UNDATED (WKZO-AM) — President Trump has picked appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, left by the death of Antonin Scalia.
The Harvard grad is a strict constructionist who is very much in the conservative mold of his predecessor and will be the subject of a fierce confirmation process because Democrats would have preferred a moderate jurist.
WMU Sociology Professor Ashlyn Kuersten says Gorsuch won’t change the High Court, which already leaned right, with Justice Anthony Kennedy sometimes providing a swing vote on certain issues.
She says the real shift in the court will come if Trump has to replace one of the four liberal judges on the Supreme Court, several of which are getting very old.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is 83 and Steven Briar is 78 and both may be thinking about retirement.
Kuersten says filling that seat may be one of the events during the Trump administration that has the most lasting impact. Justices serve for life, and some live for many many years.
Gorsuch is just 49, and could be serving on the bench for decades after the end of the Trump administration.
