Neil Gorsuch

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Neil Gorsuch (2017)

Neil McGill Gorsuch (born August 29, 1967 in Denver , Colorado ) is an American lawyer and a judge of the United States Supreme Court since April 10, 2017 . He will take up the post that was vacant for over a year after Antonin Scalia's death, after being nominated by US President Donald Trump . Previously, the Gorsuch, considered conservative, was a federal judge from 2006 .

Life

Neil Gorsuch is the son of Anne Gorsuch Burford , who was the first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Reagan cabinet from 1981 to 1983 . He graduated from the Georgetown Preparatory School Jesuit School and received his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University . In 1986 Gorsuch founded The Federalist , or The Fed for short, with Andrew Levy and PT Waters . In 1987 he was a fellow of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship . Gorsuch received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Oxford . He served from 1991 to 1992 for Federal Judge David B. Sentelle , who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Judicial District from 1987 to 2013 . He then worked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy at the United States Supreme Court.

From 1995 to 2005 Gorsuch practiced in Washington, DC in a private law firm. From 2005 to 2006, he worked for the United States Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General . His first book, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia , was published by Princeton University Press in July 2006 . Gorsuch is a co-author of The Law of Judicial Precedent . He was nominated on May 10, 2006 by President George W. Bush for the presidency of the United States Court of Appeals for the tenth judicial district. On July 20, 2006, the United States Senate upheld Gorsuch, whereupon he took up the post of Federal Appeals Court judge, succeeding David M. Ebel .

Nomination for the Supreme Court

In September 2016, ahead of the presidential election , Republican candidate Donald Trump added Gorsuch to his list of 21 possible candidates for the Supreme Court to nominate should he be elected. After Trump became president on January 20, 2017, he nominated Gorsuch on January 31 as Supreme Court Justice to succeed Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016 . Trump's predecessor Obama had nominated Judge Merrick B. Garland for this seat in March 2016 , but the Republican majority in the US Senate had blocked deliberation and voting on this nomination until the end of Obama's tenure.

After Trump had named Federal Judge James Robart's decision at the beginning of February to temporarily suspend entry restrictions for people from six predominantly Muslim countries ( Executive Order 13769 ) as ridiculous and Robart called a “so-called judge”, Gorsuch shortly afterwards described attacks on the judiciary as “ demoralizing ”and“ discouraging ”. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that Gorsuch's statements did not refer to Trump, but were meant in general. At his Senate confirmation hearing, which began March 21, 2017, Gorsuch once again called the doubts about the integrity and motivations of federal judges "discouraging and demoralizing."

During the hearing, Gorsuch was sharply supported by Senator Al Franken for his minority vote in the TransAm Trucking v. Administrative review board criticized. In it, Gorsuch, in contrast to the other two judges, considered the dismissal of a truck driver to be legal, who abandoned his defective trailer on a frosty night after the truck heater had also failed and his company had not sent him any help for several hours. Gorsuch said at the time that one could ask whether the company had acted wisely or nicely, but that was not the task of the court, but rather to answer the question of whether it was illegal. The Center for American Progress wrote in a statement that if Gorsuch became a Supreme Court Justice, he would likely continue the course of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of businesses and against American workers and consumers.

On April 7, 2017, the Senate approved the nomination. On April 10, 2017, Gorsuch took his oath of office and took office.

Activity at the Supreme Court

In Gorsuch's first Supreme Court ruling, his vote tipped the scales in favor of a 5-4 decision to execute Ledell Lee on April 20, 2017 in Arkansas . The case attracted attention because Arkansas, which last carried out a death sentence in 2005, had eight executions scheduled shortly before the expiry date of a drug used for lethal injection . After Gorsuch's first months at the end of June 2017, law professor Rick Hasen stated that Gorsuch showed that he was one of the most conservative judges of the Supreme Court, in the ideological successor of Scalia and similar to his colleagues Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas , for which some Comments on socio-political decisions would have provided.

After two years in office, he was classified as a consistent conservative in the classical tradition, who campaigns for civil rights and compliance with criminal procedural law, also in favor of unpopular accused, such as drug traffickers or sex offenders. His thinking in originalism therefore regularly leads to decisions that are in conformity with libertarianism , the minarchism of classical liberalism and the protection of fundamental rights , in particular the 4th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States . Gorsuch does not see himself as libertarian and also decides against liberal and libertarian claims, but is classified as the most libertarian judge of the Supreme Court for a long time.

However, Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County , according to which the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also protects LGBTQ people who are not yet mentioned there from discrimination. He also voted with Liberal justices to stop a Louisiana state law that made abortion difficult. These decisions were met with disappointment by President Trump and numerous conservative observers, and there was even talk of "betrayal".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Confirmation US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In: The White House (archive version, English).
  2. ↑ Megan Carpentier: Trump's supreme court picks: from Tea Party senator to anti-abortion crusader. In: The Guardian , September 24, 2016.
  3. ↑ Neil Gorsuch is to become the new judge in the United States' highest court. In: FAZ.net , February 1, 2017.
  4. ↑ Josh Dawsey, Seung Min Kim: Gorsuch calls Trump's judge attacks 'demoralizing' and 'disheartening'. In: Politico , February 8, 2017 (English).
  5. ↑ Julie Hirschfeld Davis: Neil Gorsuch's Criticism Wasn't Aimed at Trump, Aides Say in Reversal. In: The New York Times , February 9, 2017.
  6. ^ Judge candidate Gorsuch distances himself from Trump. In: Zeit Online , March 22, 2017
  7. ↑ United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit, No. 15-9504. In: Ca10.USCourts.gov , August 8, 2016 (English).
  8. ↑ The old judgment catches up with Trump's judge candidate Gorsuch. In: Spiegel Online , March 22, 2017.
  9. ↑ CAP Opposes Nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Urges Senate Not To Consider Him. In: Center for American Progress , January 31, 2017.
  10. ^ Dylan Stableford: Gorsuch sworn in as Supreme Court justice. In: Yahoo News , April 10, 2017.
  11. ↑ Lawrence Hurley, Jon Herskovitz: Arkansas execution flurry marks early test for new Justice Gorsuch. In: Reuters , April 21, 2017 (English).
  12. ↑ Rick Hasen: Justice Gorsuch Already Showing Himself to Be Among Court's Most Conservative Justices. In: Election Law Blog , June 26, 2017 (English).
  13. ↑ Jacob Sullum: But Gorsuch! In: Reason, December 2019
  14. ↑ Politico: "'We will not be betrayed again': Trump's SCOTUS list hits a new roadblock"
personal data
SURNAME Gorsuch, Neil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gorsuch, Neil McGill (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and federal judge
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Denver , Colorado