# Neil Gorsuch *Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (2017–present)* Neil McGill Gorsuch (born August 29, 1967) is a United States jurist. He has sat as an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] since April 10, 2017. President Donald Trump named him on January 31, 2017, to the seat left open by the death of Justice [[Antonin Scalia]].[^1] Before that, Gorsuch served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, to which President George W. Bush nominated him on May 10, 2006.[^1] Gorsuch wrote for the 6–3 majority in [[Bostock v. Clayton County]], 590 U.S. 644, decided June 15, 2020. The Court held that [[Title VII]]'s bar on discrimination "because of sex" reaches sexual orientation and gender identity.[^2] The project's master record, *[[How Minnesota Got Here]]*, treats that holding as the federal "because of sex" reading that underlies the sex strand of the United States' actions against [[Minnesota]].[^3] On January 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] announced in release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, that it had sued the State.[^4] The complaint was brought under Title VII and filed as *United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn.). It cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times.[^5] The record here does not establish that the complaint cites *Bostock*. It also does not establish that any justice intended an effect on Minnesota law.[^3][^5] ## Early life and education Gorsuch is the oldest of three children of David Ronald Gorsuch and Anne Gorsuch Burford, both lawyers. He was born in Denver, Colorado.[^1] His mother sat in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1976 to 1980. In 1981 President Ronald Reagan appointed her administrator of the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]], the first woman in that post, and the family moved to Bethesda, Maryland.[^1] Gorsuch entered Georgetown Preparatory School as a freshman in 1981 and left in 1985 as student body president.[^1] He studied at Columbia University and Harvard Law School. In 2004, as a Marshall Scholar, he completed an Oxford doctorate in jurisprudence. His thesis, supervised by John Finnis, addressed the morality of assisted suicide.[^1] ## Early legal career Gorsuch's first clerkship was with Judge David B. Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit, from 1991 to 1992.[^1] From 1993 to 1994 he clerked for Justice [[Byron White]], who had retired and was sitting by designation on the Tenth Circuit. In the same period he clerked for Justice [[Anthony Kennedy]]. [[Brett Kavanaugh]] was among his fellow clerks.[^1] He then joined the Washington boutique now called Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, where he was an associate from 1995 to 1997 and a partner from 1998 to 2005. His clients there included Philip Anschutz.[^1] In a 2002 op-ed he faulted the Senate for stalling the D.C. Circuit nominations of Merrick Garland and [[John Roberts]].[^1] From 2005 until he joined the Tenth Circuit, he was principal deputy associate attorney general at the Justice Department.[^1] ## United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2006–2017) In January 2006, Anschutz recommended Gorsuch to Senator Wayne Allard and White House Counsel Harriet Miers.[^1] Bush's May 10, 2006, nomination filled the seat Judge David M. Ebel vacated on taking senior status. The American Bar Association's standing committee unanimously rated Gorsuch "well qualified".[^1] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed him by unanimous voice vote on July 20, 2006. He was Bush's fifth appointee to that court.[^1] In *Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius* (2013), Gorsuch concurred when the en banc court found that the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate, as applied to a private business, violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Supreme Court upheld that result 5–4 in *Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.* (2014).[^1] ## Nomination to Supreme Court Scalia died on February 13, 2016. The project's timeline, citing his Wikipedia biography, puts the resulting vacancy at 422 days.[^6] President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland on March 16, 2016. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley scheduled no hearing, and the nomination expired on January 3, 2017.[^1] Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell cited the "Biden Rule" of 1992 as the basis for not considering Garland in an election year.[^1] During the 2016 campaign, Trump placed Gorsuch on a list of 21 judges he would consider. Trump announced the nomination on January 31, 2017, and transmitted it to the Senate on February 1.[^1] At 49, Gorsuch was the youngest nominee since [[Clarence Thomas]] in 1991. The American Bar Association gave him its top "Well Qualified" rating.[^1] Hearings opened on March 20, 2017. On April 3, the Judiciary Committee approved the nomination by a party-line 11–9 vote, and on April 6 Democrats filibustered it.[^1] According to the project's timeline, the Senate confirmed Gorsuch on April 7, 2017, by a 54–45 vote. The vote followed McConnell's use of the "nuclear option" to end the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.[^7] ## United States Supreme Court (2017–present) Gorsuch has written majority opinions in *Bostock v. Clayton County*, *McGirt v. Oklahoma*, *Kennedy v. Bremerton School District*, *303 Creative LLC v. Elenis*, *Chiles v. Salazar*, *United States v. Hemani* and *Ramos v. Louisiana*.[^1] Vox has called him the Court's "most libertarian" justice. His Wikipedia biography reports that he sided with criminal defendants in 45 percent of the cases the Court heard.[^1] The Court heard *Bostock* on October 8, 2019, together with *Altitude Express v. Zarda* and *EEOC v. Harris Funeral Homes*. The three cases presented a three-way circuit split over whether Title VII covers sexual orientation and gender identity.[^8] The project's timeline reads Gorsuch's questions at argument as signalling a textualist reading.[^8] The decision came on June 15, 2020, by a 6–3 vote, with Gorsuch writing for the majority.