Seven Cases Where the Supreme Court Sided With Neil Gorsuch (And One Time it Didn’t)

By Hannah RechtHannah Recht
February 2, 2017

President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, a George W. Bush appointee who joined the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in 2006, will likely restore the ideological balance that existed prior to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. On cases ranging from religious liberty to the death penalty, his opinions have been in line with decisions passed down by the Supreme Court. Out of at least eight cases that Gorsuch ruled on from the 10th Circuit that then went to the Supreme Court for review, the Court’s opinion matched Gorsuch’s in seven of the cases. This includes three cases decided by a 5 to 4 vote—most notably a landmark 2014 decision that let companies opt out of contraceptive requirements in the Affordable Care Act on religious grounds.

Pleasant Grove City, Utah et al. v. Summum, Supreme Court opinion in 2009
Check markSided with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Stevens Stevens
Image of Souter Souter
Image of Breyer Breyer
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Image of Roberts Roberts
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Image of Thomas Thomas

Summum, a Utah church, sought to display a monument in a Pleasant Grove City public park alongside an existing monument of the Ten Commandments. The justices unanimously reversed a 10th Circuit ruling that required Summum to be given equal access to the park. Gorsuch had voted to reconsider the 10th Circuit ruling.

Brian Russell Dolan v. United States, 2010
Check markSided with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Sotomayor Sotomayor
Image of Breyer Breyer
Image of Alito Alito
Image of Thomas Thomas
Red X signifying noDisagreed with Gorsuch
Image of Stevens Stevens
Image of Kennedy Kennedy
Image of Roberts Roberts
Image of Scalia Scalia

The Supreme Court ruled that criminals can be ordered to pay restitution even when the sentencing court misses a 90-day deadline to do so, affirming Gorsuch's appeals court opinion that said, “It would be a strange thing indeed if a bureaucracy or court could avoid a congressional mandate by unlawful delay.”

Tarrant Regional Water District, Petitioner v. Rudolf John Herrmann, et al., 2013
Check markSided with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Sotomayor Sotomayor
Image of Kagan Kagan
Image of Breyer Breyer
Image of Kennedy Kennedy
Image of Roberts Roberts
Image of Alito Alito
Image of Scalia Scalia
Image of Thomas Thomas

The Tarrant Regional Water District of Texas argued that Oklahoma couldn't bar it from taking water located in Oklahoma. The District Court ruled that a regional water-use compact didn't override Oklahoma's control of its water, and Oklahoma's water laws don't discriminate against interstate commerce. Gorsuch joined a Tenth Circuit ruling affirming that finding, and the Supreme Court agreed.

Loughrin v. United States, 2014
Check markSided with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Sotomayor Sotomayor
Image of Kagan Kagan
Image of Breyer Breyer
Image of Kennedy Kennedy
Image of Roberts Roberts
Image of Alito Alito
Image of Scalia Scalia
Image of Thomas Thomas

The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed lower courts' rulings that federal prosecutors don't have to prove that defendants in bank-fraud cases intended to defraud a bank. Gorsuch joined the Tenth Circuit opinion.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, 2014
Check markSided with Gorsuch
Image of Kennedy Kennedy
Image of Roberts Roberts
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Image of Scalia Scalia
Image of Thomas Thomas
Red X signifying noDisagreed with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Sotomayor Sotomayor
Image of Kagan Kagan
Image of Breyer Breyer

The Supreme Court ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act gave closely held companies the right to opt out an Obamacare requirement that they provide contraceptive coverage to their workers. The decision upheld a Tenth Circuit ruling that Gorsuch had joined. In a separate opinion, Gorsuch wrote: “The [Religious Freedom Restoration] Act doesn’t just apply to protect popular religious beliefs: it does perhaps its most important work in protecting unpopular religious beliefs, vindicating this nation’s long-held aspiration to serve as a refuge of religious tolerance...As we have seen, it is not for secular courts to rewrite the religious complaint of a faithful adherent, or to decide whether a religious teaching about complicity imposes ‘too much’ moral disapproval on those only ‘indirectly’ assisting wrongful conduct.”

Direct Marketing Association v. Brohl, 2015
Red X signifying noDisagreed with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Sotomayor Sotomayor
Image of Kagan Kagan
Image of Breyer Breyer
Image of Kennedy Kennedy
Image of Roberts Roberts
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A trade association sought to challenge a Colorado law that imposed reporting requirements on internet retailers in an effort to get customers to pay the sales taxes they owe. Gorsuch joined a three-judge panel saying the lawsuit was barred under the Tax Injunction Act. The Supreme Court unanimously reversed.

Glossip v. Gross, 2015
Check markSided with Gorsuch
Image of Kennedy Kennedy
Image of Roberts Roberts
Image of Alito Alito
Image of Scalia Scalia
Image of Thomas Thomas
Red X signifying noDisagreed with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Sotomayor Sotomayor
Image of Kagan Kagan
Image of Breyer Breyer

Death-row inmates challenged Oklahoma's use of the sedative midazolam in lethal injections, saying they were at risk of being subjected to extreme pain. Gorsuch joined a Tenth Circuit panel permitting the drug, and a divided Supreme Court agreed.

Nichols v. United States, 2016
Check markSided with Gorsuch
Image of Ginsburg Ginsburg
Image of Sotomayor Sotomayor
Image of Kagan Kagan
Image of Breyer Breyer
Image of Kennedy Kennedy
Image of Roberts Roberts
Image of Alito Alito
Image of Thomas Thomas

The Tenth Circuit held that Nichols had violated the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act when he left the country without updating his registration. Gorsuch voted to have the Tenth Circuit reconsider that ruling. He wrote: “If the separation of powers means anything, it must mean that the prosecutor isn’t allowed to define the crimes he gets to enforce. Yet, that’s precisely the arrangement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act purports to allow in this case and a great many more like it.” The Tenth Circuit refused, but the Supreme Court reversed the appeals court.

Reporting assistance: Greg Stohr and Laurie Asseo

Additional design: Jeremy C. F. Lin

Sources and methodology: To identify Supreme Court cases that came from the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals during Gorsuch's tenure, we subsetted the 2016 Supreme Court Database, Version 2016 Release 1 (Harold J. Spaeth, Lee Epstein, et al.) based on the following criteria: case source was U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit and Supreme Court term was 2006 or later. This yielded 28 cases. For each case, we searched Tenth Circuit court opinions to see if the case was seen before Gorsuch or if he had written any opinions prior to the case being taken up by the Supreme Court. We identified nine cases out of the initial 28 as meeting those criteria. Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, a 2015 case, was not included in our analysis because the Supreme Court vacated and remanded the lower court's finding, rather than affirming or reversing. We verified Supreme Court justices' positions and case outcome using the Supreme Court Database, Bloomberg Law, and Supreme Court written opinions.

Photos: Getty Images

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