The United States President announced on Tuesday that he has selected Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to fill the vacancy on the US Supreme Court and asked Senate Democrats to support his candidate, who will need at least eight votes from the opposition party to take the position.
"Today, I am keeping another promise to the American people by nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court," Donald Trump said Tuesday in a press conference at the White House.
Gorsuch, 49, who currently serves on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, was picked for "outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind and tremendous discipline", according to the US president.
Trump's candidate for the highest US federal court is a solid conservative who has defended the death penalty and religious freedom of individuals over government regulations.
Although he has never directly issued a ruling on abortion, Gorsuch has assured that there is no "constitutional basis" for placing the freedom of choice over the life of a baby.
"He is a man who our country really needs, and needs badly," Trump said.
"I only hope that both Democrats and Republicans can come together, for once, for the good of the country," he added.
To become the new Supreme Court Justice, Gorsuch needs to win a majority of 60 votes in the Senate, an obstacle that could be difficult to overcome since the Republicans have a majority of 52 seats in the upper house and would need the support of several Democrats.
Trump argued that Gorsuch, who graduated from prestigious Harvard Law School, Columbia and Oxford universities "could have had any job at any law firm for any amount of money, but what he wanted to do with his career was to be a judge, to write decisions, and to make an impact by upholding our laws and our Constitution".
One of the cases that catapulted Gorsuch to fame was his ruling in favor of the Hobby Lobby craft store after it filed a lawsuit against the federal government to ensure that it was not mandatory for the company to provide its employees insurance coverage for contraceptives, as established by the 2010 health care law by former US President Barack Obama.
If approved by the Senate, Gorsuch will fill the Supreme Court's vacancy left by the late conservative Judge Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.
To replace Scalia, one of the five high court conservative judges, Obama had nominated moderate judge Merrick Garland, but the majority of Senate Republican refused to consider the nominee.
Source: EFE
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