[^2] As the timeline summarizes the reasoning, an employer that penalizes a man for being attracted to men must take his sex into account. That makes the act discrimination because of sex.[^2] In *SFFA v. Harvard*, decided June 29, 2023, the Court ended race-conscious admissions. The project's timeline records that Gorsuch's concurrence carried the plain-text reasoning of *Bostock* over to [[Title VI]].[^9] ### Legal philosophy Gorsuch reads statutes by their text and reads the Constitution by its original meaning.[^1] Like Justice Thomas, he advocates natural law jurisprudence.[^1] In a 2016 speech at Case Western Reserve University, he said judges should apply the law as it stands. On his account, a judge looks backward to text, structure and history rather than to personal moral views or expected policy results.[^1] ## Personal life Gorsuch met his wife, Marie Louise Gorsuch, a British citizen, at Oxford. They married in 1996 and live in Boulder, Colorado.[^1] His books include *The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia* and *Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law* (2024).[^1] Politico reported in April 2023 that Gorsuch sold a Granby, Colorado, property in 2017 to Brian Duffy, chief executive of the law firm Greenberg Traurig. According to that report, he did not name the buyer on his federal disclosure forms.[^1] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Gorsuch, as associate justice, wrote the 6–3 majority opinion in *Bostock v. Clayton County* (June 15, 2020).[^2] - In the federal action, Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified *United States v. State of Minnesota* as a matter of general public importance, according to DOJ release No. 26-21.[^4] ### What - The complaint in *[[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]]* was filed January 14, 2026, in the District of Minnesota under Title VII of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].[^5] - The complaint cites Minn. Stat. § 43A.191 eight times. Those citations include subdivision 3(c), which requires an agency to explain why it hired a non-affirmative candidate. The complaint states these allegations; no ruling on them appears in this record.[^5] - DOJ titled its release on the suit with the phrase "Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime".[^4] - The [[Iraq Liberation Act]] of 1998 (Pub. L. 105-338) states a United States policy of supporting efforts to remove "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein."[^10] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages (*How Minnesota Got Here*, note 40) finds Minnesota the only U.S. state so described.[^10] - The project's master record identifies *Bostock* as the "because of sex" reading behind the sex prong of the first federal action. It also identifies *Bostock* as bearing on the [[Title IX]] question in the later actions.[^3] - In *[[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]]*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025), the Supreme Court held that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs." The Court rejected the Sixth Circuit's heightened "background circumstances" rule for majority-group plaintiffs.[^11] ### When - February 13, 2016: Scalia dies, opening the seat Gorsuch later fills.[^6] - April 7, 2017: Gorsuch confirmed, 54–45, according to the project's timeline.[^7] - October 8, 2019: oral argument in *Bostock* and its companion cases.[^8] - June 15, 2020: *Bostock* decided.[^2] - June 29, 2023: *SFFA v. Harvard* decided.[^9] - January 14, 2026: DOJ files No. 0:26-cv-00273 against the State.[^4][^5] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Neil Gorsuch* (revision 1380697958, retrieved October 26, 2026) — biography, clerkships, practice, Tenth Circuit and Supreme Court nominations, opinions, philosophy, personal life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch [^2]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Bostock v. Clayton County*, 590 U.S. 644 (June 15, 2020) — Gorsuch, J., for a 6–3 majority; Title VII's "because of sex" reaches sexual orientation and gender identity. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/590/17-1618/ [^3]: *How Minnesota Got Here* (merged master), note 45, citing *Bostock v. Clayton County* (June 15, 2020) — *Bostock* as the federal "because of sex" reading underlying the sex strand of the federal actions. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/590/17-1618/ [^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (January 14, 2026) — filing announced; Attorney General Bondi's certification. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, *Complaint, United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn. filed January 14, 2026) — Title VII action citing Minn. Stat. § 43A.191 eight times, including subd. 3(c). https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Antonin Scalia*, as cited in project timeline row TL-0847 (February 13, 2016) — Scalia's death; 422-day vacancy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia [^7]: Project timeline row TL-0857, citing Wikipedia, *Neil Gorsuch* (April 7, 2017) — confirmation by a 54–45 vote after the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees was ended. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch [^8]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Oral argument transcript, Bostock v. Clayton County*, No. 17-1618 (October 8, 2019) — consolidated argument on the Title VII circuit split; cited in timeline row TL-0875. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2019/17-1618_4gcj.pdf [^9]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard* (June 29, 2023) — decision and Gorsuch concurrence on Title VI; cited in timeline row TL-0922. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/600/20-1199/ [^10]: U.S. Congress, *Iraq Liberation Act of 1998*, Pub. L. 105-338 (1998) — "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein"; context for the project's catalogue finding (note 40). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-105publ338/pdf/PLAW-105publ338.pdf [^11]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025) — Title VII disparate-treatment provision draws no majority/minority distinction; "background circumstances" rule rejected. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf