President Trump, less than two weeks into his presidency, nominated Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the Tenth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado. The media is reporting that the nominee is an Episcopalian and he attends St. John's Episcopal Church in neighboring Boulder.

There are four Episcopal churches in Boulder. St. John's in downtown Boulder; St. Mary Magdalene in Boulder Valley region; St. Ambrose in south Boulder; and St. Aidan which is attached to the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Kelleigh Nelson of the Freedom Phoenix reports that Judge Gorsuch "... attends the Episcopal church in CO where the senior pastor (a female) attended the Women's March. It is a pro-abortion church, and he is often an usher." It is Andy Schlafly at Eagle Forum who says that the Supreme Court justice nominee goes to a Boulder church.

Both St. John's, a large inclusive church, and St. Aidan, the diverse UC-Boulder Canterbury Campus Ministry, have women rectors.

St. John's May newsletter shows that Gorsuch's two daughters are acolytes at the large downtown parish which supports three paid clergy and 10 non stipendiary priests and deacons. The rector is Susan W. Springer, who has been there since 2012 coming from St. John's Episcopal Church in Logan, Utah.

As an Episcopalian Judge Gorsuch credits his strong Evangelical faith with "getting him through difficult times."

Because Judge Gorsuch does not have a track record on pro-life issues Schlafly, who is an attorney and the president of the Legal Center for Defense of Life, questions if Gorsuch would be a prolife justice because "Gorsuch's Episcopal church has declared its 'unequivocal opposition' to pro-life laws and he has nothing to day about pro-life ..."

The attorney taps into The Episcopal Church's 1976 Resolution D095 which is the Reaffirming of the 1967 General Convention Statement on Abortion which states in Point 6: "That the Episcopal Church express its unequivocal opposition to any legislation on the part of the national or state governments which would abridge or deny the right of individuals to reach informed decisions in this matter [abortion rights] and to act upon them."

The 1967 General Convention in Seattle declared its support for the "termination of pregnancy ..." and reasoned that "Termination of pregnancy ... is permissible."

The Episcopal Church's principles and guidelines on abortion "reflect the mind of the Church ..."

There is growing concern that should Gorsuch become a Supreme Court Justice he would not be a conservative enough judge in his decisions in part because of The Episcopal Church's 50 years strong stance on abortion and the Colorado judge is a practicing Episcopalian.

NewsWithView.com, a Christian news website "dedicated to revealing lies, innuendo and agendas - wherever they may be" has already started a launched campaign protesting Gorsuch's Supreme Court nomination fearing he is not prolife and thus would not in total keeping President Trump's stated prolife stance.

Where Schlafly and Nelson see Judge Gorsuch as flawed because of his Episcopal roots House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi (D-California), an pro-abortion liberal Catholic, has come out swinging calling Judge Gorsuch "a very hostile appointment" because he is "hostile to women's reproductive rights." In addition the Senate Democrats have already threatened to filibuster to keep the top heavy Republican Senate from confirming the Colorado jurist.

Judge Gorsuch has a history of strong conservative rulings. He ruled in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby in their battle against Obamacare's contraceptive mandate and he also sided with Utah's Republican Governor Gary Herbert to defund Planned Parenthood in the Beehive State.

In 2005 in National Review article decrying judicial activism Judge Gorsuch wrote: "American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom, relying on judges and lawyers rather than elected leaders and the ballot box as the primary means of effecting their social agenda on everything from gay marriage to assisted suicide."

The Denver jurist is also against assisted suicide. He wrote on the matter in his 2006 book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. In it he says: "All human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong."

Gorsuch's Senate confirmation hearing could become a slugfest with the Democrats. Last year when President Barrack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland, the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to fill Scalia's vacated seat, the Republican-controlled Senate allowed Judge Garland's nomination to languish for 293 days without confirmation until the 2016 presidential election took place and a new president was inaugurated in January 20.The new president is Donald Trump, currently a Republican.

Last March in a letter to the Democratic and Republican leadership of the Senate a group of 356 law professors and other legal scholars said the Senate was seen as failing "to fulfill [its] constitution duty to give President Obama's Supreme Court nominee a prompt and fair hearing and a timely vote."

In early 2011 Trump revealed in an interview with Laura Ingraham from FOX News he declared he was prolife, a 180-degree turnabout in his previous pro-choice thinking. He again reiterated in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, "I'm pro-life, but I changed my view a number of years ago." His change of heart came through suffering with friends who contemplated abortion then decided to bring their pregnancy to term and a healthy baby was born. That experience profoundly changed the future president. Since then he has been determined to nominate prolife justices to the Supreme Court should he ever be elected President of the United States.

"When Justice Scalia passed away suddenly last February, I made a promise to the American people," Trump is quoted as saying in YAHOO! News. "If I were elected president, I would find the very best judge in the country for the Supreme Court."

As the Republican candidate for president Trump started contemplating who he might pick for the Supreme Court while still on the campaign trail. At one point he had a list 21 names long.

