Neil Gorsuch, a 1988 graduate of Columbia College, was nominated by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gorsuch, who currently serves on 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, would fill the vacancy created by the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia a year ago. He was appointed to the appeals court by President George W. Bush in 2006. Prior to that he worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and had been in private practice.
“We congratulate 1988 Columbia College graduate Neil Gorsuch on his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Dean James Valentini. \"We take pride in his commitment to public service, as we do in the intellectual rigor and breadth reflected in our many accomplished alumni.”
If confirmed, Gorsuch will join nine Columbia University alumni, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Columbia Law, '59), Benjamin Cardozo (Columbia College, 1889) and John Jay (King's College, 1764), who have served on the nation's highest court.
The nominee is no stranger to the highest court in the land, having served as a clerk to justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994. If confirmed, Gorsuch would be among the few former clerks to sit on the bench with the justice they worked for.
While at the College, Gorsuch wrote for the Columbia Spectator and was a founder of The Federalist, a satirical publication on campus at the time. He attended Harvard Law School and Oxford University, where he earned a degree in philosophy.