127-466: Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other Neil McGill Gorsuch ( / ˈ ɡ ɔːr s ʌ tʃ / GOR -sutch ; born August 29, 1967) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of
254-490: A Bachelor of Arts , cum laude , in political science . He undertook a heavier courseload to graduate in three years. As an undergraduate, he wrote for the Columbia Daily Spectator and co-founded the satirical student publication The Fed in 1986. Gorsuch distinguished himself as an active debater and an ardent conservative, publishing pieces that criticized left-wing politics. After a brief stint as
381-535: A Juris Doctor , cum laude . Future president Barack Obama was among his classmates. Gorsuch served as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992. After spending a year at Oxford , later earning a doctorate as a Marshall Scholar , Gorsuch clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994. His work with White occurred right after White retired from
508-446: A Marshall Scholar . His doctoral thesis concerned the morality of assisted suicide and was written under the supervision of legal philosopher John Finnis . He was a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle , Justice Byron White , and Justice Anthony Kennedy . From 1995 to 2005, Gorsuch was in private practice with the law firm of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick . He was the principal deputy associate attorney general at
635-473: A misdemeanor to disrupt school activities. The child's family brought a federal § 1983 civil rights action against school officials and the school resource officer who made the arrest, arguing that it was a false arrest that violated the child's constitutional rights. In a 94-page majority opinion, the Tenth Circuit held that the defendants enjoyed qualified immunity from suit. Gorsuch wrote
762-671: A " silent majority " of conservatives, disgusted and frightened by soaring crime rates and widespread race riots. Using executive orders, he single-handedly created the main environmental agency (the Environmental Protection Agency ), something that was achieved without a vote in Congress. He expanded funding for liberal favorites like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for
889-540: A Colorado law to set the limit on donations for write-in candidates at half the amount for major party candidates. He added a concurrence noting that although the standard of review of campaign finance in the United States is unclear, the Colorado law would fail even under intermediate scrutiny . In Planned Parenthood v. Herbert (2016), Gorsuch wrote for the four dissenting judges when the Tenth Circuit denied
1016-719: A Democratic Party hack. However, liberal politicians and liberal organizations such as the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) sided with Truman in opposing Communism both at home and abroad, sometimes at the sacrifice of civil liberties . For example, Hubert Humphrey put before the Senate in 1950 a bill to establish detention centers where those declared subversive by the President could be held without trial, but it did not pass. Liberals were united in their opposition to McCarthyism . Southern liberals were an essential part of
1143-471: A case where a felon owned a gun in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1), but alleged that he did not know that he was a felon at the time. Gorsuch joined the majority in upholding the conviction based on Tenth Circuit precedent, but filed a concurring opinion arguing that said precedent was wrongly decided: "The only statutory element separating innocent (even constitutionally protected) gun possession from criminal conduct in §§ 922(g) and 924(a)
1270-438: A classmate he later clerked with at the Supreme Court. Gorsuch was a member of Georgetown Prep's debate , forensics, and international relations clubs, and served as a United States Senate page in the early 1980s. He graduated in 1985 as student body president; in contrast to Kavanaugh, he was described as a fairly outgoing and extroverted student. Gorsuch attended Columbia University after high school, graduating in 1988 with
1397-507: A collision course with urban machine politicians and on its edges the Black Power movement contained racial separatists who wanted to give up on integration altogether—a program that could not be endorsed by American liberals of any race. The mere existence of such individuals (who always got more media attention than their actual numbers might have warranted) contributed to "white backlash" against liberals and civil rights activists. In
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#17327727442541524-642: A dissent to the denial of rehearing en banc when the Tenth Circuit found that a convicted sex offender had to register with Kansas after he moved to the Philippines. A unanimous Supreme Court reversed the Tenth Circuit in Nichols v. United States (2016). Gorsuch favors a strict reading of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). In 2015, he wrote for the court when it permitted Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to order
1651-481: A far higher ratio than was to be the case under any subsequent President, Republican or Democrat. Additionally, Nixon's normalization of diplomatic relations with Communist China and his policy of détente with the Soviet Union were likely more popular with liberals than with his conservative base. Nixon also successfully supported a cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients. An opposing view
1778-674: A four-page dissent, arguing that the New Mexico Court of Appeals had "long ago alerted law enforcement" that the statute that the officer relied upon for the child's arrest does not criminalize noises or diversions that merely disturb order in a classroom. In 2009, Gorsuch wrote for a unanimous panel finding that a court may still order criminals to pay restitution even after it missed a statutory deadline. The Supreme Court affirmed that ruling 5–4 in Dolan v. United States (2010). In United States v. Games-Perez (2012), Gorsuch ruled on
1905-462: A full rehearing of a divided panel opinion that had ordered the Utah governor to resume the organization's funding, which Herbert had blocked in response to a video controversy . In A.M. v. Holmes (2016), the Tenth Circuit considered a case in which a 13-year-old child was arrested for burping and laughing in gym class. The child was handcuffed and arrested based on a New Mexico statute that makes it
2032-540: A modest welfare state and anti-communism domestic and foreign policies. Some of its elements were shared with embedded liberalism , that aimed to combine benefits of free markets with some interventionist domestic policies. American liberalism in the Cold War -era was the immediate heir to Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal and the slightly more distant heir to the progressives of the early 20th century. Sol Stern wrote that "Cold War liberalism deserves credit for
2159-472: A poll tax in 1964. In the United States, classical liberalism, also called laissez-faire liberalism, is the belief that a free-market economy is the most productive and government interference favors a few and hurts the many —or as Henry David Thoreau stated, "that government is best which governs least". Classical liberalism is a philosophy of individualism and self-responsibility with little concern for groups or sub-communities. Classical liberals in
