Richard Wolf and David Jackson

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Nearly a full year after Justice Antonin Scalia's death left the Supreme Court shorthanded, President Trump nominated federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch of Colorado to fill the void Tuesday night, setting off a pitched battle over the direction of the nation's highest court.

Trump unveiled his nominee to the nation on live television from the East Room of the White House after a day filled with palace intrigue, during which the media mapped the whereabouts of Gorsuch and federal appeals court Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, the other favorite for the seat.

"Judge Gorsuch has outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline and has earned bipartisan support," Trump said.

Gorsuch, 49, sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. He is a Scalia acolyte who believes judges should interpret laws as they are written and enforce the Constitution as the nation's framers intended. He writes with a Scalia-like flair and has degrees from Columbia, Harvard and Oxford.

"Mr. President, I am honored and I am humbled," he said as his wife, Louise, looked on. He also expounded briefly on his legal philosophy.

"It is the role of judges to apply, not alter, the work of the people’s representatives," Gorsuch said. "A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge, stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands."

Gorsuch, along with Hardiman, emerged from a list of 21 people Trump was considering, topped initially by federal appeals court judges William Pryor of Alabama and Diane Sykes of Wisconsin. But Pryor has a more controversial record on issues such as abortion and gay rights, possibly making Senate confirmation risky, and the 59-year-old Sykes projects to fewer years on the bench.

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The White House filled the East Room with Washington's movers and shakers for the dramatic announcement, which was being compared to Trump's TV show, "The Apprentice." On hand were Vice President Pence, top Republican leaders in Congress and Scalia's widow, Maureen. Democratic leaders declined their invitations.

Trump used the moment to make sure everyone watching knew he had kept his word to nominate someone from the lists he put forward in May and September. From those, he said he had chosen "the very best judge in the country" to replace Scalia.

"I studied every aspect of his life," the president said. "The qualifications of Judge Gorsuch are beyond dispute."

Gorsuch holds strong views about the limits of executive branch power. He has defended religious liberties, most recently against the Affordable Care Act's so-called contraception mandate. And while he has not ruled on abortion, his views on the sanctity of life are revealed in his book opposing assisted suicide.

"When we judges don our robes, it doesn’t make us any smarter," he said. "But it does serve as a reminder of what’s expected of us: Impartiality and independence, collegiality and courage."

He will need both collegiality and courage to face intense opposition from Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups, which protested the nomination at the Supreme Court an hour after it was announced. Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, promised "a mass mobilization to defeat the nomination," comparing the groups' zeal to the women's marches across the globe that followed Trump's inauguration.

Republicans hold a 52-seat majority in the Senate, large enough to block former president Barack Obama's choice of federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland last year but not sufficient to overcome a filibuster if Democrats seek to bottle up the nomination as revenge for what many consider a stolen Supreme Court seat.

“I look forward to speaking with members from both sides of the aisle," Gorsuch said. "I consider the United States Senate the greatest deliberative body in the world, and I respect the important role the Constitution affords it in the confirmation of our judges."

Unless Trump can win over eight Democrats, Republicans will have to change the Senate's rules, eliminating the 60-vote threshold needed to bring the nomination to the floor. Trump endorsed such a move last week.

Republican senators streamed to the press area after the announcement to applaud Gorsuch's nomination. "Today was the most important decision President Trump has made," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, his presidential primary opponent, said. Sen. Cory Gardner predicted "major Democratic support" for his fellow Coloradoan.

The White House is hoping to have the seat filled in time for the court's April sitting, the last of the 2016 term, when several cases could be considered involving such issues as religious liberty and transgender rights. That likely was one reason for announcing the nomination two days earlier than initially planned.

“There’s a lot of cases that I think are in the queue right now that have the potential to be 4-4 (votes)," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said. "I think the idea is to get this individual confirmed as soon as possible, just to get the docket moving. That’s probably the biggest priority right now.”

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Conservative interest groups were preparing the initial phase of what they said would be a $10 million advertising campaign on behalf of the nominee. The first ads will go up in four states that Trump won decisively in November where Democratic senators face tough re-election battles: Indiana, Missouri, Montana and North Dakota.

Replacing Scalia will not shift the court ideologically from where it was a year ago, but it will put conservatives one seat short of a commanding majority. With the seat filled, the longest-serving justice, Anthony Kennedy, once again will be the man in the middle — siding with conservatives in most cases but occasionally with liberals on issues such as abortion, affirmative action and gay rights.

Still, Democrats understand demographics: Kennedy, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, is 80 years old and considering retirement. President Bill Clinton's two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, are 83 and 78, respectively. One or more vacancies would give Trump an opportunity to shift the court to the right, possibly for generations to come.

For that reason, some Democrats have said recently that they should consider Scalia's replacement on his or her merits and save their more vehement opposition for the next nomination fight, if it comes during Trump's presidency.

Contributing: Erin Kelly, Paul Singer and Donovan Slack