Surrounded by family and his soon-to-be Supreme Court colleagues, Neil Gorsuch took the first of two oaths today as he prepared to take his seat on the court and restore its conservative majority.
The 49-year-old appeals court judge from Colorado was sworn during a public ceremony at the White House by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who administered the oath set by federal law.
It was the second of two oaths - the first was conducted privately in the Justices' Conference Room by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Donald Trump welcomed all of the sitting justices on the Supreme Court to the White House Rose Garden for the swearing in of Neil Gorsuch to be his first Supreme Court justice.
US President Donald Trump praised Gorsuch, saying the jurist would rule "not on his personal preferences but based on a fair and objective reading of the law".
Markey castigated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and Senate Republicans for invoking the so-called "nuclear option" by lowering the cloture threshold from 60 votes to a simple majority of 51.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said Monday that, if Democrats regain control of the Senate and the White House, they will reverse Republicans' change to the filibuster rules for Supreme Court nominees. With Gorsuch aboard, the court once again has five conservative justices and four liberals. As if to reassure Kennedy, Trump's lawyers have mentioned several of his former law clerks as strong candidates for the next Supreme Court nomination. After all, he was the one who stumbled into the presidency, which put him in the position to pick a name from a list of Federalist Society-approved judicial nominees.
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He said "there is a clear distinction between air strikes on military targets and the use of chemical weapons against civilians". These are the first direct strikes against Syrian President Bahar al-Assad during his country's six-year civil war.
"Go get 'em. Go get 'em", Mr. Trump told the newest justice on the court, as he shook Gorsuch's hand after the oath was administered.
Gorsuch promised to the American people that he would do everything in his power to be a "faithful servant of the Constitution and laws" of the United States.
With that, he joined for life the panel of justices that is the ultimate arbiter of numerous most contentious issues in American life. Another was Merrick Garland, the judge who stood on the same spot in March a year ago as Barack Obama issued a dire warning that if Republicans blocked his nomination it would imperil American democracy.
Turning his attention to the American people, Justice Gorsuch quoted from the Gospel of Luke in the Bible that he is mindful that "to whom much is given, much will be expected".
The New York Times described Gorsuch as "a reliable conservative committed to following the original understanding of those who drafted and ratified the Constitution". Senate Republicans then spent months refusing to hold hearings for Garland.
A few hours after the swearing-in ceremony, a Pennsylvania college honored Scalia and Ginsburg with its annual award for civility in public life.
The Justice was confirmed for the Supreme court in a partially bipartisan vote of 54 - 45, with three Democrats voting for the Trump appointee. Retired Justice John Paul Stevens said such ceremonies give the appearance the new justice is going to the court as the president's appointee rather than an independent justice.
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