American evangelicals have high hopes that the US Supreme Court, with its newfound conservative majority, will be tempted to chip away at its historic decision to legalize abortion.

Forty-six years after its landmark Roe v Wade decision, the high court is at the heart of a heated offensive led by states with conservative majorities who oppose the voluntary termination of pregnancy.

This week alone, Alabama passed a law banning women from having an abortion even in cases of incest or rape and the Missouri legislature made illegal abortions from eight weeks of pregnancy. Both states have vowed to prosecute doctors who perform the procedure.

Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa and North Dakota have enacted laws banning abortion from the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected, around six weeks of gestation, before most women know they are pregnant.

All of these laws flagrantly go against Roe v Wade, which guarantees women's rights to abortion as long as the fetus is not viable -- around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The new pieces of legislation are therefore widely expected to soon be blocked in court. But their backers seek to go beyond that step, planning to appeal such decisions until they reach the Supreme Court in hopes this will lead to the long-sought conservative goal of overturning the abortion ruling.

"All the conservative states across the US are testing the limits, they see it's a sympathetic court to the conservatives," Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown Law told AFP.

"(President Donald) Trump has changed the balance of the Supreme Court so that he now has a Supreme Court that is decisively conservative and unfriendly to women's reproductive rights, that's unquestionably true."

During the 2016 campaign, Trump secured the evangelical vote that had been initially hesitant to cast ballots for the bombastic, twice-divorced billionaire by promising to appoint anti-abortion justices at the highest court in the land.

Pivot

Since his election, the president has brought two appointees to the high court -- Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh -- and the progressives are now a minority of four on the nine-person bench.

"We know who put them in the court and why, we know that Trump and (president George W.) Bush are expecting them to vote to overturn Roe. But in the past, presidents have been wrong in their selection," said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University.

"There are a lot of uncertainties, so we don't know where the conservative justices stand exactly."

She noted that during his confirmation hearings, Brett Kavanaugh insisted he supported upholding past rulings.

"Chief Justice John Roberts is very aware of how the public perceives the Supreme Court. He likes the idea that people have respect for the court," said Sherry Colb of Cornell Law School.

In February, Roberts joined liberal justices in freezing the Louisiana law that critics say imposed such drastic conditions on doctors who perform abortion procedures that only one of them was left able to provide the service in the entire state.

Two years earlier, however, Roberts had backed a similar law in Texas.

Observers say the shift shows the chief justice places more emphasis on his central role on the bench over his own personal convictions.

'Patchwork'

In another sign of a tempered stance from the court, it has yet to decide whether to take up an appeal from Indiana seeking to uphold a law that treats a fetus as an individual.

Since December, the justices have put the case on their agenda a dozen times without making a decision either way -- a highly unusual process, Ziegler noted.

"They are continuing to kick the can down the road. I don't know what the point of waiting is, sooner or later, if they do want to take it, it starts to push it to 2020," when the next US presidential vote will take place, Ziegler added.

"If the idea is not to have a lot of controversies, stalling a decision to an election year is not a smart move."

A.E. Dick Howard of the University of Virginia School of Law said such moves make it seem "unlikely" that the court will overturn its 1973 decision.

"But it is ready to chip away at it," he added.

"You will see a (conservative) majority that will increasingly relax the limits they place on the states."

Abortion rules vary greatly from state to state, in what Howard describes as a "patchwork" of legislation.

Some states discourage women from seeking the procedure by requiring two separate medical opinions and parental authorization for minors.&nbsp;

Others impose such strict conditions on clinics that most have closed.

Gostin pointed to the problem of unequal access for women in different states.

"A woman of means will always be able to get an abortion in the United States, she will be able to travel to California, New York, (Washington) DC," he said.

"The poor women in rural areas... they are the ones that are going to suffer."

American evangelicals have high hopes that the US Supreme Court, with its newfound conservative majority, will be tempted to chip away at its historic decision to legalize abortion.