2286-469: A postgraduate student at University College . A Marshall Scholarship enabled him to study at Oxford in 1992–93, where he was supervised by the natural law philosopher John Finnis . His thesis was also supervised by Canadian legal scholar Timothy Endicott of Balliol College, Oxford . In 1996, Gorsuch married Louise, an Englishwoman and champion equestrienne on Oxford's riding team whom he met during his stay there. Gorsuch served as Principal Deputy to
2413-458: A pragmatic ideology that called for a moderate amount of government regulation of the economy , progressive taxation , and increased exercise of federal government power in relation to the states . It also came to signify support for organized labor and a degree of hostility, or at least suspicion, of big business . Liberalism did retain some aspects of the term's usage prior to the 1930s, including support for civil liberties and secularism. What
2540-421: A set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, and employ law clerks. The names of retired associate justices continue to appear alongside those of the active justices in the bound volumes of Supreme Court decisions. Federal statute ( 28 U.S.C. § 294 ) provides that retired Supreme Court justices may serve—if designated and assigned by the chief justice—on panels of the U.S. courts of appeals, or on
2667-474: A sociology that would intelligently and scientifically direct the development of society. Another influential thinker in the Progressive Era was Herbert Croly (1869–1930). He effectively combined classical liberal theory with progressive philosophy and founded the periodical The New Republic to present his ideas. Croly presented the case for a mixed economy , increased spending on education and
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#17327727442542794-547: A unanimous panel finding that federal courts could not hear a challenge to Colorado's internet sales tax . A unanimous Supreme Court reversed that ruling in Direct Marketing Ass'n v. Brohl (2015). In 2016, the Tenth Circuit panel rejected the challenger's dormant commerce clause claim, with Gorsuch writing a concurrence. In Energy and Environmental Legal Institute v. Joshua Epel (2015), Gorsuch held that Colorado's mandates for renewable energy did not violate
2921-614: A writer for a short-lived journal, he led efforts to establish The Fed as a conservative alternative to liberal campus newspapers. He was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. After graduating from Columbia, Gorsuch attended Harvard Law School on a Harry S. Truman Scholarship . He was an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and
3048-684: Is "more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers' design". In United States v. Hinckley (2008), Gorsuch argued that one possible reading of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act likely violates the nondelegation doctrine . Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg had held the same view in their 2012 dissent in Reynolds v. United States . Gorsuch has been an opponent of
3175-405: Is a form of democratized Whig constitutionalism plus the free market . The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism " and principled disagreements about the proper role of government. Since the 1930s, liberalism is usually used without a qualifier in the United States to refer to modern liberalism, a variety of liberalism that endorses a regulated market economy and
3302-515: Is a prior felony conviction. So the presumption that the government must prove mens rea here applies with full force." In the 2019 case Rehaif v. United States , the Supreme Court overruled this decision, with Gorsuch joining. In 2013, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that intent does not need to be proven under a bank fraud statute. A unanimous Supreme Court affirmed that ruling in Loughrin v. United States (2014). In 2015, Gorsuch wrote
3429-511: Is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition, [...] there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in circulation". For almost two decades, Cold War liberalism remained the dominant paradigm in American politics, peaking with the landslide victory of Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election and the passage of Great Society legislation. The postwar liberal consensus included acceptance of
3556-717: Is the great import of the New Deal to the Negro. For almost the first time in history of the nation the state has done something substantial and a social way without excluding the Negro. The New Deal provided direct relief for minorities in the 1930s through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Public Works Administration (PWA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and other agencies and during World War II executive orders and
3683-425: The 2016 Democratic Party presidential primary . While Clinton was generally more moderate, Sanders positioned himself as a supporter of progressivism and social democracy , who campaigned on policies such as Medicare for All , free college and university, a $ 15 minimum wage, and a federal jobs guarantee . Although Clinton won the primary (and lost the general election to Donald Trump ), Sanders succeeded in moving
3810-624: The Associate Attorney General , Robert McCallum , at the United States Department of Justice from June 2005 until July 2006. As McCallum's principal deputy, he assisted in managing the Department of Justice's civil litigation components, which included the antitrust, civil, civil rights , environment, and tax divisions. While managing the United States Department of Justice Civil Division , Gorsuch
3937-681: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . This variety of liberalism is also known as modern liberalism to distinguish it from classical liberalism , from which it sprang out along with modern American conservatism . Modern American liberalism now includes issues such as same-sex marriage , transgender rights , the abolition of capital punishment , reproductive rights and other women's rights , voting rights for all adult citizens, civil rights, environmental justice , and government protection of
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4064-629: The Colorado House of Representatives from 1976 to 1980. In 1981, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the first woman to serve as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . Her conservative views contrasted with those of her husband, who was a liberal . Gorsuch attended Christ the King Roman Catholic School, a private grade school in Denver. The school's moral lessons influenced him and he
4191-642: The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), supported Bill Clinton and challenged liberals for control of the Democratic Party. Clinton portrayed himself as a centrist New Democrat . Thus, he distanced himself from New Deal Democrats. With help from the Southern-dominated DLC, Clinton claimed the center of national politics. Clinton worked with conservatives and against strong liberal opposition to end some of
