President Donald Trump has made one of the most influential decisions that will  shape the future of American law: choosing a new supreme court nominee. President Trump chose a judge that would fill the vacancy of the former right-leaning voice of the court. According to the Washington Post, Trump has said he will choose from a list of 21 possibilities released during the campaign. His possible nominees were William Pryor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, Neil Gorsuch of the 10th Circuit in Denver, Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia and Raymond Kethledge of the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati, OH. On Thursday, Mr. Trump revealed his choice to be Mr. Neil Gorsuch.

According to the Washington Post, Mr. Gorsuch seems to be more than qualified for the position. “There is a glittery Ivy League résumé — Columbia undergrad, Harvard Law — along with a Marshall scholarship to Oxford. There is a partnership at one of Washington’s top litigation law firms and a string of successful cases.” As for his views on the law, “Gorsuch is seen as a less bombastic version of Scalia… friends and supporters describe Gorsuch as being more interested in persuasion than Scalia, who was just as likely to go it alone as to compromise.”

Furthermore, Mr. Gorsuch is described to be a “proponent of originalism.” This means that the judge will interpret the constitution as they were understood at the time they were written. Legislators “may appeal to their own moral convictions and to claims about social utility to reshape the law as they think it should be in the future,” Gorsuch said. But “judges should do none of these things in a democratic society.” Instead, they should use “text, structure and history” to understand what the law is, “not to decide cases based on their own moral convictions or the policy consequences they believe might serve society best.”

Democrats have vowed to resist Mr. Trump’s nomination. According to CNN “His (Mr. Trump’s)  selection also sets up an intense fight with Senate Democrats, still angry over the Republicans’ decision to essentially ignore former President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for the empty Supreme Court seat last year.” Some democrats have even hinted at the possibility of a filibuster. If this happens, Trump’s nominee will need 60 votes to be confirmed by the Senate.

With constant resistance from democrats and liberal groups, Mr. Gorsuch’s transition into the Supreme Court is expected to be rough. Nevertheless, in an interview, President Trump stated “I can only hope that both Democrats and Republicans can come together for once for the good of the country.” However, as of right now, Mr. Gorsuch has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
Click here to see Mr. Trump’s full list of Supreme Court nominees. The candidates were evaluated by Politico.com and the article shows their position before the nomination. It also describes their political background and their past decisions while they served in court.