A Republic, If You Can Keep It by {author}: summary and why it matters
Justice Neil Gorsuch's 2019 reflections on the Constitution, the judge's role and civic virtue, with stories from his career.
The book
| Author | Neil Gorsuch with Janie Nitze and Jane Gorsuch Berkman |
|---|---|
| First published | 2019 |
| First publisher | Crown Forum |
| Kind of book | Reflections |
What it argues
The title echoes the remark attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention. Gorsuch, who joined the Supreme Court in 2017, offers a set of essays and speeches on the Constitution's structure, the separation of powers and the role of judges.
He stresses that the judge's task is to apply the law as written, not to make policy, and that the separation of powers protects liberty by dividing lawmaking, enforcing and judging. He writes on his clerkships with Justices White and Kennedy, on his predecessor Antonin Scalia, on civility in public life and on the need for citizens to understand civics.
The book is personal and brief, a mix of memoir and argument, rather than a treatise.
Why it matters
It gives lay readers a sense of how a sitting justice conceives of the job, and its emphasis on civic education and reasonable disagreement is welcome in a polarized time. Readers who want depth should proceed to Scalia.
About the author
Neil Gorsuch (born 1967) grew up in Colorado and studied at Columbia, Harvard Law School and Oxford. He served as a law clerk to Justice Byron White and Justice Anthony Kennedy and on the Tenth Circuit before being nominated to the Supreme Court by President Trump in 2017, to fill the seat vacated by Antonin Scalia. The book was written with two co-authors.
Who should read it
General readers and students who want a friendly introduction to the originalist outlook.
Sources
Profile last reviewed November 8, 2026