Neil Gorsuch in Newsweek
On Abortion:
Let Hobby Lobby skip contraceptives on religious grounds
Gorsuch hasn't written a ruling specifically dealing with Roe v. Wade, but he is known to have strong opinions on religious liberty, a view that appeals to many conservatives. He has sided, for example, with religious employers seeking to limit their
employees' rights to contraception coverage in health care insurance, as dictated under the Affordable Care Act.
In Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius, in June 2013, the 10th Circuit ordered the federal government to stop enforcement of the federal mandate against Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma-based Christian chain of retail arts and crafts stores.
In his concurrence, Gorsuch highlighted that the contraception mandate substantially burdened the company's religious exercise. The Supreme Court later upheld the 10th Circuit decision in the case.
Source: Newsweek magazine on SCOTUS confirmation hearings
Jan 27, 2017
On Corporations:
Taught law school courses on anti-trust and legal ethics
Before his judgeship, the Ivy League-educated Gorsuch spent much of his professional life in Washington, D.C. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy, in the early 1990s. He also previously
worked in private law practice for a decade and was the principal deputy to the U.S. associate attorney general during the George W. Bush administration.He is married, has two daughters and lives in Boulder, where he is also an adjunct
law professor at the University of Colorado. He has taught law courses on antitrust issues and legal ethics and professionalism, according to his biography on the university's website. He also wrote a 2009 book that argues against the
legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia.
His mother, the late Anne Gorsuch, was the first female director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under then-President Ronald Reagan.
Source: Newsweek magazine on SCOTUS confirmation hearings
Jan 27, 2017
On Crime:
Police tasers aren't excessive force, even if person killed
In 2013, the 10th Circuit threw out a lawsuit against the city of Lafayette, Colorado, and its police. The parents of Ryan Wilson, a 22-year-old who died after being stunned with a Taser as he ran from officers, brought the suit.
Gorsuch ruled that an officer didn't use excessive force when he hit Wilson in the head with the stun gun--and killed him--in 2006. The court upheld a District Court's decision that the officer had qualified immunity.
"We sympathize with the Wilsons over their terrible loss," Gorsuch wrote. "Given the direction we have from the Supreme Court and this court's precedent, and in light of the state of the law as of 2006, we cannot say the district court erred in its
decision to grant qualified immunity." The Supreme Court, he said, "has directed the lower federal courts to apply qualified immunity broadly" to protect all officers except "the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law."
Source: Newsweek magazine on SCOTUS confirmation hearings
Jan 27, 2017
On Government Reform:
Strict originalist: interpret Constitution as Founders meant
Gorsuch is considered by many to hold a strict originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution--he is committed to reading the meaning of the document basically word for word, as he believes the Founding Fathers would have intended it 230 years ago.
Former President George W. Bush nominated Gorsuch to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in May 2006. Two months later, the Senate confirmed him by unanimous voice vote. "I resist pigeon holes.
I think those are not terribly helpful, pigeon-holing someone as having this philosophy or that philosophy," Gorsuch said during his confirmation hearing, according to an online transcript of the
event. "People do unexpected things and pigeon holes ignore gray areas in the law, of which there are a great many."
Source: Newsweek magazine on SCOTUS confirmation hearings
Jan 27, 2017
Page last updated: Sep 29, 2024