WORDS MEAN THINGS:

Democrats may argue that Gorsuch is an illegitimate justice in a stolen seat, but the judge himself will not fit easily into the role of a villain. Whatever extreme positions he may hold will be concealed by his humble, articulate demeanor. It seems overwhelmingly likely that Gorsuch will soon sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Before his name emerged on Trump's Supreme Court short list, Gorsuch was known for his opinions in two cases pertaining to the contraceptive mandate. When the 10th Circuit ruled in the Hobby Lobby case, Gorsuch wrote a concurring opinion explaining why religious corporations and their owners must be permitted to impose their beliefs on employees. His broad vision of religious liberty includes the right of employers to deny workers access to contraception through their own insurance plans if employers believe contraception to be evil. Gorsuch also insisted that the government could not require religious nonprofits to fill out paperwork exempting them from the contraceptive mandate. Signing documents to opt out of the mandate, Gorsuch wrote, made nonprofits complicit in something they found "sinful."

The contraceptive cases involved the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal statute. But the philosophy of broad religious freedom that Gorsuch embraced in these opinions translates easily into the constitutional context. There is little doubt that Gorsuch would join the court's conservatives in finding that the government cannot force pharmacies to provide Plan B, as this requirement would violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Moreover, it is difficult to imagine Gorsuch voting against the cake-makers and florists who proclaim a free exercise right to discriminate against same-sex couples. Such a position would flow logically from his stance in the contraceptive decisions.

Speaking of same-sex marriage: Although Gorsuch will surely duck the issue during confirmation hearings, he should be a solid vote against gay rights on the court. Gorsuch identifies himself as a textualist and an originalist in the tradition of Justice Antonin Scalia, meaning he interprets the Constitution based on its plain language and original public meaning. By and large, this philosophy spurns the notion of constitutionally protected LGBTQ rights, since the framers of the 14th Amendment did not have sexual minorities on their radar.

Abortion rights, too, are difficult to square with Gorsuch's brand of originalism, as the constitutional right of bodily autonomy is derived from a broad reading of the word liberty, not an explicit textual command. The judge's strange crusade to let Utah cut off funding to Planned Parenthood affiliates--which involved bending appellate procedure to its breaking point--may hint at a personal distaste for abortion. And Gorsuch has all but admitted in a book on physician-assisted suicide that he does not believe constitutional liberty encompasses the right for terminally ill patients to end their lives.

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