American evangelicals have high hopes that the US Supreme Court, with its newfound conservative majority, will be tempted to chip away at its historic decision to legalize abortion. Forty-six years after its landmark Roe v Wade decision, the high court is at the heart of a heated offensive led by states with conservative majorities who oppose the voluntary termination of pregnancy. This week alone, Alabama passed a law banning women from having an abortion even in cases of incest or rape and the Missouri legislature made illegal abortions from eight weeks of pregnancy. Both states have vowed to prosecute doctors who perform the procedure. Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa and North Dakota have enacted laws banning abortion from the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected, around six weeks of gestation, before most women know they are pregnant. All of these laws flagrantly go against Roe v Wade, which guarantees women's rights to abortion as long as the fetus is not viable -- around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The new pieces of legislation are therefore widely expected to soon be blocked in court. But their backers seek to go beyond that step, planning to appeal such decisions until they reach the Supreme Court in hopes this will lead to the long-sought conservative goal of overturning the abortion ruling. "All the conservative states across the US are testing the limits, they see it's a sympathetic court to the conservatives," Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown Law told AFP. "(President Donald) Trump has changed the balance of the Supreme Court so that he now has a Supreme Court that is decisively conservative and unfriendly to women's reproductive rights, that's unquestionably true." During the 2016 campaign, Trump secured the evangelical vote that had been initially hesitant to cast ballots for the bombastic, twice-divorced billionaire by promising to appoint anti-abortion justices at the highest court in the land. Pivot Since his election, the president has brought two appointees to the high court -- Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh -- and the progressives are now a minority of four on the nine-person bench. "We know who put them in the court and why, we know that Trump and (president George W.) Bush are expecting them to vote to overturn Roe. But in the past, presidents have been wrong in their selection," said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University. "There are a lot of uncertainties, so we don't know where the conservative justices stand exactly." She noted that during his confirmation hearings, Brett Kavanaugh insisted he supported upholding past rulings. "Chief Justice John Roberts is very aware of how the public perceives the Supreme Court. He likes the idea that people have respect for the court," said Sherry Colb of Cornell Law School. In February, Roberts joined liberal justices in freezing the Louisiana law that critics say imposed such drastic conditions on doctors who perform abortion procedures that only one of them was left able to provide the service in the entire state. Two years earlier, however, Roberts had backed a similar law in Texas. Observers say the shift shows the chief justice places more emphasis on his central role on the bench over his own personal convictions. 'Patchwork' In another sign of a tempered stance from the court, it has yet to decide whether to take up an appeal from Indiana seeking to uphold a law that treats a fetus as an individual. Since December, the justices have put the case on their agenda a dozen times without making a decision either way -- a highly unusual process, Ziegler noted. "They are continuing to kick the can down the road. I don't know what the point of waiting is, sooner or later, if they do want to take it, it starts to push it to 2020," when the next US presidential vote will take place, Ziegler added. "If the idea is not to have a lot of controversies, stalling a decision to an election year is not a smart move." A.E. Dick Howard of the University of Virginia School of Law said such moves make it seem "unlikely" that the court will overturn its 1973 decision. "But it is ready to chip away at it," he added. "You will see a (conservative) majority that will increasingly relax the limits they place on the states." Abortion rules vary greatly from state to state, in what Howard describes as a "patchwork" of legislation. Some states discourage women from seeking the procedure by requiring two separate medical opinions and parental authorization for minors. Others impose such strict conditions on clinics that most have closed. Gostin pointed to the problem of unequal access for women in different states. "A woman of means will always be able to get an abortion in the United States, she will be able to travel to California, New York, (Washington) DC," he said. "The poor women in rural areas... they are the ones that are going to suffer."

Will the US Supreme Court reconsider abortion rights?

Neil Gorsuch, picked by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, was sworn in as a US Supreme Court justice at the White House on Monday and was poised to have an instant impact on a court once again dominated by conservatives.

Trump earned the biggest political victory of his presidency and fulfilled a major campaign promise when the Senate voted on Friday to confirm the conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado to the lifetime job despite vehement Democratic opposition. With Gorsuch aboard, the court once again has five conservative justices and four liberals.

Gorsuch took his judicial oath in a White House Rose Garden ceremony with Trump watching on, filling a vacancy that lingered for nearly 14 months after the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. The oath was administered by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch worked as a clerk as a young lawyer. Gorsuch will become the first justice to serve alongside a former boss.

All the other members of the court were at the ceremony, including liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who called Trump &quot;a faker&quot; last year during the presidential campaign but later said she regretted the remark. Trump at the time called on her to resign and said her &quot;mind is shot.&quot;

Scalia&#39;s widow, Maureen, also attended the ceremony.

