IRONICALLY, DEMOCRATS FORCED THE PICK:

Neil Gorsuch is unquestionably a very conservative judge. Like the late Justice Antonin Scalia, he's a textualist and an originalist, someone who believes that the Constitution and ordinary statutes should be interpreted based on how their actual language would have been understood at the time. He's ruled in favor of organizations seeking exemption from Obama's contraceptive mandate on religious grounds, and wrote a book opposing assisted-suicide. He would be a thorn in the side of a future Democratic president who sought to expand government involvement in the economy in novel ways, or to further extend the scope of anti-discrimination law.

But he's also a man with a reputation both for collegiality and independence of mind. He's arguably a less prosecutor-friendly judge than President Obama's previous choice, Merrick Garland. He's been less-deferential to claims of executive power than either Garland or Scalia. And his defense of religious freedom has not by any means been limited to dominant religious groups. A conservative justice who views government with a jaundiced eye, and who privileges the legislature over the executive, could really come in handy if Trump were to infringe on press freedoms, or corrupt the federal bureaucracy, or further extend the reach of executive power beyond the precedents that Bush and Obama set -- all serious concerns that liberals have voiced since the election.

So there's a case to be made on the merits that liberals should support Gorsuch's appointment. And there's also a case for doing so on the politics.

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