Gorsuch rues loss of civility

Washington

Justice Neil Gorsuch is following the path of Supreme Court colleagues-turned-authors in a new book in which he laments the loss of civility in public discourse.

The 52-year-old justice wrote "A Republic, If You Can Keep It" because Americans should remember that their political opponents "love this country as much as we do," Gorsuch said in an interview with The Associated Press in his Supreme Court office. The book is being published Tuesday.

But Gorsuch had little to say about President Donald Trump, who appointed him to the Supreme Court and who routinely brands his opponents dopes, losers, liars and worse.

"If you're asking me about politics, I'm not going to touch that," Gorsuch said.

All Gorsuch would say about Trump is that during the nomination process in 2017, the president "was very gracious to my family."

Penguin Random House gave Gorsuch a $225,000 advance for the book, a collection of speeches, essays and judicial decisions. Gorsuch also sets forth his view of the proper role of each branch of the federal government — the presidency, Congress and the courts — and defends his originalist approach to interpreting laws and the Constitution according to their meaning when written.

He is the latest justice, following Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer, to write a book while on the court.

Seated in his corner office a little over a month before the Oct. 7 start of the new Supreme Court term, Gorsuch appeared relaxed and upbeat. He showed off a plaque he brought back from his summer teaching sojourn in Padua, Italy, signed by "the boys" of the local police station. He'll travel to California and Texas to speak about his book at the Richard Nixon library and George W. Bush presidential center before the term...