Gorsuch earlier in the day took his separate constitutional oath, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court with the other justices.

Trump made Gorsuch, 49, the youngest Supreme Court nominee since Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1991 selected Clarence Thomas, who was then 43. Gorsuch could be expected to serve for decades, and Trump could make further appointments to the high court to make it even more solidly conservative, with three of the eight justices 78 or older: Ginsburg, 84; fellow liberal Stephen Breyer, 78; and conservative swing vote Kennedy, 80.

Gorsuch will take part in the court&#39;s next round of oral arguments, starting on April 17. They include a closely watched religious rights case on April 19 in which a Missouri church is objecting to being frozen out of state funds for a playground project due to a state ban on providing public money to religious organizations.

He is expected to take part in oral arguments in 13 cases during the court&#39;s current term, which ends in June.

Gorsuch can be expected to have an immediate impact of the court. He takes part on Thursday in the justices&#39; private conference to decide which cases to take up. Appeals are pending before the justices on expanding gun rights to include carrying concealed firearms in public, state voting restrictions that critics say are aimed at reducing minority turnout, and letting Christian business owners object on religious grounds to providing gay couples certain services.

Gorsuch could also play a vital role in some cases on which his new colleagues may have been split 4-4 along ideological lines and therefore did not yet decide. Those cases potentially could be reargued in the court&#39;s next term, which starts in October.

Gorsuch&#39;s wife, Louise, and his two daughters were also present at the private constitutional oath ceremony at the court, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. Louise Gorsuch held a family Bible as her husband took the oath, Arberg said.

The Senate, which last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama&#39;s nomination of Merrick Garland, voted 54-45 to confirm Gorsuch.

(Reuters) 
&nbsp;

With Gorsuch aboard, the court once again has five conservative justices and four liberals

Neil Gorsuch, picked by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, was sworn in as a US Supreme Court justice at the White House on Monday and was poised to have an instant impact on a court once again dominated by conservatives. Trump earned the biggest political victory of his presidency and fulfilled a major campaign promise when the Senate voted on Friday to confirm the conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado to the lifetime job despite vehement Democratic opposition. With Gorsuch aboard, the court once again has five conservative justices and four liberals. Gorsuch took his judicial oath in a White House Rose Garden ceremony with Trump watching on, filling a vacancy that lingered for nearly 14 months after the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. The oath was administered by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch worked as a clerk as a young lawyer. Gorsuch will become the first justice to serve alongside a former boss. All the other members of the court were at the ceremony, including liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who called Trump "a faker" last year during the presidential campaign but later said she regretted the remark. Trump at the time called on her to resign and said her "mind is shot." Scalia's widow, Maureen, also attended the ceremony. Gorsuch earlier in the day took his separate constitutional oath, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court with the other justices. Trump made Gorsuch, 49, the youngest Supreme Court nominee since Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1991 selected Clarence Thomas, who was then 43. Gorsuch could be expected to serve for decades, and Trump could make further appointments to the high court to make it even more solidly conservative, with three of the eight justices 78 or older: Ginsburg, 84; fellow liberal Stephen Breyer, 78; and conservative swing vote Kennedy, 80. Gorsuch will take part in the court's next round of oral arguments, starting on April 17. They include a closely watched religious rights case on April 19 in which a Missouri church is objecting to being frozen out of state funds for a playground project due to a state ban on providing public money to religious organizations. He is expected to take part in oral arguments in 13 cases during the court's current term, which ends in June. Gorsuch can be expected to have an immediate impact of the court. He takes part on Thursday in the justices' private conference to decide which cases to take up. Appeals are pending before the justices on expanding gun rights to include carrying concealed firearms in public, state voting restrictions that critics say are aimed at reducing minority turnout, and letting Christian business owners object on religious grounds to providing gay couples certain services. Gorsuch could also play a vital role in some cases on which his new colleagues may have been split 4-4 along ideological lines and therefore did not yet decide. Those cases potentially could be reargued in the court's next term, which starts in October. Gorsuch's wife, Louise, and his two daughters were also present at the private constitutional oath ceremony at the court, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. Louise Gorsuch held a family Bible as her husband took the oath, Arberg said. The Senate, which last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland, voted 54-45 to confirm Gorsuch. (Reuters)

Neil Gorsuch sworn in as US Supreme Court judge

Senate Republicans on Thursday crushed a Democratic blockade of President Donald Trump&#39;s US&nbsp;Supreme Court nominee in a fierce partisan brawl, approving a rule change dubbed the &quot;nuclear option&quot; to allow for conservative judge Neil Gorsuch&#39;s confirmation by Friday.

With ideological control of the nation&#39;s highest court at stake, the Republican-led Senate voted along party lines to change its long-standing rules in order to prohibit a procedural tactic called a filibuster against Supreme Court nominees. That came after Republicans failed by a 55-45 tally to muster the 60-vote super-majority needed to end the Democratic filibuster that had sought to deny Gorsuch confirmation to the lifetime post.

The Senate paved the way for senators to confirm Gorsuch by simple majority. Republicans control the Senate 52-48. The rule change has been dubbed the &quot;nuclear option&quot; because it has been considered an extreme break with Senate traditions, and Trump has encouraged McConnell to &quot;go nuclear&quot;.

&quot;This will be the first and last partisan filibuster of the Supreme Court,&quot; Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor, accusing Democrats of trying to inflict political damage on Trump and to keep more conservatives from joining the high court.

&quot;In 20 or 30 or 40 years, we will sadly point to today as a turning point in the history of the Senate and the Supreme Court, a day when we irrevocably moved further away from the principles our founders intended for these institutions: principles of bipartisanship, moderation and consensus,&quot; Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Schumer ridiculed McConnell&#39;s contention that the Democratic action was unprecedented, noting that the Republican-led Senate last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama&#39;s nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland for the same high court seat that Trump elected Gorsuch to fill.

Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat court&#39;s 5-4 conservative majority, enable Trump to leave an indelible mark on America&#39;s highest judicial body and fulfill a top campaign promise by the Republican president. Gorsuch could be expected to serve for decades.

The court&#39;s ideological leaning could help determine the outcome of cases involving the death penalty, abortion, gun control, environmental regulations, transgender rights, voting rights, immigration, religious liberty, presidential powers and more.

The nine-seat Supreme Court has had a vacancy since conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016.

Republicans have called Gorsuch superbly qualified and one of the most distinguished appellate judges on the bench, and they blamed the Democrats for politicising the confirmation process.

Democrats accused Gorsuch of being so conservative as to be outside the judicial mainstream, favouring corporate interests over ordinary Americans in legal opinions, and displaying insufficient independence from Trump.

&quot;This isn&#39;t really about the nominee anyway,&quot; McConnell said. &quot;The opposition to this particular nominee is more about the man who nominated him and the party he represents than the nominee himself.&quot;

What Republicans did to Obama&#39;s nominee Garland was worse than a filibuster, Schumer said. Schumer said Republicans denied &quot;the constitutional prerogative of a president with 11 months left in his term.&quot;

&nbsp;

&#39;THE FALLOUT&#39;

&quot;The nuclear option was used by Senator McConnell when he stopped Merrick Garland. What we face today is the fallout,&quot; Democratic Senator Richard Durbin added on the Senate floor.

McConnell blamed the escalation of fights over judicial nominees on the Democrats and their opposition starting three decades ago to nominees made by Republican former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W&nbsp;Bush.

McConnell called the Democratic effort against Gorsuch &quot;another extreme escalation in the left&#39;s never-ending drive to politicise the court and the confirmation process.&quot; He accused Gorsuch&#39;s opponents of &quot;a singular aim: securing raw power no matter the cost to the country or the institution&quot;.

The 60-vote threshold that gives the minority party power to hold up the majority party has forced the Senate over the decades to try to achieve bipartisanship in legislation and presidential appointments.

The filibuster in one form or another dates back to the 19th century but assumed its current form in the 1970s.

While Democrats opposed the rule change and accused Republicans of a power grab, it was the Democrats who first resorted to the nuclear option when they controlled the Senate in 2013. In the face of Republican filibusters of Obama appointments, they barred filibusters for executive branch nominees and federal judges aside from Supreme Court justices but still allowed it for Supreme Court nominees and legislation.

The Republican-backed rule change on Thursday maintains the ability to filibuster legislation.