4318-594: The Due Process Clause of the Constitution. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. The 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same sex-marriage nationwide, holding that marriage was a fundamental right of all Americans. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the wording of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT employees from discrimination. Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans now support gay and lesbian rights. While
4445-553: The Fair Employment Practices Commission opened millions of new jobs to minorities and forbade discrimination in companies with government contracts. The 1.5 million black veterans in 1945 were fully entitled to generous veteran benefits from the GI Bill on the same basis as everyone else. The New Deal consisted of three types of programs designed to produce "Relief, Recovery and Reform". Relief
4572-631: The Nebraska Supreme Court in 2018. Gorsuch advocates a broad definition of religious freedom that is inimical to church–state separation advocates. In Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius (2013), Gorsuch wrote a concurrence when the en banc circuit found the Affordable Care Act 's contraceptive mandate on a private business violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act . That ruling
4699-579: The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). Reform was based on the assumption that the depression was caused by the inherent market instability and that government intervention was necessary to rationalize and stabilize the economy and to balance the interests of farmers, business and labor. Reform measures included the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), regulation of Wall Street by
4826-483: The Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration . Recovery programs sought to restore the economy to pre-depression levels. It involved deficit spending, dropping the gold standard , efforts to re-inflate farm prices that were too low and efforts to increase foreign trade . New Deal efforts to help the United States recuperate were in part through a much expanded Hoover program,
4953-801: The Securities Exchange Act (SEA), the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) for farm programs, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance for bank deposits enacted through the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), also known as the Wagner Act, dealing with labor-management relations. Despite some New Dealers's urgings, there was no major antitrust program. Roosevelt opposed socialism (in
5080-498: The Senate , appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution effectively grants life tenure to associate justices, and all other federal judges , which ends only when a justice dies, retires, resigns, or is impeached and convicted . Each Supreme Court justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it, and the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice; however,
5207-556: The Stonewall riots . A handful of states soon repealed their sodomy laws. In 1980, the Democratic Party platform formally endorsed gay rights. In the 1990s, popular culture began to depict acceptance of homosexuality among heterosexuals as the norm. In 2003, the Supreme Court, in the case of Lawrence v. Texas overturned laws banning homosexual behavior in the 12 states where they remained, holding that these laws violated
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5334-488: The Tennessee Valley Authority promoted economic development and a social-security system laid the groundwork for the nation's modern welfare system. The Great Depression dragged on through the 1930s despite the New Deal programs, which were met with mixed success in solving the nation's economic problems. Religious and ethnic minorities had been hard hit and were helped by the relief programs and
5461-677: The United States Constitution . Along with Justice Clarence Thomas , he is an advocate of natural law jurisprudence . He is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside a justice for whom he once clerked (Kennedy). During his tenure on the Supreme Court he has written the majority opinion in landmark cases such as Bostock v. Clayton County on LGBT rights, McGirt v. Oklahoma on Native American law, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District on personal religious observance while serving in an official capacity, and Ramos v. Louisiana on juries' guilty verdicts. Gorsuch
5588-403: The United States Department of Justice from 2005 until his appointment to the Tenth Circuit. President George W. Bush nominated Gorsuch to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on May 10, 2006, to replace Judge David M. Ebel , who achieved senior status that same year. Gorsuch is a proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in interpreting
5715-467: The United States economy began shifting to manufacturing and services during the 19th century, liberals started to consider corruption and concentrations of economic power (called trusts at the time) as threats to liberty. During the Progressive Era beginning in the late 19th century, laws were passed restricting monopolies and regulating railroad rates . According to James Reichley,
5842-566: The White House . A wide range of progressive measures were carried out, such as increases in social security (a 20% benefit increase and linkage to automatic cost-of-living increases in 1972), public welfare (with expansion of unemployment compensation, food stamps and supplemental security income additions to social security), workplace rules (with the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970), urban aid (with
5969-611: The dormant Commerce Clause , which allows state laws to be declared unconstitutional if they too greatly burden interstate commerce . In 2011, Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel finding that the dormant Commerce Clause did not prevent the Oklahoma Water Resources Board from blocking water exports to Texas. A unanimous Supreme Court affirmed that ruling in Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann (2013). In 2013, Gorsuch joined
6096-558: The inner cities which made for the "long hot summers" in every major city from 1964 through 1970. The riots alienated much of the white working-class that had been the base of the labor-union element in the civil-rights coalition. By 1966, a Black Power movement had emerged. Black Power advocates accused white liberals of trying to control the civil-rights agenda. Proponents of Black Power wanted African-Americans to follow an "ethnic model" for obtaining power, not unlike that of Democratic political machines in large cities. This put them on
6223-498: The right to an adequate standard of living . National social services , such as equal educational opportunities, access to health care, and transportation infrastructure are intended to meet the responsibility to promote the general welfare of all citizens as established by the United States Constitution . Some liberals, who call themselves classical liberals , fiscal conservatives , or libertarians , endorse fundamental liberal ideals but diverge from modern liberal thought on
