President Trump's SCOTUS Pick

Published February 1, 2017 at 9:00 AM CST

President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington to announce Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court. Gorsuch stands with his wife Louise. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

This broadcast is a part of the #OnPoint100 Day Spotlight .

In our 100-Day Spotlight on the Trump administration: The president announces his pick for the Supreme Court. We’ll look at the nominee and confirmation battle ahead.

There was everything but a drum roll. Crowds, applause, a dramatic entrance – and Donald Trump had introduced his nominee for the US Supreme Court: Judge Neil Gorsuch of Colorado. Forty nine years old. A strict conservative in the mold of Antonin Scalia. A big step, if confirmed, toward a fundamental redirection of the high court. Barack Obama’s nominee for the seat was left unheard. Now Democrats face tough choices. This hour On Point, American life and the nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch. — Tom Ashbrook

Guests

David Savage, Supreme Court and legal issues reporter for the Los Angeles Times. ( @DavidGSavage)

Rick Garnett, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he is also the director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State and Society. ( @RickGarnett)

Pam Karlan, professor of public interest law at the Stanford Law School, where she is also the co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.

Nancy Cordes, CBS News congressional correspondent. ( @nancycordes)

From Tom’s Reading List

NPR News: President Trump Nominates Neil Gorsuch To The Supreme Court — “Gorsuch has often drawn parallels to Scalia, with SCOTUSblog calling their similarities ‘eerie.’ In accepting Trump’s nomination, Gorsuch praised the late justice as a ‘lion of the law’ who was cherished by his colleagues for his “wisdom and his humor.”

Los Angeles Times: Neil Gorsuch could fall somewhere between his hero, Justice Scalia, and former boss, centrist Justice Kennedy — ” Like Kennedy, 80, Gorsuch is a Westerner with a polite, congenial manner who at times has won praise from liberals. He may be more conservative than Kennedy when it comes to expanding individual rights, but he seems to lack Scalia’s fervor for overturning liberal precedents from decades past.”

SCOTUSblog: Trump nominates Gorsuch to fill Scalia vacancy — “After originally suggesting that the nomination would come on Thursday of this week, yesterday Trump revealed in a tweet that the nomination instead would be broadcast live this evening. And today the nomination announcement seemed to take on a reality-television air, with rumors circulating that both Gorsuch and Judge Thomas Hardiman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, who was also believed to be a finalist for the job, had come to Washington without knowing which one would ultimately be selected.”