Who Is Neil Gorsuch? Judge Picked By Trump For Supreme Court Faces Senate Confirmation Hearing

Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, is scheduled to begin his Senate confirmation hearings Monday at the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. While Republicans seem confident of getting him promoted to the federal judiciary, Senate Democrats have voiced concerns regarding Trump’s latest nominee seeking confirmation.

The Colorado-based federal appeals court judge’s appointment to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia was hailed by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham as the “single best thing the president's done,” following a number of controversies that Trump has been embroiled in since he took office in January this year.

Read: Trump's Pick For Supreme Court May Not Agree With His Views On The Judiciary

Democrats, however, may seek to derail his nomination as a sign of protest against the Trump administration and its decisions like the attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act (popularly called Obamacare), travel ban on citizens of some countries and cut for some federal agencies.

According to reports, the opposition is also bitter over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to block a hearing for former President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court seat, Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Scalia’s seat has remained vacant since he died 13 months ago.

Gorsuch was born in Colorado, where he stayed till his mother, Anne Gorsuch, was picked by former President Ronald Reagan to head the Environmental Protection Agency. On moving to Washington, he attended an all-boys school, Georgetown Prep.

His educational qualifications include degrees from Columbia University, followed immediately by Harvard Law School. Gorsuch then went on to study legal philosophy at Oxford University.

Despite having offers from a number of big firms, Gorsuch chose to work for a startup in 1995 to jump into “the muck and mess of real-life litigation,” the Associated Press reported. His former partner said that even after working for an average of 2,400-3,000 hours a year, Gorsuch maintained a genial temperament.

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He left private practice to join the Justice Department in 2005, and was nominated by former President George W. Bush's administration to the 10th Circuit in 2006, giving him the opportunity to move back to Colorado.

The 49-year-old’s colleagues and subordinates overall hold a favorable view of him. His former colleague at the Justice Department, Luis Reyes, referred to him as “a glass-half-full kind of guy,” while former law clerk Theresa Wardon, said, “He’s someone who knows the names of the security guards at the courthouse and gets to know who their families are,” according to the AP.

Democrats, however, may have a problem with Gorsuch’s conservative views. He stands firmly against assisted suicide and euthanasia, which he made clear in a book he wrote in 2006. Gorsuch’s views on abortion may be shaped by his emphasis on the importance of life but there have been no comments by him that indicate the same.

“He’s very sensitive to the importance of societal stability. So if he were to change Roe v. Wade significantly I would be surprised,” Tracy Ashmore, a Democratic lawyer from Denver, told Reuters, referring to the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.

Gorsuch is known for his similarity to the judge he is looking to replace but the major difference between the two, according to many, is Gorsuch’s easy temperament compared to Scalia’s tendency to be blunt on the bench.

Gorsuch believes in sticking to the boundaries of established law and precedent, but a few incidents have caused liberals to critique him by saying that he may favor powerful interests over those of ordinary citizens.

Republicans, on the other hand, fear that he will be used by the Senate Democrats “as a piñata to jam the president.”