Real0ne
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Money in politics
Gorsuch has opined that giving money to politicians while running campaigns is a "fundamental right" that should be afforded the highest standard of constitutional protection, known as strict scrutiny.[29]
Freedom of religion
Gorsuch advocates a broad definition of religious freedom and sided with Christian employers and religious organizations in the cases of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and the case of Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, later consolidated into Zubik v. Burwell. In the Hobby Lobby case, Gorsuch held that the requirement in the Affordable Care Act that employers provide insurance coverage for contraceptives (in the case of Hobby Lobby only post-conception drugs that the employer viewed as causing abortion were in dispute) without a co-pay violated the rights of those employers that object to use of contraceptives on religious grounds.[30] He wrote: "The ACA's mandate requires them to violate their religious faith by forcing them to lend an impermissible degree of assistance to conduct what their religion teaches to be gravely wrong."[31]
In 2007 in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, Gorsuch dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc, taking the view that the government's display of a donated Ten Commandments monument in a public park did not obligate the government to display other offered monuments.[32][33] Most of the dissent's view was subsequently adopted by the Supreme Court, which reversed the judgment of the Tenth Circuit.[33]
Gorsuch has written that "the law ... doesn’t just apply to protect popular religious beliefs: it does perhaps its most important work in protecting unpopular religious beliefs, vindicating this nation's long-held aspiration to serve as a refuge of religious tolerance".[34]
Administrative law
In a concurring opinion in Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, Gorsuch suggested that the 1984 case of Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.—in which the Supreme Court ruled that the courts should defer to federal agencies' interpretation of ambiguous laws and regulations—should be reconsidered.[35] In his opinion, Gorsuch wrote that the practice of administrative deference established by Chevron is "more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers' design."[36] Overturning Chevron would lead to shift in power from federal agencies to the courts.[35]
In the 2008 case of United States v. Hinckley, Gorsuch argued that one possible reading of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act likely violates the nondelegation doctrine.[37] Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsberg held the same view in their 2012 dissent of Reynolds v. United States.[38]
Interstate commerce
Gorsuch has been an opponent of the dormant commerce clause, which allows state laws to be declared unconstitutional if they too greatly burden interstate commerce. In his opinion for the 2015 case of Energy and Environmental Legal Institute v. Joshua Epel, Gorsuch opined that Colorado's mandates for renewable energy did not violate the commerce clause by putting out-of-state coal companies at a disadvantage. Gorsuch wrote that the Colorado renewable energy law "isn't a price-control statute, it doesn't link prices paid in Colorado with those paid out of state, and it does not discriminate against out-of-staters".[39][40]
Criminal law
In the 2012 case of United States of America v. Miguel Games-Perez, Gorsuch ruled on a case where a felon owned a gun in a jurisdiction where gun ownership by felons is illegal; however, the felon did not know that he was a felon at the time. Gorsuch concurred with the opinion that "The only statutory element separating innocent (even constitutionally protected) gun possession from criminal conduct in §§ 922(g) and 924(a) is a prior felony conviction. So the presumption that the government must prove mens rea here applies with full force."[41]
In 2016 the Tenth Circuit ruled, in a 94 page majority opinion, in A.M., on behalf of her minor child, F.M. v. Ann Holmes, that disrupting school by burping in class can be punished with jail time. Gorsuch in a four page dissent disagreed with the majority opinion by stating that the New Mexico Court of Appeals, “long ago alerted law enforcement” that the language the officer relied upon for the child’s arrest does not criminalize noises or diversions that merely disturb order in a classroom.[42][43][44]
Death penalty
Gorsuch favors a strict reading of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.[45] In a 2003 case, Gorsuch denied requests of death-row inmates seeking to escape executions.[46]
List of judicial opinions
During his tenure on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming), Gorsuch has written the following opinions:
US v. Hinckley, 550 F. 3d 926 (2008) on principles of interpretation and construction of a statute, according to plain meaning and context
US v. Ford, 550 F. 3d 975 (2008) on entrapment and email evidence
Blausey v. US Trustee, 552 F. 3d 1124 (2009) on procedure
Williams v. Jones, 583 F. 3d 1254 (2009) dissent, on murder and evidence
Wilson v. Workman, 577 F. 3d 1284 (2009) habeas corpus writ procedure
Fisher v. City of Las Cruces, 584 F. 3d 888 (2009) Fourth Amendment excessive force claims against police officers
Strickland v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 555 F. 3d 1224 (2009) on gender discrimination and harassment, arguing that if men are treated as equally badly as women, there is no claim
American Atheists, Inc. v. Davenport, 637 F. 3d 1095 (2010) on crosses displayed on highways
Flitton v. Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. (2010) on jurisdiction over attorney fees in a gender discrimination and retaliation case
Laborers' International Union, Local 578 v. NLRB, 594 F. 3d 732 (2010) dismissing the union's challenge to an National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finding that the union committed an unfair labor practice by persuading a company to dismiss a worker who did not pay union dues
McClendon v. City of Albuquerque, 630 F. 3d 1288 (2011) dismissing class action lawsuit over inhumane jail conditions
Public Service Co. of New Mexico v. NLRB, 692 F. 3d 1068 (2012) dismissing a union's claim that the NLRB was wrong to not find an unfair labor practice, when an employer dismissed a worker for deliberately disconnecting a customer's gas supply (no evidence that it treated this employee differently)
US v. Games-Perez, 695 F. 3d 1104 (2012) on imprisonment without trial
US v. Games-Perez, 667 F. 3d 1136 (2012) on criminal law procedure
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius, 723 F. 3d 1114 (2013) on the Affordable Care Act and religious freedom
Niemi v. Lasshofer, 728 F. 3d 1252 (2013) fugitive disentitlement doctrine
Riddle v. Hickenlooper, 742 F. 3d 922 (2014) stating: "No one before us disputes that the act of contributing to political campaigns implicates a "basic constitutional freedom," one lying "at the foundation of a free society" and enjoying a significant relationship to the right to speak and associate—both expressly protected First Amendment activities. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 26 (1976)"
Yellowbear v. Lampert, 741 F. 3d 48 (2014) freedom to practice religion in prison
Teamsters Local Union No. 455 v. NLRB, 765 F. 3d 1198 (2014) denying a labor union's claim that a lockout entitled employees to back pay, under the NLRA 1935, 29 USC § 158(a)(1)
US v. Krueger, 809 F. 3d 1109 (2015) regarding the Fourth Amendment and search and seizures
International Union of Operating Engineers v. NLRB Nos. 14-9605, 14-9613 (2015) on NLRB's review of an unfair labor practice by a union, removing an employee from an eligible work list and refusing her the right to review
US v. Arthurs (2016) evidence
US v. Mitchell (2016) evidence, tracking without a warrant
NLRB v. Community Health Services, 812 F. 3d 768 (2016) dissenting, arguing against an NLRB decision that interim earnings should not be disregarded when calculating back pay for employees whose hours were unlawfully reduced
TransAm Trucking v. Administrative Review Board, 833 F. 3d 1206 (2016) dissenting against the majority's judgment that an employee was unjustly dismissed.
Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch (2016) on US administrative law, doubting the doctrine of deference to the federal government by courts in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 US 837 (1984)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch#Freedom_of_religion
     
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