Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination

After his nomination on January 31, 2017, Neil Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate on April 7, 2017. Gorsuch, age 49, is the youngest sitting Supreme Court justice since Clarence Thomas. In February 2016, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died, leaving a vacancy on the highest federal court in the United States. Article II of the U.S. Constitution requires the president nominate justices to the Supreme Court, subject to the "advice and consent" of the United States Senate. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, citing the fact that the presidential election cycle having already commenced made the appointment of the next justice a political issue to be decided by voters, refused to bring the Garland nomination to the Senate floor for a vote. McConnell's action held the Supreme Court vacancy open through the end of President Obama's tenure.

On January 31, 2017, newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump announced his selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the vacant position of Associate Justice, and transmitted this nomination to the Senate the following day. After hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the nomination was sent to the Senate floor on April 4, 2017. When nominated, Gorsuch was serving as an active judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, to which he had been appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed without opposition in the Senate. Democratic Senators then proceeded to filibuster Gorsuch's nomination, after which Republicans invoked the "nuclear option", eliminating the filibuster with respect to Supreme Court nominees. On April 7, 2017, the Senate confirmed Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court with a bipartisan 54–45 vote, with three Democrats joining all the Republicans in attendance. Gorsuch took office in a private ceremony on April 7. On April 17, 2017, Gorsuch heard his first case as the 101st associate justice of the Court.

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