CSNbbs

Quote:At this early juncture of his tenure, Justice Neil Gorsuch has placed his bold, conservative bona fides in plain view, evincing an important shift in the center of gravity among the Court’s five conservatives.

It is difficult to get the full measure of a justice in the space of a few rulings, but Gorsuch’s choices as late leave little doubt as to the shape of his jurisprudence.

Perhaps the most important development of Gorsuch’s early tenure is his repeated alignment with Justice Clarence Thomas, a jurist often alone in concurrence or dissent articulating an originalist vision. This emergent nexus could indicate that the balance of power among the Court’s five conservatives is shifting away from the soft, institutional Toryism of the chief justice, to Thomas’ pure originalism.

On the final day of the term, Thomas and Gorsuch dissented from the Court’s refusal to take up a landmark Second Amendment case concerning the right of individuals to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense. Thomas writes:

The Second Amendment’s core purpose further supports the conclusion that the right to bear arms extends to public carry. Even if other Members of the Court do not agree that the Second Amendment likely protects a right to public carry, the time has come for the Court to answer this important question definitively.