page_title: Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination
section_title: Responses to the nomination
hierarchical_section_title: Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination / Responses to the nomination
caption_attribution_description: English: United States Senator and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley meeting with United States Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch.
context_page_description: On January 31, 2017, soon after taking office, President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Neil Gorsuch for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed Antonin Scalia, who had died almost one year earlier. Then-president Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Merrick Garland to succeed Scalia on March 16, 2016, but the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate did not vote on the nomination. Majority leader Mitch McConnell declared that as the presidential election cycle had already commenced, it made the appointment of the next justice a political issue to be decided by voters. The Senate Judiciary Committee refused to consider the Garland nomination, thus keeping the vacancy open through the end of Obama's presidency on January 20, 2017.
  When nominated, Gorsuch was a sitting judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, a position to which he had been appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006. Democratic Senators launched a filibuster against Gorsuch's nomination, hoping to block his confirmation. However, Republicans invoked the "nuclear option", eliminating the filibuster with respect to Supreme Court nominees.
context_section_description: Norm Eisen, Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform in the White House and Ambassador to the Czech Republic, endorsed Gorsuch. Eisen was a classmate of both Gorsuch and Obama at Harvard Law. Neal Katyal, who served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States during the Obama Administration and who is currently a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, endorsed Gorsuch for approval to the Supreme Court.
  The National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Second Amendment Foundation and other gun rights groups endorsed Gorsuch, while Americans for Responsible Solutions, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and other gun control proponents have opposed his nomination. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed Gorsuch "comes down on the side of felons over gun safety". PolitiFact called her statement misleading and said that Gorsuch's past rulings do not "demonstrate that he thinks more felons should be allowed guns than what is already permitted under the law".
  The American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns about Gorsuch's respect for disability rights. The Secular Coalition for America, Freedom from Religion Foundation and Union for Reform Judaism all voiced concerns with Gorsuch's nomination.
  The Judicial Crisis Network enthusiastically rallied behind Gorsuch after running a campaign against Merrick Garland, spending a total of $17 million to these ends.
caption: Neil Gorsuch with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, February 1, 2017
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