Currently the Supreme Court has four justices who were nominated by Republican presidents: Anthony Kennedy (Ronald Reagan); John Roberts and Clarence Thomas; (George H.W. Bush); and Samuel Alito (George W. Bush); and four justices nominated by Democrats: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer (Bill Clinton); and Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen (Barack Obama).

In addition to nominating Judge Gorsuch, President Trump could also be filling three other Supreme Court seats since several justices are either in their 80s or will turn 80 during his Administration. Breyer is 78; Kennedy is 80; and Ginsberg is 83. Scalia was just as month away from his 80th birthday when he died unexpectedly last February. Supreme Court justices hold their seat for life. However many retire before death due to advanced age, increasing disability, or a desire for a private life with family.

The three living retired Supreme Court justices are: Sandra Day O'Connor currently 86, she was 51 when nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1981. She retired at 75 in 2006; David Souter, currently 77, he was 51 when nominated by George W. Bush in1990. He retired at 69 in 2009; and John Paul Stevens, currently 96, he was 55 when nominated by Gerald Ford in1975. He retired at 89 in 2010.

Should President Trump continue to nominate traditional values justices the Supreme Court could have a conservative flavor for at least a quarter century.

Currently there are five Roman Catholics on the court Chief Justice Roberts and associate justices Kennedy, Sotomayer, Slito and Thomas. The remaining justices -- Ginsburg, Kagen and Breyer -- are Jewish. The conservatives on the High Court are: Kennedy, Thomas, Slito, and Roberts. Before his death Scalia was also considered a conservative. The liberals on the court are the women and the Jews. Justices Ginsburg and Kagen are Jewish women while Sotomayer is a non conservative Latina Catholic.

Judge Gorsuch hails from Colorado. His mother Anne Gorsuch Burford was President Reagan's EPS administrator in the early 1980s. Young Neil Gorsuch was educated at Georgetown Preparatory School, an elite all male Jesuit school during his mother's stint at the EPA. From there he went to Columbia University for his BA and then on the Harvard Law School for his degree in law. He was in the same graduating Class of 1991 with Barack Obama. Eventually Gorsuch picked up a Doctorate of Legal Philosophy from Oxford in England. He also clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy before going into a private corporate law practice for 10 years after which he joined the U.S. Department of Justice before moving to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

NPR reports that "Gorsuch is considered a cerebral proponent of 'originalism,' the idea that the Constitution should be interpreted as the Founding Fathers would have more than 200 years ago, and of 'textualism,' the idea that statutes should be interpreted literally, without considering the legislative history and underlying purpose of the law."

The new Supreme Court nominee is known to admire the late Justice Scalia and tries to emulate him. Scalia was considered "the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Court's conservative wing."

There have been more practicing Episcopalians on the High Court than any other denomination. The Presbyterians are a distance second with 19 justices.

Research shows that through the years there have been112 Supreme Court justices of which 33 have been Episcopalians with seven of their number becoming Chief Justice including: John Jay (1789-1795); John Rutledge (1789-1791 & 1795); John Marshall (1801-1835); Salmon Chase (1864-1873); Morrison Waite (1874-1888); Melville Fuller, III (1888-1910); and Harlen Stone (1925-1946).

Episcopal associate justices have included: James Wilson (1789-1798); James Iredell (1790-1799); Thomas Johnson (1792-1793); Samuel Chase (1769-1811); Bushrod Washington (1799-1829); Alfred Moore (1800-1804); Henry Baldwin (1830-1844); Philip Barbour (1836-1841); Peter Daniel (1841-1860); John Campbell (1865-1861); Stephen Field (1863-1897); Ward Hunt (1872-1882); and Rufus Peckham (1985-1909).

Also: William Moody (1906-1910); Horton Lurton (1909-1914); Willis Van Davanter (1910-1937); George Sutherland (1922-1938); Edward Sanford (1923-1920); Owen Roberts (1930-1945); James Byrnes (1941-1942); Robert Jackson (1941-1954); Potter Stewart (1958-1981); Byron White (1962-1993); Thurgood Marshall (1967-1991); Sandra Day O'Connor (1981-2006) and David Souter (1990-2009).

Early Supreme Court justices, such as John Jay, John Rutledge, James Ireland and Samuel Chase were born before the Revolutionary War and as Colonial Anglicans were members of the Church of England. However they became Episcopalians after The Episcopal Church was established following the War of Independence.

Two early justices John Blair (1790-1796) and Benjamin Curtis (1851-1857) became Episcopalians after leaving the Supreme Court. Blair was Presbyterian and Curtis was Unitarian. Justice Byres (1941-1942) was a Roman Catholic who became an Episcopalian before ascending to the Supreme Court. He left the Court early to establish the Office of Economic Stabilization during World War II. Also one current Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, left The Episcopal Church to become Roman Catholic before he joined the High Court.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline