Gorsuch told he is likely Trump’s Supreme Court pick

Donald Trump has said he will push for a “nuclear” rule change to ensure Democrats can not block his pick for the US Supreme Court.

Media captionThe Supreme Court has been without a full bench for nearly a full year Where does Judge Gorsuch stand on key issues?

Gorsuch’s academic credentials are impeccable – BA with honors and Phi Beta Kappa at Columbia University; JD, cum laude and Truman Scholar at Harvard Law School; D. Phil. and Marshall Scholar at Oxford University. That option was last invoked by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to assist in the confirmation of Obama’s judicial and executive nominees.

He’s a conservative from a very Democratic, liberal area-Boulder, Colorado.

The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of numerous most sensitive issues of American life and law – from abortion and gender issues to gun control.

“Religious freedom is not a license to discriminate”, the statement read. He came to national prominence in the United States a few years ago when he ruled in favour of the famous Hobby Lobby case.

Gorsuch has staked out a clearly conservative view on religious expression, finding in the Hobby Lobby case, for example, that employers could not under the Affordable Care Act be required to provide insurance that covered contraception for their employees. He has clerked for two Supreme Court justices.

“This is a stolen seat being filled by an illegitimate and extreme nominee, and I will do everything in my power to stand up against this assault on the court”, said Sen.

Why did he get the nomination? .

While he has not ruled on any abortion cases as a judge, Gorsuch wrote a book making the case against the legalization of assisted suicide in which he said “all human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong”. “I am a man of my word”.

What difference will he make? .

The Supreme Court was one reason for wavering conservatives to back Trump in November. Now there are four conservative justices and four liberal Justices and one vacant seat.

The deciding voice is often that of Justice Anthony Kennedy. It fuels their resistance toward the new administration, and against this Supreme Court nominee. Like Trump, Gorsuch is clearly outside the mainstream. On social media, there are growing calls to primary any Democratic lawmakers who support or facilitate any aspect of Trump’s agenda-including confirming any of his Cabinet appointees-and progressive groups are already talking about targeting Democrats in red-leaning states who might be tempted to vote for Trump’s nominee. “Just as I have all along, I urge my colleagues to put partisan politics aside and allow the vetting process to proceed”. Republicans blocked Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, for more than 10 months, prompting some Democrats to want to exact retribution.

Democrats may seek to prevent that second vote by prolonging, or filibustering, the debate.

As a candidate for the presidency, Trump explicitly promised a high court selection who would be philosophically like Scalia.

For example the centrist conservative Justice Kennedy, now 80, has privately spoken retiring, and the liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83 and also might step down.

Since Republicans hold 52 seats, they will need eight Democrats to join them in dispensing with the filibuster and moving to allow the up-or-down vote.