Justice Neil Gorsuch arrived at the Supreme Court a year ago, the culmination of a controversial saga that saw Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocking a hearing for Merrick Garland, the nominee of former President Barack Obama. Democrats tried to do the same when President Trump nominated Gorsuch, but he was ultimately confirmed on April 10 of last year. Here are the Supreme Court happenings you may have missed in the year since. Kathryn Krawczyk
- Gorsuch has charted a predictably conservative course at the Supreme Court. He dissented on a case that would've equated same-sex couples with opposite-sex ones, defended Trump's Muslim ban, and wanted to a hear a case challenging a concealed carry ban.
- Gorsuch replaced Justice Elena Kagan as the newest justice on the bench — and took over all the non-judicial duties that come with it. He now has to answer the door during conferences between just the nine justices, per CNN. He was also placed on the cafeteria committee and will try to top Kagan's installation of a frozen yogurt machine.
- Law Twitter has quite enjoyed Gorsuch's long-winded, overly explanatory opinions. Law professionals and court geeks have taken iconic court decisions and rewritten them #GorsuchStyle. Take Scalia's kind-of-iconic line, "This wolf comes as a wolf."
Social Embed Code
Let's rewrite some classic lines from SCOTUS ops...#GorsuchStyle. cc @nicholas_bagley
"This wolf comes as a wolf. That is, the wolf, being dangerous, is coming to us in a way that we can tell it is a wolf, i.e., something dangerous, and not something that isn't dangerous." pic.twitter.com/hxFxbOYodS
— Dan Epps (@danepps) January 23, 2018 - McConnell has essentially bragged about holding up the confirmation process for Garland. He boldly called it the "most consequential decision I've made in my entire public career" in an interview with Kentucky Today.
- Garland has taken a seat of his own — in a common room at Harvard Law School. He talked to students about meeting J.K. Rowling and put the Harry Potter books at the top of his recommended reading list, per The Harvard Crimson.
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