Update 01/31/2017 at 8:04 pm. EST - President Trump has just announced that he has in fact nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 31, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The conservative Independent Journal Review claims to have confirmed with "two high-ranking administration sources" that President Trump will nominate Neil Gorsuch of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court tonight.

CNN is also reporting, based upon their own sources, that Gorsuch has been informed that he is Trump's "likely" nominee. However, they added, "Those close to the process warn that until it is announced, Trump could change his mind."

The National Review appears to believe the reports, and has released their own analysis of Gorsuch, claiming that Trump's nominee "will be" Gorsuch.

Gorsuch, 49, is a favorite of social conservatives because of his record defending religious liberty and pro-life views.

Just last year, Gorsuch sided with Utah Governor Gary Herbert when he sought to defund Planned Parenthood.

In Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius, Gorsuch sided with the Christian-owned craft store that did not want to be forced by the government to provide certain contraceptives through its health plan.

Gorsuch favored the Little Sisters of the Poor when dissenting from a 10th Circuit decision saying the nuns must be forced to formally cooperate with the provision of insurance that covers contraception. The dissent essentially said that the 10th Circuit "had shown insufficient deference to the Little Sisters’ own articulation of the tenets of their religious beliefs," according to SCOTUS blog.

Gorsuch attended University of Oxford, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School. He has "a flair that matches — or at least evokes" that of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, SCOTUS blog reports, because his "opinions are exceptionally clear and routinely entertaining; he is an unusual pleasure to read, and it is always plain exactly what he thinks and why."

In 2009, Gorsuch wrote The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, in which he argued that human life has intrinsic value and "that intentional killing is always wrong."

The nuanced book examined legal and ethical issues surrounding assisted suicide and euthanasia, as well as the roles patient autonomy and refusal of unwanted medical care play. Its publisher, Princeton University Press, calls the book "the most comprehensive argument against their legalization ever published." Gorsuch studied under natural law expert John Finnis.

Of Roe v. Wade, Gorsuch wrote that there is "no constitutional basis" for giving a mother more rights than her unborn child (The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, p. 82):

In Roe, the Court explained that, had it found the fetus to be a “person” for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment, it could not have created a right to abortion because no constitutional basis exists for preferring the mother’s liberty interests over the child’s life.

It doesn't appear that Gorsuch has ruled on a case directly related to the constitutionality of abortion.

Nevertheless, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado – a pro-abortion group in Gorsuch's home state – opposes him because of his "record of ruling in a way that does not reflect Colorado values on reproductive rights."

Legal expert David Lat describes Gorsuch as "brilliant, conservative, and impossible to oppose."