6350-416: The 1920s, the term progressive became associated with politicians such as Robert M. La Follette , who called for government ownership of railroads and utilities in his 1924 third-party presidential bid . Progressivism thus gained an association with radicalism that advocates of more moderate reforms sought to avoid. The term was also unattractive to certain groups because of its longstanding association with
6477-502: The 1950s and 1960s, both major American political parties included liberal and conservative factions. The Democratic Party had on one hand Northern and Western liberals and on the other generally conservative Southern whites . Difficult to classify were the Northern urban Democratic political machines . The urban machines had supported New Deal economic policies, but they slowly came apart over racial issues. Some historians have divided
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#17327727442546604-412: The 1960s and 1970s, mass movements for women's rights , gay rights , and sexual liberation became powerful political forces. Second-wave feminism which emphasized the rights of women to work outside the home, and hold positions of responsibility, led to a widespread increase in the percentage of women working outside the home. In 1972, Katharine Graham became the first female Fortune 500 CEO, and
6731-657: The Deep South, but that threat was enough to guarantee the national Democratic Party in 1952 and 1956 would not make civil rights a major issue. In 1956, 101 of the 128 Southern Representatives and Senators signed the Southern Manifesto denouncing forced desegregation. The labor movement in the South was divided and lost its political influence. Southern liberals were in a quandary as most of them kept quiet or moderated their liberalism whilst others switched sides and
6858-404: The Democratic Party platform to the left, and reversing the centrism that had controlled the party's ideology since the presidency of Bill Clinton. The 2016 and 2020 platforms declared support for a $ 15 minimum wage, a public health insurance option , the abolition of capital punishment , the legalization of cannabis , and a carbon tax . The United States was the first nation to be founded on
6985-481: The Democratic Party. Assassinations struck down the two top liberals, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy . Vice President Hubert Humphrey, by now a cautious moderate who meekly followed Lyndon Johnson in domestic and foreign policy, was the last man standing at the disastrously violent 1968 Democratic National Convention . Much of the party's right-wing, from the South and ethnic white districts in
7112-542: The Humanities . One of his top advisers was liberal Daniel Patrick Moynihan , who said that "Nixon mostly opted for liberal policies, merely clothing them [...] in conservative rhetoric". In addition to support for such liberal causes as the arts and the environment, he supported liberalization of laws against recreational drugs. To the astonishment of conservatives, he imposed wage and price controls to counteract inflation. Noam Chomsky , who often attacks liberalism from
7239-573: The March on Washington and proposed what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but he could not get it passed before he was assassinated . With Kenney's death his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was elevated to the presidency. He had been a New Deal Democrat in the 1930s and by the 1950s had decided that the Democratic Party had to break from its segregationist past and endorse racial liberalism as well as economic liberalism. Johnson rode
7366-785: The New Deal coalition as without them Roosevelt lacked majorities in Congress. Notable leaders were Lyndon B. Johnson in Texas, Jim Folsom and John Sparkman in Alabama, Claude Pepper in Florida, Earl Long in Louisiana, Luther H. Hodges in North Carolina and Estes Kefauver in Tennessee. They promoted subsidies for small farmers and supported the nascent labor union movement. An essential condition for this North–South coalition
7493-552: The New Left, especially on foreign policy, troubled the Democratic Party for decades. A large portion of the growing opposition to the war came from younger activists, with a strong base on elite university campuses. They had become alienated from the establishment and formed the New Left . After Johnson did poorly in the 1968 primaries and decided to focus on peacemaking and not run for reelection, tensions rapidly escalated inside
7620-578: The North, veered off to vote for Alabama Governor George Wallace . The result was a narrow victory for Republican Richard Nixon in a three-way race. Although touted as a conservative, President Nixon , with a Democratic Congress, enacted many liberal policies, including the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency , normalizing relations with Communist China , and starting the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to reduce
7747-532: The Republican Party and the Social Gospel movement. In the late 1920s and 1930s, political figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt increasingly adopted the term liberal to describe an individual who favored some government activism, but was opposed to more radical reforms. In the 20th century the franchise was extended to women with another Amendment. In the 1930s, liberalism came to describe
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#17327727442547874-830: The Republican Party into liberal Wall Street and conservative Main Street factions while others have noted that the Republican Party's conservatives came from landlocked states ( Robert Taft Jr. of Ohio and Barry Goldwater of Arizona) and the liberals tended to come from California ( Earl Warren and Pete McCloskey ), New York ( Nelson Rockefeller ) and other coastal states. Opposing both Communism and conservatism, Cold War liberalism resembled earlier liberalisms in its views on many social issues and personal liberty, but its economic views were not those of free-market Jeffersonian liberalism nor those of European social democrats. They never endorsed state socialism , but they did call for spending on education, science and infrastructure, notably
8001-534: The Senate for delaying the nominations of Merrick Garland and John Roberts to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit , writing, "the most impressive judicial nominees are grossly mistreated" by the Senate. In 2004, Gorsuch received a Doctor of Philosophy in legal philosophy from the University of Oxford , where he completed research on assisted suicide and euthanasia as
8128-571: The Supreme Court instructed courts to grant deference to federal agencies' interpretation of ambiguous laws and regulations. In Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch (2016), Gorsuch wrote for a unanimous panel finding that court review was required before an executive agency could reject the circuit court's interpretation of an immigration law. Alone, Gorsuch added a concurring opinion , criticizing Chevron deference and National Cable & Telecommunications Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services (2005) as an "abdication of judicial duty" and writing that deference
