After the death of Antonin Scalia toward the end of President Barack Obama’s final term as president, Republicans in Congress told Obama that they would not confirm anyone he nominated to replace Scalia. Despite Obama nominating very moderate candidates, Congress refused to confirm a nomination until there was a new president in the White House.

Now, under the Trump administration, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed on April 7. And since so much public policy is affected by Supreme Court decisions, it is important to know who this new justice is and what it could mean for the United States.

Gorsuch attended Harvard Law and Columbia and has a Ph.D. from Oxford University. He was a judge in the 10th Circuit Court in Denver, Colo. He clerked for two Supreme Court judges, Anthony Kennedy and Byron Whitej and has served as a judge in the second-most important court in the country.

SCOTUSblog, the leading Supreme Court blog, describes the parallels between Scalia and Gorsuch as “eerie.”

According to Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitutional Center, “Like Justice Scalia, he sometimes reaches results that favor liberals when he thinks the history or text of the Constitution or the law require it, especially in areas like criminal law or the rights of religious minorities, but unlike Scalia he’s less willing to defer to regulations and might be more willing to second-guess Trump’s regulatory decisions.”

As far as sharing his own personal political views, Gorsuch has said, “I’m not going to say anything here that would give anybody any idea how I’d rule in any case like that that could come before the Supreme Court.” But based on his past rulings and hints given in interviews, we can inquire into how Gorsuch will handle some of the nation’s hot-button issues.

Gorsuch believes that criminal laws should be clear and should always favor the defendant, like Scalia did. He also relies on the text of the Constitution to make his decisions, like Scalia did.

He is a strong supporter of religious rights, like Scalia was, meaning that he believes things like public schools can choose to incorporate prayer into instruction. He also supports Hobby Lobby’s objection to the federal law that makes companies give female employees insurance that provides birth control.

As far as women’s rights are concerned, according to Slate.com, “Anti-abortion advocates believe Trump and his pick will lead their fight to overturn Roe v. Wade, a strong, if imperfect, safeguard of abortion rights.” And if this happens, studies show that at least 22 of the 50 states would be likely to roll back abortion rights immediately if Roe v. Wade were overturned.

Gorsuch does believe that the law that made same-sex marriage legal is settled law. According to “The Atlantic,” “He did respond, however, that Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down same-sex marriage bans nationwide in 2015, was ‘absolutely settled law.’ ” This could mean that he does not plan to do anything to overturn the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that made bans on same sex marriage unconstitutional.

Though the similarities to his predecessor are very strong, no one can predict how Neil Gorsuch will handle the cases that come to the Supreme Court and how our country will change with this addition to the Roberts Court.