There are Supreme Court justices and there are Supreme Court justices who tell an interviewer “I just don’t see it that way” when asked about the claim that America was founded as a Christian nation, directly contradicting the vice president, the president of the Heritage Foundation, and the entire intellectual framework of Project 2025, from a lifetime appointment they hold because the president who nominated them needed a conservative judicial anchor, and Justice Neil Gorsuch has become the second kind.
Gorsuch told an interviewer he does not see America as having been founded as a Christian nation, per HuffPost’s confirmed reporting from today’s live blog, in a statement that directly contradicts JD Vance, who has argued publicly and repeatedly that America’s founding is rooted in Christian principles, and Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and architect of Project 2025, who has said the same. Gorsuch was appointed by Trump in 2017 to fill the seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia’s death. He was confirmed 54-45 after the Senate changed its rules to allow simple majority confirmation of Supreme Court justices, a rules change made specifically to get him confirmed. He is now saying he doesn’t see it that way.
The claim that America was founded as a Christian nation is a central pillar of the Christian nationalist movement that has significant overlap with the Trump coalition. It is also, as Gorsuch appears to have decided, not historically accurate when examined against the text of the Constitution, which mentions religion twice — once to prohibit religious tests for office and once in the First Amendment’s establishment clause — neither time to establish a national religion. The founders who were most influential in drafting the founding documents, including Jefferson and Madison, wrote extensively about the separation of church and state. Gorsuch read these documents. He has the job where reading them is the assignment.
Vance and Roberts have not yet responded to Gorsuch’s statement. The Heritage Foundation has not issued a clarification of Project 2025 in light of the Gorsuch interview.
Trump appointed him. Gorsuch read the Constitution. They reached different conclusions about what it says.
When the justice appointed by the Christian nationalist coalition’s preferred president says he doesn’t see America as a Christian nation, who exactly is the coalition appointing justices for?
Sources
HuffPost: Justice Gorsuch Calls Out Conservatives For Pushing Myth Of White, Christian Founding
Raw Story: Neil Gorsuch’s media tour backfires with ‘darkly ironic’ twist: columnist
