Donald Trump’s nomination of conservative judge Neil M Gorsuch will, if he’s confirmed, mean that the balance of America’s highest court will be in the hands of Republican nominees (with red lines on the graphic below; Democrat nominees in blue).
At just 49 years old, Gorsuch is the youngest person to be nominated to the court in more than 25 years, and would likely have a hand in shaping American law for decades to come.
Since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016, the court has sat with eight rather than nine judges, leading to a number of split decisions. Gorsuch’s appointment will change this.
But it doesn’t necessarily follow that all future court decisions will be of a conservative bent: among the four sitting Republican nominees, Justice Anthony Kennedy is considered more of a moderate.
This might not be Trump’s last nomination, since three of the current justices are of advancing years: Kennedy is 80, while two of the four Democratic nominees, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, are 83 and 78 respectively.