In the past, the nuclear option has been averted when moderates in the two parties compromised to avoid a showdown, but the ferocious partisanship in Washington now made that impossible.

Experts said eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments could make it more likely that presidents, with little incentive to choose centrist justices who could attract support from the other party, will pick ideologically extreme nominees in the future.

Ending the filibuster also would make it easier for future Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed when the president and Senate leadership belong to the same party.

With the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in Congress and with federal courts blocking the president&#39;s ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States, securing Gorsuch&#39;s confirmation took on even greater importance for Trump, who took office in January.

(Reuters)

Senate confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat court's 5-4 conservative majority

Senate Republicans on Thursday crushed a Democratic blockade of President Donald Trump's US Supreme Court nominee in a fierce partisan brawl, approving a rule change dubbed the "nuclear option" to allow for conservative judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation by Friday. With ideological control of the nation's highest court at stake, the Republican-led Senate voted along party lines to change its long-standing rules in order to prohibit a procedural tactic called a filibuster against Supreme Court nominees. That came after Republicans failed by a 55-45 tally to muster the 60-vote super-majority needed to end the Democratic filibuster that had sought to deny Gorsuch confirmation to the lifetime post. The Senate paved the way for senators to confirm Gorsuch by simple majority. Republicans control the Senate 52-48. The rule change has been dubbed the "nuclear option" because it has been considered an extreme break with Senate traditions, and Trump has encouraged McConnell to "go nuclear". "This will be the first and last partisan filibuster of the Supreme Court," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor, accusing Democrats of trying to inflict political damage on Trump and to keep more conservatives from joining the high court. "In 20 or 30 or 40 years, we will sadly point to today as a turning point in the history of the Senate and the Supreme Court, a day when we irrevocably moved further away from the principles our founders intended for these institutions: principles of bipartisanship, moderation and consensus," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. Schumer ridiculed McConnell's contention that the Democratic action was unprecedented, noting that the Republican-led Senate last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama's nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland for the same high court seat that Trump elected Gorsuch to fill. Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat court's 5-4 conservative majority, enable Trump to leave an indelible mark on America's highest judicial body and fulfill a top campaign promise by the Republican president. Gorsuch could be expected to serve for decades. The court's ideological leaning could help determine the outcome of cases involving the death penalty, abortion, gun control, environmental regulations, transgender rights, voting rights, immigration, religious liberty, presidential powers and more. The nine-seat Supreme Court has had a vacancy since conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016. Republicans have called Gorsuch superbly qualified and one of the most distinguished appellate judges on the bench, and they blamed the Democrats for politicising the confirmation process. Democrats accused Gorsuch of being so conservative as to be outside the judicial mainstream, favouring corporate interests over ordinary Americans in legal opinions, and displaying insufficient independence from Trump. "This isn't really about the nominee anyway," McConnell said. "The opposition to this particular nominee is more about the man who nominated him and the party he represents than the nominee himself." What Republicans did to Obama's nominee Garland was worse than a filibuster, Schumer said. Schumer said Republicans denied "the constitutional prerogative of a president with 11 months left in his term." 'THE FALLOUT' "The nuclear option was used by Senator McConnell when he stopped Merrick Garland. What we face today is the fallout," Democratic Senator Richard Durbin added on the Senate floor. McConnell blamed the escalation of fights over judicial nominees on the Democrats and their opposition starting three decades ago to nominees made by Republican former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W Bush. McConnell called the Democratic effort against Gorsuch "another extreme escalation in the left's never-ending drive to politicise the court and the confirmation process." He accused Gorsuch's opponents of "a singular aim: securing raw power no matter the cost to the country or the institution". The 60-vote threshold that gives the minority party power to hold up the majority party has forced the Senate over the decades to try to achieve bipartisanship in legislation and presidential appointments. The filibuster in one form or another dates back to the 19th century but assumed its current form in the 1970s. While Democrats opposed the rule change and accused Republicans of a power grab, it was the Democrats who first resorted to the nuclear option when they controlled the Senate in 2013. In the face of Republican filibusters of Obama appointments, they barred filibusters for executive branch nominees and federal judges aside from Supreme Court justices but still allowed it for Supreme Court nominees and legislation. The Republican-backed rule change on Thursday maintains the ability to filibuster legislation. In the past, the nuclear option has been averted when moderates in the two parties compromised to avoid a showdown, but the ferocious partisanship in Washington now made that impossible. Experts said eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments could make it more likely that presidents, with little incentive to choose centrist justices who could attract support from the other party, will pick ideologically extreme nominees in the future. Ending the filibuster also would make it easier for future Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed when the president and Senate leadership belong to the same party. With the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in Congress and with federal courts blocking the president's ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States, securing Gorsuch's confirmation took on even greater importance for Trump, who took office in January. (Reuters)

Senate ends Democratic blockade of Trump Supreme Court pick, via 'nuclear option'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Neil Gorsuch for a lifetime job on the US Supreme Court, picking the 49-year-old federal appeals court judge to restore the court&#39;s conservative majority and help shape rulings on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, the death penalty and religious rights.

The Colorado native faces a potentially contentious confirmation battle in the US Senate after Republicans last year refused to consider Democratic President Barack Obama&#39;s nominee to fill the vacancy caused by the February 2016 death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia.

Gorsuch is the youngest nominee to the nation&#39;s highest court in more than a quarter century, and he could influence the direction of the court for decades.

&quot;Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline, and has earned bipartisan support,&quot; Trump said.

&quot;Depending on their age, a justice can be active for 50 years. And his or her decisions can last a century or more, and can often be permanent,&quot; Trump added.

Trump during his presidency may get to make additional appointments to the Supreme Court. Liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who Trump called upon to resign last July after she called him &quot;a faker,&quot; is 83 while Kennedy is 80. Stephen Breyer, another liberal, is 78.

&nbsp;

Gorsuch is a judge on the Denver-based 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals and was appointed to that post by Republican President George W&nbsp;Bush in 2006.

Some Democrats in the US Senate, which votes on whether to confirm judicial nominees, have already said they would seek to block whoever Trump nominates.

Gorsuch is considered a conservative intellectual, known for backing religious rights, and is seen as very much in the mold of Scalia, a leading conservative voice on the court for decades.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the choice of Gorsuch was seen by the White House as a significant departure from Supreme Court nominations from the recent past, given that many justices have come from the eastern United States. Gorsuch lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he raises horses and is a life-long outdoorsman.

The official described Gorsuch as a mainstream judge who should easily be confirmed by the Senate. The official noted that the Senate confirmed him for his current judgeship in 2006 by voice vote with no one voting against him.

&nbsp;

&quot;He plays it straight. He sticks to principles, and his opinions reflect a consistency regardless of who is in his courtroom,&quot; the official said of Gorsuch.

Trump made his choice between two US&nbsp;appeals court judges, Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US&nbsp;Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a source involved in the selection process.

Gorsuch became the youngest US&nbsp;Supreme Court nominee since Republican President George HW&nbsp;Bush in 1991 selected conservative Clarence Thomas, who was 43 at the time.

He is the son of Anne Burford, the first woman to head the US&nbsp;Environmental Protection Agency. She served in Republican President Ronald Reagan&#39;s administration but resigned in 1983 amid a fight with Congress over documents on the EPA&#39;s use of a fund created to clean up toxic waste dumps nationwide.

Trump&#39;s selection was one of the most consequential appointments of his young presidency as he moved to restore a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that had been in place for decades until Scalia died at age 79 on February&nbsp;13, 2016.

Trump, who took office on January&nbsp;20, got the opportunity to name Scalia&#39;s replacement only because the Republican-led US&nbsp;Senate, in an action with little precedent in US&nbsp;history, refused to consider Obama&#39;s nominee for the post, appeals court judge Merrick Garland. Obama nominated Garland on March 16 but Republican senators led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denied Garland the customary confirmation hearings and vote.

Trump has said his promise to appoint a conservative justice was one of the reasons he won the November&nbsp;8 presidential election, with Christian conservatives and others emphasising the importance of the pick during the campaign. Trump last week said evangelical Christians would love his nominee.

Trump&#39;s fellow Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate. The minority Democrats, irate over Garland&#39;s rebuff, potentially could try to block the nomination with procedural hurdles.

