{"id":54857,"date":"2023-04-19T09:23:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T14:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/supreme\/supreme_court\/justices\/neil-gorsuch-bio.html"},"modified":"2023-04-19T09:23:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T14:23:29","slug":"neil-gorsuch-bio","status":"publish","type":"supreme","link":"https:\/\/supreme.findlaw.com\/supreme_court\/justices\/neil-gorsuch-bio.html","title":{"rendered":"Neil Gorsuch Bio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch<\/h1>\n
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\n By Jade Yeban, Esq.<\/a> | Legally reviewed by Laura Temme, Esq.<\/a>\n | Last reviewed\n
\n \n <\/i>\n Legally Reviewed\n <\/summary>\n\n
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This article has been written and reviewed for legal accuracy, clarity, and style by FindLaw\u2019s team of legal writers and attorneys<\/a> and in accordance with our editorial standards<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/details>\n\n

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The last updated date refers to the last time this article was reviewed by FindLaw or one of our contributing authors<\/a>. We make every effort to keep our articles updated. For information regarding a specific legal issue affecting you, please contact an attorney in your area<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/details>\n<\/section>\n

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the United States Supreme Court in 2017. Nominated by President Donald Trump,\u00a0Justice Gorsuch\u00a0is known for his\u00a0textualist<\/a>\u00a0and originalist approaches to statutory interpretation and the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\r\n

Education & Clerkships<\/h2>\r\n

Justice Gorsuch graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Columbia University in 1988. During his undergraduate studies, Justice Gorsuch was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, wrote for the\u00a0Columbia Daily Spectator<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>the student newspaper, and co-founded the university’s satirical paper,\u00a0The Columbia Federalist<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\r\n

After graduating from Columbia, Justice Gorsuch received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1991. He served as an editor of the\u00a0Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>and graduated cum laude. After graduating from Harvard, he clerked\u00a0for Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for one year.<\/p>\r\n

Justice Gorsuch was a Marshall Scholar and studied at the University of Oxford from 1992 until 1993. He then served as a clerk for two Supreme Court justices, Justice Byron White and\u00a0Justice Anthony Kennedy<\/a>, until 1994.<\/p>\r\n

Justice Gorsuch returned to academia to receive a Ph.D. in legal philosophy from Oxford. He graduated in 2004 after completing research on topics such as assisted suicide and euthanasia.<\/p>\r\n

Law Practice<\/h2>\r\n

From 1995 to\u00a02005, Justice Gorsuch worked at the law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel\u00a0as\u00a0an associate and later\u00a0partner. He focused on commercial matters and litigated cases involving antitrust laws, contracts, and securities fraud.<\/p>\r\n

In 2005, Justice Gorsuch went on to serve as the Principal Deputy to the Associate Attorney General, Robert McCallum, at the United States Department of Justice. He assisted with civil litigation in the areas of antitrust, environmental, and civil rights.<\/p>\r\n

Judicial Offices<\/h2>\r\n

In 2006, President George W. Bush nominated Justice Gorsuch to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The Tenth Circuit hears appeals from the federal district courts of the states of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.<\/p>\r\n

Justice Gorsuch was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the U.S. Senate in July 2006. He served in this position until 2017 and authored over 200 published opinions. During his tenure on the Tenth Circuit, Justice Gorsuch’s most notable opinions included\u00a0Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>(2016) and\u00a0Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius<\/i>\u00a0(2013).<\/p>\r\n

Former President Donald Trump nominated Justice Gorsuch to the U.S. Senate on February 1, 2017, to fill the seat left vacant by the death of\u00a0Justice Antonin Scalia<\/a>. Justice Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate on April 7, 2017, with a 54\u201345 vote. He was sworn in as the 101st Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court on April 10, 2017.<\/p>\r\n

Notable Decisions<\/h2>\r\n

Justice Gorsuch authored his first opinion as an associate justice in\u00a0Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc.<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>(2017), which involved debt collection under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. One of his most significant majority\u00a0opinions is\u00a0Bostock v. Clayton County,\u00a0<\/i>which held that federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on sex also covered sexual orientation and gender identity. Other notable opinions by Justice Gorsuch include\u00a0Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda\u00a0<\/i>(2020),\u00a0Ysleto del Sur Pueblo v. Texas\u00a0<\/i>(2022), and\u00a0Kennedy v. Bremerton School District<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>(2022).<\/p>\r\n

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