Neil Gorsuch

He was 15 and at boarding school outside Washington when the House of Representatives held his mother in contempt. Anne Gorsuch had gone from the Colorado legislature to running Ronald Reagan's Environmental Protection Agency, where she cut the budget by 22 percent and hired out of the industries the agency regulated. In December 1982 she refused to hand Congress subpoenaed Superfund records and became the first head of a federal agency ever cited for contempt. She resigned on March 3, 1983. Her son finished Georgetown Prep as student body president, took a degree at Columbia in 1988 and a law degree at Harvard in 1991, then went to Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and wrote a doctorate in jurisprudence under the natural-law philosopher John Finnis.

He clerked for the appellate judge David Sentelle, then for Byron White and Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court, spent a decade at the Washington litigation firm Kellogg Hansen, and served as principal deputy associate attorney general at Justice before George W. Bush put him on the Tenth Circuit in 2006. Princeton published his book against legalizing assisted suicide the same year. Donald Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court on January 31, 2017. Senate Republicans abolished the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations to get him through, and he was confirmed 54 to 45 on April 7 and sworn in three days later. On the bench he wrote Bostock v. Clayton County in 2020, extending federal employment protection to gay and transgender workers, and McGirt v. Oklahoma the same term, holding that most of eastern Oklahoma remained Creek reservation.

He sits in a seat that was held open. After Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Senate Republicans refused all year to consider Merrick Garland, and seating Gorsuch required scrapping the filibuster that had governed Supreme Court nominations. His method also produces results his own side did not order: Bostock arrived at gay and transgender employment protection through the plainest possible reading of the words sex discrimination, and the conservative dissenters accused the majority of flying a textualist flag over something else. Two matters have followed him. In 2017 he was accused of reproducing passages from a law review article by Abigail Lawlis Kuzma in his 2006 book. In 2023 it emerged that a Colorado property he sold in 2017 went to the chief executive of a large law firm, whose name he left off the federal disclosure form.

Nine years in, he is the Court's most consistent skeptic of administrative power, and its most frequent defector from the conservative bloc on tribal sovereignty and criminal procedure. When the Court overruled the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo in 2024, it adopted an argument he had been making since the Tenth Circuit. His books make the case in public: A Republic, If You Can Keep It in 2019, and Over Ruled in 2024, which argues the country is governed by too much law. His reputation is not settled, and will not be for a long while. In 2026, with the president who appointed him publicly attacking the courts, Gorsuch said his loyalty runs to the Constitution.

Neil Gorsuch's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia book
  Out of the Oxford doctorate, published by Princeton 2006
• Bostock v. Clayton County case
  His majority opinion holding that Title VII covers gay and transgender employees 2020
• McGirt v. Oklahoma case
  His majority opinion holding the Creek reservation was never disestablished 2020
• A Republic, If You Can Keep It book
  Essays and speeches on the judicial role 2019
• Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law book
  Written with Janie Nitze 2024

• December 1982 aged 15 The House cites his mother for contempt of Congress Anne Gorsuch had refused to give up subpoenaed Superfund records. Neil was 15.
• March 3, 1983 aged 15 She resigns as EPA administrator after 22 months
• 1991 aged ~24 Graduates from Harvard Law and clerks for Judge David Sentelle Supreme Court clerkships for Byron White and Anthony Kennedy followed in 1993.
• 2004 aged ~37 Takes a doctorate in jurisprudence at Oxford under John Finnis
• 2006 aged ~39 Appointed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Princeton published his book on assisted suicide the same year.
• January 31, 2017 aged 49 Nominated to the seat left open by Antonin Scalia's death The Senate had refused to consider Merrick Garland for the previous 11 months.
• April 7, 2017 aged 49 Confirmed 54 to 45 after Republicans abolish the filibuster for the seat He was sworn in on April 10.
• 2020 aged ~53 Writes both Bostock v. Clayton County and McGirt v. Oklahoma One extended employment protection to gay and transgender workers. The other restored a reservation boundary.
• 2024 aged ~57 The Court overrules Chevron in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo It took up an argument he had been pressing since his years on the Tenth Circuit.

• Antonin Scalia 1936–2016
  Justice whose advocacy of originalism and textualism transformed American legal interpretation. succeeded on the Court
• Donald Trump b. 1946
  Businessman, media personality, and 45th and 47th president whose populist movement transformed American politics. appointed by
• Mitch McConnell b. 1942
  Longest-serving Senate party leader who reshaped the federal judiciary through confirmation strategy. held the seat open for him
• Barack Obama b. 1961
  44th President and first African American to hold the office, known for the Affordable Care Act. law school classmate
• John Roberts b. 1955
  Chief justice during major decisions on health care, elections, executive power, abortion, and administrative law. chief justice he serves under
• Clarence Thomas b. 1948
  Long-serving justice whose originalist opinions have strongly influenced modern conservative jurisprudence. dissented from his Bostock opinion