Neil McGill Gorsuch

US Supreme Court justice since 2017

"Gorsuch" redirects here. For the surname, see Gorsuch (surname) .

Neil McGill Gorsuch (/ˈɡɔːrsʌtʃ/ GOR-sutch ; 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 spent his early life in Denver , Colorado. After graduating from Columbia University and Harvard Law School , he earned a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Oxford in 2004 as a Marshall Scholar . His doctoral thesis concerned the morality of assisted suicide and was written under the supervision of legal philosopher John Finnis . He was a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle , Justice Byron White , and Justice Anthony Kennedy .

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 .

Along with Justice Clarence Thomas , he is an advocate of natural law jurisprudence . He is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside a justice for whom he once clerked (Kennedy). 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 Indian law, _Kennedy v. Bremerton School District _ on personal religious observance while serving in an official capacity, and _Ramos v. Louisiana _ on juries' guilty verdicts.

Early life and education

Gorsuch was born on August 29, 1967, in Denver, Colorado. He was born to Anne Gorsuch Burford (née McGill) and David Ronald Gorsuch. He is the eldest of three children, and is a fourth-generation Coloradan of Irish and English descent. Gorsuch can trace his paternal roots to pre-Revolutionary Maryland: his ancestor Charles Gorsuch was born in England in 1642, moved to Maryland, where he worked as a planter, and died there in 1716. Gorsuch's great-grandfather Joseph M. McGill moved the family from New York City to Colorado in the 1890s.

Gorsuch's parents, like him, were attorneys. They encouraged their children to engage in debate, often spontaneously. From 1976 to 1980, Anne Burford served in the Colorado House of Representatives . In 1981, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the first woman to serve as administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency . …