The Essential Neil Gorsuch Reader: What Judge Gorsuch Cases Should You Read?

"Following President Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Senators have reportedly begun meeting with the nominee who could succeed Justice Antonin Scalia, as part of the initial phases of determining whether to provide “Advice and Consent” to the nomination. According to recent news reports, the Senate is anticipated to hold hearings and ultimately vote on Judge Gorsuch’s nomination in the coming weeks and months. Hearings on nominees to the Supreme Court have historically considered the nominee’s previous work experience, with particular focus on any rulings the nominee authored as a judge.

As an earlier Sidebar posting noted, Judge Gorsuch has a voluminous judicial record, having served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit for more than a decade. According to Judge Gorsuch’s recent submissions to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has authored over eight hundred opinions and participated in approximately 2,750 decisionsduring his tenure on the Tenth Circuit. This provides an enormous—and perhaps unwieldy—body of law for those interested in learning about Judge Gorsuch’s approach to judging. Federal appellate opinions and votes can be far from dispositive in predicting how federal appellate judges might vote if elevated to the Supreme Court, as many rulings on federal courts of appeals are unanimous, uncontroversial, or all but dictated by precedent. Nonetheless they “offer perhaps the best gauge available for” determining a nominee’s future work as a Supreme Court Justice, as one scholar of the Supreme Court nomination process has noted. Beyond Judge Gorsuch’s judicial record, the nominee has authoredvarious publications that could also provide insight into his approaches to various areas of law..."
Judge Neil Gorsuch