New York Times
Where Neil Gorsuch Would Fit on the Supreme Court
February 1, 2017
by
In nominating Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, President Trump chose a jurist who closely shares the conservative legal philosophy of Justice Antonin Scalia, the man whose seat he would fill if confirmed, according to a study analyzing the ideologies of potential nominees.
Judge Gorsuch, 49, is also “interesting because he looks most like the current justices, putting ideology aside,” Lee Epstein of Washington University, one of the report’s authors, said, noting his degrees from Ivy League universities and a clerkship at the Supreme Court. “He’s a nominee it’s going to be hard not to confirm.”
The authors predict Judge Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge in Denver, would be a reliable conservative, “voting to limit gay rights, uphold restrictions on abortion and invalidate affirmative action programs.”
Should he be confirmed, the court will return to a familiar dynamic, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy holding the decisive vote in many closely divided cases.
“He’s probably one of the least likely to drift once he got on the court,” Ms. Epstein said of Judge Gorsuch.
The study — prepared by Ms. Epstein, Andrew D. Martin of the University of Michigan and Kevin Quinn of the University of California, Berkeley — updates an earlier analysis. It uses a common and reliable political science measurement to make predictions about potential nominees.