Trump welcomes Gorsuch on first Supreme Court visit
President Trump attended a formal Supreme Court welcome on Thursday for newly minted Justice Neil Gorsuch, the man whose lifetime nomination by Trump served as the centerpiece of his early presidential agenda.
Trump and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, traveled to the court for Gorsuch’s investiture ceremony. Former Justice John Paul Stevens and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who presented Gorsuch’s commission to the court, also attended while Attorney General Jeff Sessions is out of the country.
While Chief Justice John Roberts administered Gorsuch’s oath, the event was largely ceremonial — Gorsuch already took a private oath before his first day on the bench in April.
{mosads}Gorsuch thanked the audience for “the warm welcome I’ve received,” according to the White House pool report.
Along with Gorsuch’s family, attendees included former Republican attorneys general, Republican lawmakers and Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet from Gorsuch’s home state of Colorado, according to Politico.
After the ceremony, Trump took pictures both with all nine justices as well as Gorsuch. It was his first visit to the court as president.
Gorsuch’s place on the bench comes after Republicans mounted a successful block of then-President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in early 2016. The GOP used the promise of a conservative justice as one of its key messages during the campaign and the issue helped Trump keep conservatives behind him during a tumultuous campaign.
Now that Gorsuch is on the bench, Trump regularly touts the nomination and confirmation as a major victory for his agenda.
The visit comes as the Supreme Court weighs whether to revive Trump’s travel ban, which was blocked by lower courts.
If the court chooses not to take that case, lower-court rulings temporarily blocking the policy will stand until a much longer legal process judging whether the policy itself is constitutional.
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