What's in Gorsuch's wallet, Trump's U.S. Supreme Court pick

Kytja Weir
Updated

President Donald Trump named his pick for the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday night, tapping Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Gorsuch would fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Like Trump, he’s an Ivy Leaguer: He attended Columbia University, Harvard Law School — and also the University of Oxford in England. His mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford, served as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Ronald Reagan.

And just like the majority of his potential colleagues already on the nation’s highest court, his holdings indicate he’s a millionaire with an investment portfolio worth at least $3.1 million. (Judges report their investments in ranges so it could have been worth as much as $7.2 million.)

The Center for Public Integrity reviewed the judge’s recent annual financial disclosures, including the most recent covering 2015. To be sure, his financial situations could have changed since then.

As of 2015, he did not own direct stock in any companies but had a diverse portfolio including mutual funds, municipal bonds and 529 college tuition savings accounts. The 49-year-old also has owned what he lists as a “mountain property” he estimated is worth up to $500,000 that is held as a limited liability corporation called Walden Group LLC.

He has supplemented his judicial salary, which is currently $217,600, by teaching. In 2015, he earned $26,000 from the University of Colorado Law School. And he received $5,300 in book royalties that year, in part for his book, The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.

The Colorado native was nominated to the federal bench in 2006 by George W. Bush. Gorsuch had donated $250 to Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000, and another $2,000 to Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004.

Federal campaign finance records also show that Gorsuch once donated to one senator who will vote on his confirmation: He donated $250 in 2000 to the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Explore the judge's disclosure below:

This story is part of Politics. Campaign donations, lobbying and influence in government and reports on the special interests that are funding elections and buying power. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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Reporter Michael Beckel contributed.

Related: Gorsuch financials

This story is part of Politics. Campaign donations, lobbying and influence in government and reports on the special interests that are funding elections and buying power. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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Copyright 2017 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.