trump will most likely do as well.
4. He is strongly against assisted-suicide laws.
Assisted-suicide is defined as “the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, effected by the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor for this purpose.” The practice of allowing these terminally-ill patients to end their lives with the assistance of a physician is now legal in six states and may be legalized in Washington, D.C..
Neil Gorsuch has objected to this practice on many occasions; he even published a book concerning the controversial topic called The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (2009), where he maintains:
“All human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong.”
The most Supreme Court ruling on this subject matter took place in 2006 in Oregon v. Gonzales, where they deferred to each separate states’ individual rulings on that issue.
5. He has not spoken publicly on the controversial issue of abortion.
Gorsuch also has not ruled on the subject either.
The preservation of the legality of abortion in the case of Roe v. Wade of 1973 is something most liberals are significantly worried about concerning Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
Because of his beliefs on assisted suicide and birth control, people predict that he is more likely pro-life than pro-choice, meaning he may not support abortion rights. However, there is minimal record from Gorsuch on his opinions on this affair. Nevertheless, just because he may personally oppose it, that does not mean he will make it his duty condemn abortion rights.
These are the five main views of Gorsuch that you need to know before you decide how you feel about the SCOTUS Nominee. If he gets confirmed, Neil Gorsuch, an originalist conservative who fights for religious freedoms and against assisted suicide and certain contraceptives, will occupy the ninth seat in the Supreme Court.
