President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch for the United States Supreme Court.
Trump made the announcement during an address Tuesday night.
"Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan support," Trump said.
Gorsuch, who is 49, has served on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado, since former President George W. Bush appointed him to the position in 2006. Gorsuch clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices: Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. After that, Gorsuch spent a decade in private practice.
Like his predecessor Justice Antonin Scalia, Gorsuch is an originalist. He ostensibly strives to literally interpret the Constitution as the Founding Fathers intended it to be read.
He also briefly served as acting associate attorney general before he took the bench. Gorsuch is a graduate of Columbia, Harvard and Oxford universities.
Anticipation over whom Trump had chosen grew Tuesday after reporters got wind that both of Trump's top picks had traveled to Washington, D.C.
Trump's other pick was reportedly Judge Thomas Hardiman. He has served on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2007.
That's the same court on which President Trump's sister serves. She reportedly put in a good word for Hardiman. Before Bush nominated him for that position, Hardiman spent three and a half years on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He also spent 13 years in private practice.
The Republican-held Senate is expected to confirm Gorsuch.
The ninth Supreme Court seat has been empty since Scalia died unexpectedly in February 2016.
Former President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland, but Senate Republicans wouldn't give him a committee hearing.