The new appointee would expand the court&#39;s conservative wing, made up of John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Kennedy long has been considered the court&#39;s pivotal vote, sometimes siding with the liberals in key cases such as the June 2016 ruling striking down abortion restrictions in Texas.

The court&#39;s restored conservative majority likely would be supportive toward the death penalty and gun rights and hostile toward campaign finance limits. Scalia&#39;s replacement also could be pivotal in cases involving abortion, religious rights, presidential powers, transgender rights, voting rights, federal regulations others.

Gorsuch has strong academic qualifications, with an Ivy League education: attending Columbia University and, like several of the other justices on the court, Harvard Law School. He also completed a doctorate in legal philosophy at Oxford University, spent several years in private practice and worked in George W&nbsp;Bush&#39;s Justice Department.

Gorsuch joined an opinion in 2013 saying that owners of private companies could object on religious grounds to a provision of the Obamacare health insurance law requiring employers to provide coverage for birth control for women.

As long as Kennedy and four liberals remain on the bench, the court is not expected to pare back abortion rights as many US&nbsp;conservatives fervently hope. The Supreme Court legalised abortion in the landmark 1973 Roe v&nbsp;Wade ruling. In June, the justices ruled 5-3 to strike down a Texas law that restricted abortion access, with Kennedy and the liberals in the majority.

The current vacancy is the court&#39;s longest since a 391-day void from 1969 to 1970 during Republican Richard Nixon&#39;s presidency. After Abe Fortas resigned from the court in May 1969, the Senate voted down two nominees put forward by Nixon before confirming Harry Blackmun, who became a justice in June 1970. Aside from that one, no other Supreme Court vacancy since the US&nbsp;Civil War years of the 1860s has been as long as the current one.

&nbsp;

Advocacy groups geared up for a fight

Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group, said it would launch the first part of a $10 million media advertisement campaign on Tuesday night in favour of Trump&#39;s pick. The effort will hold Senate Democrats who face election in 2018 &quot;accountable for their choice&quot; on the Supreme Court, the group said.

Liberal groups including People For the American Way and abortion rights advocate NARAL Pro-Choice America planned a nighttime rally in opposition to Trump&#39;s nominee outside the Supreme Court after the announcement.

Some Democrats have threatened to pursue a procedural hurdle called a filibuster, meaning 60 votes would be needed in the 100-seat Senate unless its long-standing rules are changed. Trump&#39;s fellow Republicans hold a 52-48 majority, meaning some Democratic votes would be needed to confirm his pick.

Trump said last week he would favour Senate Republicans eliminating the filibuster, a change dubbed the &quot;nuclear option,&quot; for Supreme Court nominees if Democrats block his pick.

If any of those three is replaced by a Trump appointee, conservatives would be eager to bring cases challenging the Roe v&nbsp;Wade ruling in the hope it would be overturned, long a goal for many Christian conservatives.

(Reuters)

He faces a potentially contentious confirmation battle in the US Senate after Republicans last year refused to consider Obama's nomination

