By Jordan Edwards
On Jan. 31, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created when Justice Antonin Scalia passed away in February 2016.
Gorsuch, 49, has spent the last decade on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals in his native Colorado. He was a Harvard Law classmate of President Barack Obama, and he clerked for Justices Anthony Kennedy and Byron White. In 2004, Gorsuch earned a Doctorate of Philosophy degree from Oxford University.
After the nomination, Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director Amanda Tyler released the following statement:
“President Donald Trump has taken the first step in returning the Court to full strength. We look forward to the opportunity to review Judge Neil Gorsuch’s record on church-state matters and hope that the Senate will take its responsibility seriously to evaluate him in the confirmation process.
“The Baptist Joint Committee does not support or oppose judicial nominees but seeks to educate the public about the Court’s role in upholding religious liberty for all people. A strong commitment to both protecting the free exercise of religion and preventing government establishment of religion is essential to upholding our constitutional commitment to America’s first freedom.”
Gorsuch, who is Episcopalian, would be the only Protestant on the current Supreme Court if confirmed.
From the January/February 2017 edition of Report from the Capital. You can also read the digital version of the magazine or view it as a PDF.
