Neil Gorsuch, a 49-year-old appellate judge in Colorado, was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Trump on Tuesday. Born in Denver, Colorado, Judge Gorsuch attended Georgetown Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. while his mother led the Environmental Protection Agency under President Reagan. He completed his undergraduate degree at Columbia University and went on to graduate in the same class as President Obama at Harvard Law School in 1991. He additionally received his doctorate at Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

In the legal realm, Judge Gorsuch has clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Supreme Court Justice Byron White, and current Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.  He practiced law in Washington, D.C. at a large firm for 10 years and additionally served as principal assistant to the deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice before being appointed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado by President George W. Bush in 2006. In announcing Judge Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee on Tuesday, President Trump sought to appoint a legal conservative to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat. If appointed, Judge Gorsuch will serve as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.