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SCOTUS CAROLYNKASTER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday to announce Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court. Gorsuch stands with his wife Louise. By Julie Pace and Mark Sherman TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, a fast-rising conservative judge with a writer's flair, to the Su- preme Court on Tuesday, setting up a fierce fight with Democrats over a ju- rist who could shape Amer- ica's legal landscape for de- cades to come. At 49, Gorsuch is the youngest Supreme Court nominee in a quarter-cen- tury. He's known on the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals for clear, colloquial writing, advo- cacy for court review of government regulations, de- fense of religious freedom and skepticism toward law enforcement. "Judge Gorsuch has out- standing legal skills, a bril- liant mind, tremendous dis- cipline and has earned bi- partisan support," Trump declared, announcing the nomination in his first tele- vised prime-time address from the White House. Gorsuch's nomination was cheered by conserva- tives wary of Trump's own fluid ideology. If confirmed by the Senate, he will fill the seat left vacant by the death last year of Antonin Scalia, long the right's most power- ful voice on the high court. With Scalia's wife, Mau- reen, sitting in the audi- ence, Trump took care to praise the late justice. Gor- such followed, calling Sca- lia a "lion of the law." Gorsuch thanked Trump for entrusting him with "a most solemn assignment." And he said, "Standing here in a house of history, I'm acutely aware of my own imperfections and pledge that if I am confirmed, I will do all my powers per- mit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution of laws of this great country." Some Democrats, still smarting over Trump's unexpected victory in the presidential election, have vowed to mount a vigor- ous challenge to nearly any nominee to what they view as the court's "stolen seat." President Barack Obama nominated U.S. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Gar- land for the vacancy after Scalia's death, but Senate Republicans refused to con- sider the pick, saying the seat should be filled only af- ter the November election. Trump's choice of Gor- such marks perhaps the most significant decision of his young presidency, one with ramifications that could last long after he leaves office. After an un- even start to his presidency, including the chaotic roll- out last week of a contro- versial refugee and immi- gration ban, Trump's selec- tion of Gorsuch appeared to proceed with little drama. For some Republicans, the prospect of filling one or more Supreme Court seats over the next four years has helped ease their concerns about Trump's experience and temperament. Three justices are in their late 70s and early 80s, and a retire- ment would offer Trump the opportunity to cement conservative dominance of the court for many years. If confirmed, Gorsuch will restore the court to the conservative tilt it held with Scalia on the bench. But he is not expected to call into question high-profile rul- ings on abortion, gay mar- riage and other issues in which the court has been divided 5-4 in recent years. Gorsuch has won praise from conservatives for his defense of religious free- dom. In two cases that in- volved the contraception mandate under the Obama health care law, he sided with businesses and non- profit groups that voiced religious objections to the requirement that they pro- vide cost-free birth control to women covered under their health plans. The judge also has writ- ten opinions that ques- tion 30 years of Supreme Court rulings that allow federal agencies to inter- pret laws and regulations. Gorsuch has said that fed- eral bureaucrats have been allowed to accumulate too much power at the expense of Congress and the courts. Like Scalia, Gorsuch identifies himself as a judge who tries to decide cases by interpreting the Constitu- tion and laws as they were understood when written. He also has raised ques- tions about criminal laws in a way that resembles Scalia's approach to crim- inal law. University of Michigan law professor Richard Pri- mus said Gorsuch "may be the closest thing the new generation of conservative judges has to Antonin Sca- lia." Gorsuch, like the other eight justices on the court, has an Ivy League law de- gree. The Colorado native earned his bachelor's de- gree from Columbia Uni- versity in three years, then a law degree from Har- vard. He clerked for Su- preme Court Justices By- ron White, a fellow Colora- dan, and Anthony Kennedy before earning a philosophy degree at Oxford University and working for a promi- nent Washington, D.C., law firm. He served for two years in George W. Bush's De- partment of Justice before the president nominated him to the appeals court. His mother was Anne Gor- such, who was head of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Reagan ad- ministration. Gorsuch is expected to face intense scrutiny from Democrats. Some liberals have demanded that Dem- ocrats block any Trump choice, underscoring the deep partisan discord surg- ing through Washington. "Now is not the time for business as usual," MoveOn. org's Ilya Sheyman said in a statement. Gorsuch was among the 21 possible choices for the court Trump released dur- ing the campaign. Other finalists also came from that list, including Thomas Hardiman, who serves alongside Trump's sister on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- peals, and William Pryor, a federal appeals court judge and Alabama's attorney general from 1997 to 2004. If Democrats decide to filibuster Gorsuch's nomi- nation, his fate could rest in the hands of Senate Ma- jority Leader Mitch McCo- nnell. Trump has encour- aged McConnell to change the rules of the Senate and make it impossible to fil- ibuster a Supreme Court nominee — a change known in the Senate as the "nu- clear option." A conservative group al- ready has announced plans to begin airing $2 mil- lion worth of ads in sup- port of the nominee in In- diana, Missouri, Montana and North Dakota, four states that Trump won and in which Democrats will be defending their Senate seats in 2018. Conservative Judge Gorsuch is Trump's Supreme Court choice By Alan Fram The Associated Press WASHINGTON Senate Dem- ocrats blocked committee votes on three of President Donald Trump's highest- profile Cabinet picks Tues- day as spiraling partisan hostility over the fledgling administration's refugee curbs and other initiatives seemed to seep into Con- gress' work on nominations. In an unusual step, Dem- ocrats boycotted planned Senate Finance Committee votes on Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to become health sec- retary and financier Steven Mnuchin to head the Trea- sury Department. They ac- cused both men of lying about their financial back- grounds, and since commit- tee rules require at least one Democrat to be pres- ent, Republicans could not hold roll calls. "He didn't tell the truth," the committee's top Demo- crat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Or- egon, said of reports that Price received preferen- tial treatment in purchas- ing stock in a biotech com- pany. "He misled the Con- gress and he misled the American people." The tactic infuriated Re- publicans, even though the GOP boycotted a commit- tee vote on Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency in 2013 when Democrats ran the Senate. "They ought to stop pos- turing and acting like idi- ots," said committee Chair- man Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "Are they that bitter about Donald Trump? The answer has to be yes." At the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats criticized Sen. Jeff Ses- sions, R-Ala., Trump's nom- inee for attorney general, in speeches that lasted as long as 30 minutes apiece. After four-and-a-half hours, panel Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, adjourned the ses- sion and set a new meeting for Wednesday. SENATE Democrats force delays in votes on 3 Cabinet nominees Paid advertisement | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017 4 B