President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Neil Gorsuch for a lifetime job on the US Supreme Court, picking the 49-year-old federal appeals court judge to restore the court's conservative majority and help shape rulings on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, the death penalty and religious rights. The Colorado native faces a potentially contentious confirmation battle in the US Senate after Republicans last year refused to consider Democratic President Barack Obama's nominee to fill the vacancy caused by the February 2016 death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch is the youngest nominee to the nation's highest court in more than a quarter century, and he could influence the direction of the court for decades. "Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline, and has earned bipartisan support," Trump said. "Depending on their age, a justice can be active for 50 years. And his or her decisions can last a century or more, and can often be permanent," Trump added. Trump during his presidency may get to make additional appointments to the Supreme Court. Liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who Trump called upon to resign last July after she called him "a faker," is 83 while Kennedy is 80. Stephen Breyer, another liberal, is 78. Gorsuch is a judge on the Denver-based 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals and was appointed to that post by Republican President George W Bush in 2006. Some Democrats in the US Senate, which votes on whether to confirm judicial nominees, have already said they would seek to block whoever Trump nominates. Gorsuch is considered a conservative intellectual, known for backing religious rights, and is seen as very much in the mold of Scalia, a leading conservative voice on the court for decades. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the choice of Gorsuch was seen by the White House as a significant departure from Supreme Court nominations from the recent past, given that many justices have come from the eastern United States. Gorsuch lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he raises horses and is a life-long outdoorsman. The official described Gorsuch as a mainstream judge who should easily be confirmed by the Senate. The official noted that the Senate confirmed him for his current judgeship in 2006 by voice vote with no one voting against him. "He plays it straight. He sticks to principles, and his opinions reflect a consistency regardless of who is in his courtroom," the official said of Gorsuch. Trump made his choice between two US appeals court judges, Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a source involved in the selection process. Gorsuch became the youngest US Supreme Court nominee since Republican President George HW Bush in 1991 selected conservative Clarence Thomas, who was 43 at the time. He is the son of Anne Burford, the first woman to head the US Environmental Protection Agency. She served in Republican President Ronald Reagan's administration but resigned in 1983 amid a fight with Congress over documents on the EPA's use of a fund created to clean up toxic waste dumps nationwide. Trump's selection was one of the most consequential appointments of his young presidency as he moved to restore a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that had been in place for decades until Scalia died at age 79 on February 13, 2016. Trump, who took office on January 20, got the opportunity to name Scalia's replacement only because the Republican-led US Senate, in an action with little precedent in US history, refused to consider Obama's nominee for the post, appeals court judge Merrick Garland. Obama nominated Garland on March 16 but Republican senators led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denied Garland the customary confirmation hearings and vote. Trump has said his promise to appoint a conservative justice was one of the reasons he won the November 8 presidential election, with Christian conservatives and others emphasising the importance of the pick during the campaign. Trump last week said evangelical Christians would love his nominee. Trump's fellow Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate. The minority Democrats, irate over Garland's rebuff, potentially could try to block the nomination with procedural hurdles. The new appointee would expand the court's conservative wing, made up of John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Kennedy long has been considered the court's pivotal vote, sometimes siding with the liberals in key cases such as the June 2016 ruling striking down abortion restrictions in Texas. The court's restored conservative majority likely would be supportive toward the death penalty and gun rights and hostile toward campaign finance limits. Scalia's replacement also could be pivotal in cases involving abortion, religious rights, presidential powers, transgender rights, voting rights, federal regulations others. Gorsuch has strong academic qualifications, with an Ivy League education: attending Columbia University and, like several of the other justices on the court, Harvard Law School. He also completed a doctorate in legal philosophy at Oxford University, spent several years in private practice and worked in George W Bush's Justice Department. Gorsuch joined an opinion in 2013 saying that owners of private companies could object on religious grounds to a provision of the Obamacare health insurance law requiring employers to provide coverage for birth control for women. As long as Kennedy and four liberals remain on the bench, the court is not expected to pare back abortion rights as many US conservatives fervently hope. The Supreme Court legalised abortion in the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling. In June, the justices ruled 5-3 to strike down a Texas law that restricted abortion access, with Kennedy and the liberals in the majority. The current vacancy is the court's longest since a 391-day void from 1969 to 1970 during Republican Richard Nixon's presidency. After Abe Fortas resigned from the court in May 1969, the Senate voted down two nominees put forward by Nixon before confirming Harry Blackmun, who became a justice in June 1970. Aside from that one, no other Supreme Court vacancy since the US Civil War years of the 1860s has been as long as the current one. Advocacy groups geared up for a fight Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group, said it would launch the first part of a $10 million media advertisement campaign on Tuesday night in favour of Trump's pick. The effort will hold Senate Democrats who face election in 2018 "accountable for their choice" on the Supreme Court, the group said. Liberal groups including People For the American Way and abortion rights advocate NARAL Pro-Choice America planned a nighttime rally in opposition to Trump's nominee outside the Supreme Court after the announcement. Some Democrats have threatened to pursue a procedural hurdle called a filibuster, meaning 60 votes would be needed in the 100-seat Senate unless its long-standing rules are changed. Trump's fellow Republicans hold a 52-48 majority, meaning some Democratic votes would be needed to confirm his pick. Trump said last week he would favour Senate Republicans eliminating the filibuster, a change dubbed the "nuclear option," for Supreme Court nominees if Democrats block his pick. If any of those three is replaced by a Trump appointee, conservatives would be eager to bring cases challenging the Roe v Wade ruling in the hope it would be overturned, long a goal for many Christian conservatives. (Reuters)

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