Neil Gorsuch CC’88, a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, has been nominated by President Donald J. Trump to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States that was created by the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

Neil Gorsuch CC'88's yearbook photo If confirmed, Gorsuch would join nine Columbia University alumni who have served on the nation’s highest court, including three Columbia College alumni: John Jay, who graduated from King’s College (now Columbia College) in 1764 and was named the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by President George Washington in 1789; Samuel Blatchford CC 1837, who served as an associate justice from 1882 until his death in 1893; and Benjamin Cardozo CC 1889, who served as an associate justice from 1932 until his death in 1938.

Gorsuch graduated cum laude from the College in three years with a bachelor of arts in political science. While at Columbia, he co-founded The Federalist, which has since become a satirical student publication, and was a frequent contributor to the Columbia Spectator.

Gorsuch was nominated to his current position in 2006 by former President George W. Bush. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law and a D.Phil from Oxford. He was a law clerk for Hon. David B. Sentelle in the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit (1991-1992), as well as a law clerk for Associate Justice Byron R. White and Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in the Supreme Court of the United States (1993-1994). After 10 years in a private practice (1995-2005), Gorsuch served as a principal deputy to the associate attorney general and acting associate attorney general for the U.S Department of Justice (2005-2006).

If he takes the bench, Gorsuch would be among the few former clerks to sit on the bench with the justice they worked for, and would also serve with a fellow University alumna, Ruth Bader Ginsberg LAW’59.