8255-605: The Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , other than the chief justice of the United States . The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869 . Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States grants plenary power to the president to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of
8382-492: The Supreme Court was established in 1789, the following 104 persons have served as an associate justice: Liberalism in the United States Liberalism in the United States is based on concepts of unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of consent of the governed , freedom of speech , freedom of the press , freedom of religion , the separation of church and state ,
8509-504: The Supreme Court; therefore, Gorsuch assisted White with his work on the Tenth Circuit, where White sat by designation. Gorsuch was part of a group of five law clerks assigned that year that included Brett Kavanaugh , who described Gorsuch at the time, saying: "He fit into the place very easily. He's just an easy guy to get along with. He doesn't have sharp elbows. We had a wide range of views, but we all really got along well." Instead of joining an established law firm, Gorsuch decided to join
8636-490: The Tenth Circuit by the per curiam Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell (2016). In Pleasant Grove City v. Summum (2007), he joined Judge Michael W. McConnell 's dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc , taking the view that the government's display of a donated Ten Commandments monument in a public park did not obligate the government to display other offered monuments. The Supreme Court subsequently adopted most of
8763-410: The Truman White House in 1947, self-proclaimed liberals increasingly embraced the civil rights movement . In 1948, President Truman desegregated the armed forces and the Democrats inserted a strong civil-rights plank in the party platform even though delegates from the Deep South walked out and nominated a third-party ticket, the Dixiecrats , headed by Strom Thurmond . Truman abolished discrimination in
8890-431: The U.S. district courts. Retired justices are not, however, authorized to take part in the consideration or decision of any cases before the Supreme Court (unlike other retired federal judges who may be permitted to do so in their former courts); neither are they known or designated as a "senior judge". When, after his retirement, William O. Douglas attempted to take a more active role than was customary, maintaining that it
9017-416: The United States . He was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31, 2017, and has served since April 10, 2017. Gorsuch spent his early life in Denver, Colorado . He was educated at Columbia University , where he became an established writer. Gorsuch then received his legal education at Harvard Law School and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in jurisprudence from Oxford University in 2004 as
9144-417: The United States believe that if the economy is left to the natural forces of supply and demand, free of government intervention, the result is the most abundant satisfaction of human wants. Modern classical liberals oppose the concepts of social democracy and the welfare state . The Bourbon Democrats were a faction of the Democratic Party in the 19th century that aligned with classical liberalism, as does
9271-717: The addition of mass transit subsidies to highway construction enactments), environmentalism (with the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Clean Air Act of 1970), aid to education (including Title IX in 1972), civil rights (with the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1970) and nutrition (with the establishment of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children in 1972). The political dominance of
9398-455: The armed forces, leading to the integration of military units in the early 1950s. However, no civil rights legislation was passed until a weak bill in 1957. During the 1960s, relations between white liberals and the civil rights movement became increasingly strained as civil-rights leaders accused liberal politicians of temporizing and procrastinating, although they realized they needed the support of liberal Northern Democrats and Republicans for
9525-403: The availability of ballistic missiles . Liberals vehemently disliked Nixon and he reciprocated in kind with an enemies list . Yet as president, Nixon took many policy positions that can only be described as liberal. Before Nixon was elected, the liberal wing of his own party favored politicians such as Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton . In 1968 Nixon won the nomination by an appeal to
9652-504: The chief justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. Furthermore, the chief justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion; otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. The chief justice also has certain administrative responsibilities that the other justices do not and is paid slightly more ($ 298,500 per year as of 2023, compared to $ 285,400 per year for an associate justice). Associate justices have seniority in order of
9779-476: The civil rights movement isolated liberals from the white working class and Southern Democrats , the Vietnam War threw another wedge into the liberal ranks, dividing pro-war " hawks " such as Senator Henry M. Jackson from " doves " such as Senator and 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern . As the war became the leading political issue of the day, agreement on domestic matters was not enough to hold
9906-417: The commerce clause by putting out-of-state coal companies at a disadvantage. He wrote that the Colorado renewable energy law "isn't a price-control statute, it doesn't link prices paid in Colorado with those paid out of state, and it does not discriminate against out-of-staters". In Riddle v. Hickenlooper (2014), Gorsuch joined a unanimous panel of the Tenth Circuit in finding that it was unconstitutional for
10033-418: The contradiction, but they believed they needed a nation unified enough to survive in the world. During the late 18th and 19th centuries, the United States extended liberty to ever broader classes of people. The states abolished many restrictions on voting for white males during the early 19th century. The Constitution was amended in 1865 to abolish slavery and in 1870 to extend the vote to black men . As
10160-413: The creation of a society based on the "brotherhood of mankind". In 1909, Croly published The Promise of American Life in which he proposed raising the general standard of living by means of economic planning, though he opposed aggressive unionization. In The Techniques of Democracy (1915), Croly argued against both dogmatic individualism and dogmatic socialism. As editor of The New Republic , he had
10287-399: The date their respective commissions bear, although the chief justice is always considered to be the most senior justice. If two justices are commissioned on the same day, the elder is designated the senior justice of the two. Currently, the senior associate justice is Clarence Thomas . By tradition, when the justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court,
