Neil Gorsuch is likely not a name that means much to sports fans. But as President Donald Trump's nominee to fill the ninth seat on the Supreme Court, this conservative legal scholar could end up altering the landscape of American sports.
Assuming he can survive presumably contentious confirmation hearings, Gorsuch will take the spot previously occupied by the late Antonin Scalia, breaking the 4-4 split between the current court's liberal and conservative justices.
With cases in the Supreme Court pipeline concerning legalized sports betting, paying college athletes, and the legitimacy of arbitrations—remember Deflategate?—Gorsuch's potential impact is significant.
Gorsuch appears to adhere to a strict textualist view of the law, and does not sway based on political pressure. By all accounts, the current 10th Circuit Judge—who holds degrees from Columbia, Oxford, and Harvard Law, and clerked for two Supreme Court justices—is not one to succumb to Twitter attacks questioning his legitimacy. In fact, as he said at the White House while accepting Trump's nomination, "a judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge."
So what does this mean for sports?
Although Gorsuch has not authored any opinions on cases specifically dealing with athletics, his strong federalist viewpoints and conservative leanings signal how he likely would on the following key issues.
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