Summary
Judge Neil Gorsuch’s judicial record and philosophy have been picked apart since President Donald Trump nominated the 49-year-old Colorado native in January. Some questions about his stance on hot-button issues remain, but other aspects of Gorsuch’s approach to the law are clear.
Gorsuch, a federal judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, is a textualist who narrowly interprets statutes. He also subscribes to the legal philosophy of “originalism,” popularized by late Justice Antonin Scalia (whom Gorsuch would replace on the court), which holds that the constitution should be interpreted based on the framers’ beliefs at the time it was written.
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That’s because the 10th Circuit, which covers six Western states, has a fairly non-controversial docket, said Michael McConnell, a former 10th Circuit judge who served alongside Gorsuch. Cases on federal lands and water rights are more common than legal battles over hot-button, highly-politicized issues.
“The large number of cases in any court of appeals involve the application of fairly subtle principles, and don’t produce blockbuster cases,” McConnell, the director of Stanford Law School’s Constitution Center, said.
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