President Donald Trump nominated 10th Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch for associate justice of the Supreme Court.
>>RELATED: Who is Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s choice for the Supreme Court?
The 49-year-old Gorsuch has served on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver since 2006, after being appointed by President George W. Bush. He once worked at the Supreme Court as a law clerk.
If approved by the Senate, Gorsuch would take the seat left vacant since Justice Antonin Scalia died last year. Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama's nominee for the seat, saying the choice should go Obama's successor.
He would be the youngest justice since Clarence Thomas joined the court in 1991 at age 43.
In 2016, former President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy left in February when Scalia, a right-leaning voice on the court, died. However, Republicans pushed back against the nomination. Within hours of Scalia's death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said the vacancy "should not be filled until we have a new president."
Republicans didn't hold hearings on Garland's nomination.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
About the Author