10414-457: The dissent's view, reversing the Tenth Circuit's judgment. Gorsuch has written, "the law [...] doesn't just apply to protect popular religious beliefs: it does perhaps its most important work in protecting unpopular religious beliefs, vindicating this nation's long-held aspiration to serve as a refuge of religious tolerance". Gorsuch has called for reconsideration of Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (1984), in which
10541-541: The enormous wave of sympathy for his assassinated predecessor. With help from conservative Republicans led by Everett Dirksen , the Southern filibuster was broken. Johnson enacted a mass of Great Society legislation, headed by the powerful Civil Rights Act of 1964 , which outlawed segregation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which reversed state efforts to stop blacks from voting and facilitated their mobilization as millions of new liberal Democratic voters. The result
10668-562: The execution of Scott Eizember, prompting a 30-page dissent by Judge Mary Beck Briscoe . After the state's unsuccessful execution of Clayton Lockett , Gorsuch joined Briscoe when the court unanimously allowed Pruitt to continue using the same lethal injection protocol. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling 5–4 in Glossip v. Gross (2015). Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of
10795-508: The expansion of NASA and the construction of the Interstate Highway System . Their progressive ideas continued the legacy of Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson , Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Most prominent and constant among the positions of Cold War liberalism included the following: At first, liberals generally did not see Franklin D. Roosevelt's successor Harry S. Truman as one of their own, viewing him as
10922-470: The expansion of civil and political rights , with the common good considered as compatible with or superior to the freedom of the individual. This political philosophy was exemplified by Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal policies and later Lyndon B. Johnson 's Great Society . Other accomplishments include the Works Progress Administration and the Social Security Act in 1935, as well as
11049-461: The forum to reach the intellectual community. According to Paul Starr, sociologist at Princeton University: Liberalism wagers that a state [...] can be strong but constrained—strong because constrained. [...] Rights to education and other requirements for human development and security aim to advance the opportunity and personal dignity of minorities and to promote a creative and productive society. To guarantee those rights, liberals have supported
11176-556: The greatest American achievement since World War II—winning the Cold War". The essential tenets of Cold War liberalism can be found in Roosevelt's Four Freedoms (1941). Of these, freedom of speech and of religion were classic liberal freedoms as was freedom from fear (freedom from tyrannical government), but freedom from want was another matter. Roosevelt proposed a notion of freedom that allowed for government responsibility for
11303-517: The grounds that economic freedom is more important than social equality . The origins of American liberalism are in the political ideals of the Age of Enlightenment . The Constitution of the United States of 1787 established the first modern republic , with sovereignty in the people (not in a monarch) and no hereditary ruling aristocracy. However, the Constitution limited liberty, in particular by accepting slavery . The Founding Fathers recognized
11430-544: The individual. Freedom from want could justify positive government action to meet economic needs, an idea more associated with the concepts of Abraham Lincoln 's Republican Party , Henry Clay 's Whig Party and Alexander Hamilton 's economic principles of government intervention and subsidy than the more radical socialism and social democracy of European thinkers, or with prior versions of classical liberalism as represented by Thomas Jefferson 's Democratic-Republican Party and Andrew Jackson 's Democratic Party . In
11557-490: The international stage. His commitment to internationalist ideals was in the tradition of Woodrow Wilson , architect of the failed League of Nations . Roosevelt took the lead in the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, with the proviso that the United States would have a veto power. By 1950, the liberal ideology was so intellectually dominant that the literary critic Lionel Trilling wrote that "liberalism
11684-583: The justices state their views in order of seniority. The senior associate justice is also tasked with carrying out the chief justice's duties when he is unable to, or if that office is vacant. There are currently eight associate justices on the Supreme Court. The justices, ordered by seniority, are: An associate justice who leaves the Supreme Court after attaining the age and meeting the service requirements prescribed by federal statute ( 28 U.S.C. § 371 ) may retire rather than resign. After retirement, they keep their title, and by custom may also keep
11811-605: The left, has called Nixon "in many respects the last liberal president". Historians increasingly emphasize the liberalism of his administration's policies while not attributing them to Nixon personally. The 1965–1974 period was a major liberal activist era in congress, with the Democratic-led congress during the presidency of Richard Nixon continuing to produce liberal domestic policies. They organized themselves internally to round up votes, track legislation, mobilize interests, and produce bills without direct assistance from
11938-465: The liberal consensus began to come apart. The alliance with white Southern Democrats had been lost in the Civil Rights era. While the steady enfranchisement of African Americans expanded the electorate to include many new voters sympathetic to liberal views, it was not quite enough to make up for the loss of some Southern Democrats. Organized labor, long a bulwark of the liberal consensus, was past
12065-646: The liberal consensus even into the Nixon years can best be seen in policies by, for example, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and also in Nixon's failed proposal to replace the welfare system with a guaranteed annual income by way of a negative income tax . Affirmative action in its most quota-oriented form was a Nixon administration policy. Even the Nixon War on Drugs allocated two-thirds of its funds for treatment,
12192-588: The liberal consensus together. Vietnam was part of the strategy of containment of Soviet Communism which began in earnest in 1947 to counter the Soviet threat. In the 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy was more "hawkish" on Southeast Asia than Richard Nixon . Although the war expanded from 16,000 Americans in Vietnam under Kennedy to 500,000 under Johnson, there was much continuity of their policies, until Nixon arrived in 1969. The deep division between liberals and
