Religious Liberty Battles Ahead Highlight Gorsuch’s Importance as Conservative Nominee for SCOTUS | Sojourners

Religious Liberty Battles Ahead Highlight Gorsuch’s Importance as Conservative Nominee for SCOTUS

If confirmed as expected this week by the U.S. Senate, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee would join his new fellow justices in time to act on divisive cases concerning religion, guns, and big business, underscoring Neil Gorsuch's importance as the fifth conservative on a nine-justice court.






Major issues before the court highlight the significance of Gorsuch filling Scalia's seat and restoring the court's 5-4 conservative majority. Senate Republicans paved the way for Trump to replace Scalia by refusing last year to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama's nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. That would have given the court a liberal majority for the first time in decades.


Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sides with the four liberals, will remain the court's swing vote. Most experts expect Gorsuch to be more aligned with the court's two most stalwart conservatives, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.

"There's no reason to think he will be anything other than extremely conservative," said Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Carolyn Shapiro.


In another case, the court could decide whether to revive voter-identification and other restrictions in North Carolina blocked by a lower court. The justices also could hear a Christian baker's religious claim that he should not be forced to sell a cake to a gay couple.


On April 19, the court will hear a religious rights case in which a church contends Missouri violated the Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom by denying it funds for a playground project due to a state ban on aid to religious organizations.


"Given Gorsuch's solicitude for religious liberty, his joining the court can only help the church," said Ilya Shapiro, a lawyer with the libertarian Cato Institute think tank.




Longer term, an issue likely to return to the court is a conservative-backed challenge that could weaken organized labor. The court was expected to deny unions a vital source of cash last year. But after Scalia died, it issued a 4-4 ruling leaving in place a lower court's decision favoring unions.


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