Judge Neil Gorsuch speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017, after President Donald Trump announced Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A number of Kansas public officials and advocacy groups weighed in Wednesday on President Donald Trump’s nomination of 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. And as one might expect, their reactions fell along partisan and ideological lines.

“Judge Gorsuch is a mainstream, respected judge who has served on the bench next door in Colorado for a decade,” said Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, who will vote on Gorsuch’s confirmation. “It is important for Kansans to know that he is a strict Constitutionalist and will not legislate from the bench. We have seen too many critical rulings of late that have ignored the separation of powers and have turned our courts into a super-legislature. Judge Gorsuch will not contribute to this disturbing trend.”

Kansas Democrats, on the other hand, were not so complimentary.

“The Kansas Democratic Party hopes to see the same consideration for Mr. Gorsuch as the Republicans in the Senate have given to President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, the Honorable Merrick Garland,” said Kerry Gooch, executive director of the state Democratic Party. “Those Republicans entirely ignored the nomination, openly refusing to give Mr. Garland even a hearing, let alone a vote. It would be hypocrisy on the side of the Senate Republicans to demand Senate Democrats vote for confirmation in a quick and quiet manner.”

Gorsuch, a native of Colorado who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991, was named to the 10th Circuit appellate bench by President George W. Bush in 2006.

One significant case from Kansas in which he participated was a school finance case, Patrella v. Brownback, in which a group of parents in the Shawnee Mission school district sued in federal court, claiming the state’s cap on the authority of school districts to levy local option budgets violated a number of rights under the U.S. Constitution.

In one of the appeals involved in that case, a three-judge panel that included Gorsuch ruled in 2012 that the parents did have standing to sue. But the case was later dismissed on its merits by another three-judge panel in 2015.

Gov. Sam Brownback, who was the named defendant in that case, issued a statement praising Gorsuch.

“President Trump made good on his most important campaign promise, to fill Justice (Antonin) Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court with someone with impeccable credentials who will defend the Constitution with vigor and integrity,” Brownback said. “Judge Gorsuch is an excellent jurist, more than qualified, and has demonstrated great respect for the rule of law.”

Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who has challenged a number of federal regulations issued during Democrat Barack Obama’s administration in cases that have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court, also said he has high hopes for Gorsuch.

“We know him as a solid, capable jurist,” Schmidt said. “It will be good for Kansas and the Midwest to have a voice from the central part of the country on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Jerry Moran had not issued a public statement. But he posted comments on Twitter calling Gorsuch, “an impressive & well-qualified #SCOTUS nominee who has already received bipartisan support in the Senate.”

Republican 2nd District Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, whose district includes Lawrence, also took to Twitter to comment on Gorsuch, calling him “an ardent defender of the U.S. Constitution and a great legal mind.”

Gorsuch also received praise from the Kansas Republican Party and the conservative Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, a lobby group that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage and supports “religious freedom” legislation that allows private businesses and government officials to deny service to certain individuals based on religious faith.