12319-545: The liberal ideas of John Locke and other philosophers of the Enlightenment, based on inalienable rights and the consent of the governed with no monarchy and no hereditary aristocracy, and while individual states had established religions , the federal government was kept from establishing religion by the First Amendment . The United States Bill of Rights guarantees every citizen the freedoms advocated by
12446-422: The liberal philosophers, namely equality under the law, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to gather in peaceful assembly, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances and the right to bear arms, among other freedoms and rights. In this sense, virtually all Americans are liberals. However, both before and after the country was founded legal questions concerning
12573-559: The main welfare programs and to implement NAFTA , linking the economies of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Clinton pushed to extend liberal ideals in the areas of health care (where he failed) and environmental protection (where he had more success). On the whole, he came under fierce attack from the left and from many liberals who charged that he betrayed the New Deal traditions of activist government, especially regarding welfare and his collaboration with business. On January 1, 2013, President Barack Obama succeeded in raising taxes on
12700-442: The minority remnant continued on the liberal path. One by one, the last group was defeated. According to historian Numan V. Bartley, "the very word 'liberal' gradually disappeared from the southern political lexicon, except as a term of opprobrium". Cold War liberalism emerged at a time when most African-Americans were politically and economically disenfranchised. Beginning with To Secure These Rights , an official report issued by
12827-494: The modern-day Blue Dog Coalition . In 1883, Lester Frank Ward (1841–1913) published Dynamic Sociology: Or Applied Social Science, as Based Upon Statical Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences and laid out the basic tenets of modern American liberalism while at the same time attacking the laissez-faire policies advocated by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner . Ward was a passionate advocate for
12954-450: The more liberal leadership in 1976 and took control of the party under Ronald Reagan in 1980. Liberal Republicans faded away even in their Northeastern strongholds. Reagan successfully lowered marginal tax rates, most notably for those at the top of the income distribution while his Social Security reforms raised taxes on the middle and bottom of the income distribution, leaving their total tax burden unchanged. More centrist groups, like
13081-410: The nation a New Deal intended to alleviate economic want and unemployment, provide greater opportunities and restore prosperity. The presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), the longest in the United States history, was marked by an increased role for the federal government in addressing the nation's economic and other problems. Work relief programs provided jobs, ambitious projects such as
13208-695: The number soon increased. Today 37 Fortune 500 companies have female CEO's. In 1980, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States . In 2021, Kamala Harris became the first female Vice President of the United States . The sexual revolution began in the 1960s and led to a general societal acceptance of premarital sex . The Supreme Court ruling in Eisenstadt v. Baird made contraception available to unmarried people, and effectively legalized premarital sex. The vast majority of Americans now engage in premarital sex. The modern gay rights movement began in 1970 with
13335-485: The patronage policy. Catholics and Jews gave strong support to the New Deal coalition . Blacks were included in New Deal programs, especially in the North, with a lesser role in the South. Sociologist Gunnar Myrdal concluded: The Negro’s share may be meagre in all this state activity, but he has been given a share. He has been given a broader and more variegated front to defend and from which to push forward. This
13462-595: The peak of its power in the United States and many unions had remained in favor of the Vietnam War even as liberal politicians increasingly turned against it. Within the Democratic Party leadership, there was a turn toward moderation on racial themes after the defeat of liberal George McGovern in 1972. Meanwhile, in the Republican ranks, a new wing of the party emerged. The anti-establishment conservatives who had been aroused by Barry Goldwater in 1964 challenged
13589-533: The public revelation of NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–07) , and worked with Senator Lindsey Graham in drafting the provisions in the Detainee Treatment Act that attempted to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over the detainees. In January 2006, Philip Anschutz recommended Gorsuch's nomination to Colorado's U.S. senator Wayne Allard and White House Counsel Harriet Miers . On May 10, 2006, President George W. Bush nominated Gorsuch to
13716-421: The rich while keeping them steady on the middle class. On January 21, 2013, Obama delivered his second inaugural address that championed numerous liberal causes. His signature achievement was the expansion of health benefits to millions under the Affordable Care Act , which became known as ObamaCare , that expanded the role of government in healthcare. In 2016, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were rivals in
13843-478: The right to bear arms , the right to due process , and equality before the law are widely accepted as a common foundation of liberalism . It differs from liberalism worldwide because the United States has never had a resident hereditary aristocracy , and avoided much of the class warfare that characterized Europe. According to American philosopher Ian Adams, "all US parties are liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism , that
13970-661: The scope of these rights and freedoms arose. In the Dred Scott decision of 1856–1857, the Supreme Court ruled that these rights only applied to white men and that blacks had no rights whatsoever that any white man was obliged to respect. Several constitutional amendments after the Dred Scott decision extended the guarantees of the Bill of Rights to larger classes of citizens, to all citizens in 1868, then specifically to blacks in 1870, to women in 1919 and to people unable to afford
14097-471: The seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacated by Judge David M. Ebel , who was taking senior status . Like Ebel, Gorsuch was a former clerk of Justice White. The American Bar Association 's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated him "well qualified" in 2006. On July 20, 2006, Gorsuch was confirmed by unanimous voice vote in the U.S. Senate . He
14224-416: The sense of state ownership of the means of production) and only one major program, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), involved government ownership of the means of production. Roosevelt was president through most of World War II and, anticipating the post-war period, strongly supported proposals to create a United Nations organization as a means of encouraging mutual cooperation to solve problems on
