Anthony M. Kennedy, CA

Year 1988– | APP: Reagan

California | Birth 1936 | Age 81

Religion: Roman Catholic

Clarence Thomas, DC

Year 1991– | APP: Bush

Georgia | Birth 1948 | Age 69

Religion: Roman Catholic

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, DC

Year 1993– | APP: Clinton

New York | Birth 1933 | Age 84

Religion: Jewish

Stephen G. Breyer, MA

Year 1994– | APP: Clinton

California | Birth 1938 | Age 79

Religion: Jewish

John G. Roberts, DC

Year 2005– | APP: Bush 43

New York | Birth 1955 | Age 62

Religion: Roman Catholic

Samuel A. Alito, Jr., NJ

Year 2006– | APP: Bush 43

New Jersey | Birth 1950 | Age 67

Religion: Roman Catholic

Sonia Sotomayor, NY

Year 2009– | APP: Obama

New York | Birth 1954 | Age 63

Religion: Roman Catholic

Elena Kagan, NY

Year 2010– | APP: Obama

New York | Birth 1960 | Age 57

Religion: Jewish

The confirmation delivered a crucial political victory to President Trump to fulfill campaign promises amid infighting in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Trump called Gorsuch the "perfect choice" for the court. "Judge Gorsuch will serve the American people with distinction," the president said.

Gorsuch is a respected conservative on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. He is expected to bring a “textualist” approach to the Supreme Court, relying on an exact reading of legal language. By replacing Scalia, a conservative icon, the ideological tilt of the court is not likely to shift. He will restore a 5-4 majority that Republican appointees have held on the court for years.

The Senate confirmed Gorsuch, 54-45, the narrowest approval of a Supreme Court nominee since the 52-48 confirmation of Clarence Thomas in 1991.

Vice President Mike Pence presided over the vote as Republicans sat in their seats and onlookers, including conservative legal activists, filled the visitor galleries. But the vote, arguably Trump’s most enduring achievement to date, was largely upstaged by the U.S. airstrikes in Syria.

“He’s going to make an incredible addition to the court,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “He’s going to make the American people proud.”

Democrats staged a highly unusual filibuster to block the nominee purely on political lines. Only once, in 1965, had the Senate successfully filibustered a president’s court pick. Republicans responded by changing long-standing Senate rules to allow filibusters of Supreme Court nominees to be broken with 51 votes rather than the previous 60. Now Trump and future presidents will find it easier to choose Supreme Court nominees without needing consent from the minority, opening the door to more ideologically extreme appointments.

Gorsuch pledged in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be apolitical in his approach to the law. "There is no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge," he said. Many senators don’t agree with that assessment. Republicans were united in support of Gorsuch, believing President Trump’s nominee shares their views on the major issues before the court. The Democrats were nearly as united in opposing him, believing that he will make decisions that protect corporations over employees and consumers.

For his part, Gorsuch is no stranger to Washington or its harsh political climate. His mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford, was Ronald Reagan’s first director of the Environmental Protection Agency, but she was forced to step down after being caught up in a dispute over alleged political favoritism involving toxic waste cleanups.

But Gorsuch arrives at the high court with a special advantage. When he takes the “constitutional oath” in a private ceremony he’ll become the first former clerk to serve along with his former boss, Justice Kennedy. Then, he and Kennedy are expected to travel to the White House where he will take a separate “judicial oath.”