Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a stalwart conservative with deep Washington roots who has questioned the power of federal agencies and ruled in support of broader gun rights, was nominated Monday to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In picking the 53-year-old Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump opted for a hard-to-defeat nominee whose Ivy League credentials are similar to those of Neil Gorsuch, the president’s first Supreme Court nominee. Both are white males who attended Georgetown Preparatory School and clerked for Kennedy in 1993 and 1994. Kavanaugh got his law degree from Yale, while Gorsuch got his from Harvard.