Neil Gorsuch, American judge
Neil McGill Gorsuch ( GOR-sutch; born August 29, 1967) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31, 2017, and has served since April 10, 2017.Gorsuch was born and spent his early life in Denver, Colorado, then lived in Bethesda, Maryland, while attending Georgetown Preparatory School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University, a Juris Doctor from Harvard University, and after practicing law for 15 years, received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Law from the University of Oxford, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar. His doctoral thesis concerned the morality of assisted suicide, under the supervision of the Catholic legal philosopher John Finnis.From 1995 to 2005, Gorsuch was in private practice with the law firm of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick. He was Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice from 2005 until his appointment to the Tenth Circuit. President George W. Bush nominated Gorsuch to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on May 10, 2006, to replace Judge David M. Ebel, who took senior status in 2006.
Gorsuch is a proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in interpreting the United States Constitution. Along with Justice Clarence Thomas, he is an advocate of natural law jurisprudence. Gorsuch clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992 and U.S. Supreme Court justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994. He is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside a justice for whom he once clerked (Kennedy).