Since Gorsuch is one of the only interesting thinkers on the Court right now, it's always jarring to get samples of what an atrocious writer he is.
I find him to be one of the better writers on the Court. Kennedy was the worst of the ones who were on the Court since I've followed it closely. Whose writing do you like?
Gorsuch certainly thinks of himself as a great writer, and consciously aspires to be one. This is why he is a bad writer. People tend to overlook this tendency when he's writing something they agree with (see BRTD referencing
Bostock, and I'll make excuses for his writing in
McGirt), but it's a thread through most of his opinions. What reads as appropriately bombastic in one context ("At the end of the Trail of Tears there was a promise.") comes off looking pompous and overwrought when he's writing about something like the permissible restrictions on the removal of inferior federal officers. If he'd just, you know, tone it all down a notch or two, he'd be excellent.
The best writer on the Court is Kagan, followed by Roberts.
