The addition of Neil Gorsuch to a divided U.S. Supreme Court could have a momentous impact on legal controversies over issues that include religion, gay rights, labor and President Trump’s attempts to limit immigration and entry to the United States.

That’s despite the fact that Gorsuch’s confirmation merely restores a conservative majority that had prevailed on the court for decades before the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.

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Lower courts have ruled against the Missouri church. But Michael McConnell, a Stanford law professor and a former appeals court colleague of Gorsuch, said Friday he expects Gorsuch and his court to agree with the church that “children cannot be denied equal access to government-funded benefits of an entirely secular nature for no reason other than the religious affiliation” of their school.