NEW YORK >> As a conservative student at liberal Columbia University in the mid-1980s, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch became one of the right’s most outspoken voices on campus. He co-founded a conservative newspaper, wrote for the main campus daily and ran for the university senate.

His nuanced writings often called for intellectual diversity and open debate, while also being dismissive of protesters.

Gorsuch co-founded the Federalist Paper with two other Columbians in 1986. A former writer and editor for the publication, M. Adel Aslani-Far, recalled Gorsuch “was not an ideologue.”

Another editor for the paper remembered the future Supreme Court nominee as “brilliant, reflective, and fundamentally decent.”

Gorsuch’s court staff in Colorado referred questions about his college years to the White House, which didn’t immediately respond.