Billionaire Philip Anschutz has made a lot of smart investments over the course of his career, having leveraged his father’s oil and gas business into a sprawling business empire that’s come to include not just fossil fuel extraction but sports teams, a Christian-themed production company, railroads, Coachella and large parts of Los Angeles. Among his best investments, though, might be those he’s made in Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Gorsuch has well-documented ties to Anschutz and his private holding company, the Anschutz Corporation. For 10 years, starting in 1995, Gorsuch worked at a firm representing Anschultz’s business interests. The 84-year old magnate personally campaigned for Gorsuch to be appointed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals during the George W. Bush administration. Since then, the justice has been, per The New York Times, a “semi-regular” speaker at Anschutz’s Davos-meets-Yellowstone-style ranch near Greeley, Colorado, called Eagle’s Nest, on subjects such as the rule of law. Gorsuch co-owned a property in the Centennial State with Anschutz’s chief council and an Anschutz executive, and sold it off just after his appointment to the Supreme Court.