Justice Neil Gorsuch was welcomed to the Supreme Court in 2017 with a gift from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that dated back to his own years as a law clerk, Gorsuch revealed in a new book out on Tuesday.
The gift from Ginsburg, who has served on the high court for more than 25 years, was a law clerk manual passed on to her from Justice Byron White when he retired in 1993, Gorsuch wrote in his new book from Crown Forum, A Republic, If You Can Keep it.
“When I was serving as Justice White’s law clerk, he retired and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to serve as his successor,” Gorsuch wrote. “I remember the day my old boss passed along to his new colleague his law clerk manual, just in case she’d find it helpful in setting up her office.”
“Shortly after my confirmation, Justice Ginsburg returned that same document to me, along with many helpful updates she had added over the years,” he said. “That was quite a moment for me.”
Gorsuch told CNN in an interview he received the binder, made up of notes for law clerks, during his first week on the court, as well as a note from Ginsburg saying, “You may recognize some of this. I hope I’ve improved it a little bit since you’ve last seen it.”
President Trump tapped Gorsuch to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the high court following Scalia’s death in 2016.
Gorsuch, the youngest member of the Supreme Court, cites the anecdote as an example of how little the high court changed between his days as a law clerk for White and Justice Anthony Kennedy more than two decades earlier and his time as a justice.
He also recalls in the book the different rituals the justices participate in to inspire collegiality among them, despite their sharp disagreements and battling opinions on a variety of issues before the court.
The justices, for example, regularly eat lunch together and all exchange handshakes before convening for oral arguments, and they host the children of court employees in their chambers for trick-or-treating.
“Simple traditions like these help renew our mutual respect and affection even, and especially, when we are unable to agree on the work at hand,” Gorsuch wrote. “They help ensure, too, that as a court we never lose sight of our shared history.”
While Gorsuch and Ginsburg often find themselves on opposing sides in cases and have different judicial philosophies, the 52-year-old justice told CNN he and his colleagues on the Supreme Court “all adore Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”
Ginsburg recently completed treatment for a malignant tumor discovered on her pancreas, marking her fourth bout with cancer. But the 86-year-old justice, the anchor of the Supreme Court’s liberal bloc, has maintained an active schedule after completing radiation treatment.
Gorsuch told CNN he wishes her “nothing but the best” and is looking forward to seeing Ginsburg on the bench when the justices convene for their next term beginning Oct. 7.
Like Gorsuch, Justice Sonia Sotomayor also revealed in an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers last week she, too, received a gift from Ginsburg when she first joined the Supreme Court in 2009: a copy of Ginsburg’s bench manual, which provides information about how the justice runs her chambers.
Sotomayor also said she received a note from Ginsburg after issuing her first opinion “telling me what a fine opinion it was.”
“Every step of the way for me that I’ve been in the court, Justice Ginsburg has been there to welcome me,” Sotomayor said.
