Anne Gorsuch, the justice’s mother, had a rocky ride as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
The Denver corporate lawyer’s nearly two years at the EPA were marked by high-level resignations, a shoot-from-the-hip style and accusations the nation’s top environmental official was a willing patsy for polluters.
"Nobody can be that wrong, all that much, all the time," Anne Gorsuch told a 1983 Senate hearing as senators from both parties attacked her leadership. "Personally, I have to finally judge that a great deal of it is political harassment…The thing that makes me very upset is that this type of harassment will probably impede our progress in our goal of cleaning up America."