14351-444: The term liberalism took on its current meaning in the United States during the 1920s. In the 19th century and the early 20th century, the term had usually described classical liberalism , which emphasizes limited government , religious freedom, and support for the free market . The term progressivism , meanwhile, had been used to describe individuals like Theodore Roosevelt , who favored a limited amount of government activism. During
14478-671: The two-year-old boutique firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel (now Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick ), where he focused on trial work. After winning his first trial as lead attorney, a jury member told Gorsuch he was like Perry Mason . He was an associate in the Washington, D.C., law firm from 1995 to 1997 and a partner from 1998 to 2005. Gorsuch's clients included Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz . At Kellogg Huber, Gorsuch focused on commercial matters, including contracts , antitrust , RICO , and securities fraud . In 2002, Gorsuch wrote an op-ed criticizing
14605-472: The votes to pass any legislation over Southern obstructionism. Many white liberals believed the grassroots movement for civil rights would only anger many Southern whites and make it even more difficult to pass civil rights laws through Congress. In response to that concern, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. agreed to tone down the March on Washington in 1963. President John F. Kennedy finally endorsed
14732-417: Was Bush's fifth appointment to the Tenth Circuit. When Gorsuch began his tenure at Denver's Byron White United States Courthouse , Justice Kennedy administered the oath of office. During his time on the Tenth Circuit, ten of Gorsuch's law clerks went on to become Supreme Court clerks, and he was sometimes regarded as a " feeder judge ". One of his former clerks, Jonathan Papik , became an associate justice of
14859-836: Was a member of the Lincoln's Inn Society , the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, and the Harvard Defenders program. Gorsuch was described as a committed conservative who supported the Gulf War and congressional term limits on "a campus full of ardent liberals". Despite his contrasting political views, he was generally well-liked by students. Philip C. Berg, a classmate and close friend, remembered him as "very sensitive" and non-confrontational, recalling when he received Gorsuch's support in coming out as gay . Gorsuch graduated in 1991 with
14986-403: Was an immediate end to segregation in most public places (except schools) and an end to restrictions on black voting. The civil-rights movement itself was becoming fractured. On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X declared he was going to organize a black-nationalist organization that would try to "heighten the political consciousness" of African-Americans. Shortly thereafter a wave of black riots in
15113-589: Was born on August 29, 1967, in Denver, Colorado . His parents were Anne Gorsuch Burford (née McGill; 1942–2004) and David Ronald Gorsuch (1937–2001). He was the eldest of three children, and is a fourth-generation Coloradan. John McGill, his maternal grandfather, was a surgeon, and his paternal grandfather, John Gorsuch, was an established lawyer in Denver, Colorado . Both of Gorsuch's parents were also attorneys. They encouraged their children to engage in debate, often spontaneously. From 1976 to 1980, Anne Burford served in
15240-470: Was for Northern liberals to ignore Southern racism . After 1945, Northern liberals, led especially by young Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, increasingly made civil rights a central issue. They convinced Truman to join them in 1948. The conservative Southern Democrats, best known as the Dixiecrats , took control of the state parties there and ran Strom Thurmond for president in 1948. Thurmond carried only
15367-580: Was his prerogative to do so because of his senior status, he was rebuffed by Chief Justice Warren Burger and admonished by the whole Court. There are currently three living retired associate justices: David Souter , retired June 29, 2009; Anthony Kennedy , retired July 31, 2018; and Stephen Breyer , retired June 30, 2022. Souter has served on panels of the First Circuit Courts of Appeals following his retirement; Kennedy and Breyer have not performed any judicial duties since retiring. Since
15494-628: Was offered by Cass R. Sunstein in The Second Bill of Rights . He argues that through his Supreme Court appointments, Nixon effectively ended a decades-long expansion under United States law of economic rights along the lines of those put forward in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , adopted in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly . During the Nixon years and through the 1970s,
15621-487: Was once called classical liberalism came to be described as libertarianism , or a combination of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism . These positions were contrasted with those to their political left , who favored greater changes, and with conservatives , who opposed these changes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to office in 1933, amid the economic calamity of the Great Depression , offering
15748-484: Was remembered by classmates for assuming strong stances. He assisted his mother in her campaign for the Colorado legislature at age nine. After her appointment, Gorsuch's family moved to Bethesda, Maryland . He enrolled in Georgetown Preparatory School , a selective Jesuit college-preparatory school , arriving as a freshman in 1981. He was two years junior to future justice Brett Kavanaugh ,
15875-524: Was tasked with all the "terror litigation" arising from the president's War on Terror , successfully defending the extraordinary rendition of Khalid El-Masri , fighting the disclosure of Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse photographs, and, in November 2005, traveling to inspect the Guantanamo Bay detention camp . Gorsuch helped Attorney General Alberto Gonzales prepare for hearings after
16002-833: Was the immediate effort to help the one-third of the population that was hardest hit by the depression. Roosevelt expanded Herbert Hoover 's Emergency Relief and Construction program (ERCA) and added the CCC, the PWA and the WPA, the latter replacing in 1935 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Also in 1935, the Social Security Act and unemployment insurance programs were added. The Social Security Act provided retirement and disability income for Americans unable to work or unable to find jobs. Separate programs were set up for relief in rural areas such as
16129-646: Was upheld 5–4 by the Supreme Court in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014). When a panel of the court denied similar claims under the same act in Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell (2015), Gorsuch joined Judges Harris Hartz , Paul Joseph Kelly Jr. , Timothy Tymkovich , and Jerome Holmes in their dissent to the denial of rehearing en banc . That ruling was vacated and remanded to
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