WASHINGTON D.C. (REUTERS) - Neil Gorsuch, picked by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, was sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court justice at the White House on Monday and was poised to have an instant impact on a court once again dominated by conservatives.
Trump earned the biggest political victory of his presidency and fulfilled a major campaign promise when the Senate voted on Friday to confirm the conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado to the lifetime job despite vehement Democratic opposition. With Gorsuch aboard, the court once again has five conservative justices and four liberals.
Gorsuch took his judicial oath in a White House Rose Garden ceremony with Trump watching on, filling a vacancy that lingered for nearly 14 months after the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. The oath was administered by Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch worked as a clerk as a young lawyer. Gorsuch will become the first justice to serve alongside a former boss.
Under bright sunshine on a warm spring day in the U.S. capital, Trump hailed Gorsuch as a man of great integrity and unmatched qualifications who was deeply faithful to the U.S. Constitution.
"To the American people, I am humbled by the trust placed in me today," Gorsuch said, with his wife Louise and the Republican president standing behind him. "I will never forget that to whom much is given, much will be expected. And I promise you that I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great nation."
Trump made a point of thanking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for his role in winning confirmation. McConnell last week led the effort to change long-standing Senate rules in order to end a Democratic blockade of Gorsuch's nomination. Under McConnell's leadership, the Senate last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to replace Scalia.
All the other members of the court were at the ceremony, including liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who called Trump "a faker" last year during the presidential campaign but later said she regretted the remark. Trump at the time called on her to resign and said her "mind is shot."
Scalia's widow, Maureen, also attended the ceremony.
"He will decide cases not based on his personal preferences but based on a fair and objective reading of the law," Trump said of Gorsuch.
During last year's presidential campaign, Trump said he would pick a justice who would overturn the landmark 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Gorsuch declined to answer questions about whether Roe v. Wade and other important court precedents were properly decided.
Gorsuch earlier in the day took his separate constitutional oath, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court with the other justices.