I'm Elizabeth Lattery and I'm Tiffany Bates.

And welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government. This week we're talking about a budding SCOTUS friendship. What happens when presidents make bad deals on judicial nominations? And a few cases, the court will hear its next term. So first up, we're going to talk about Scotus Frenomies.

There's an article that came out recently in Slate by Mark Joseph Stern, where he suggests that

justices Elena Kagan and Samuel Alito may be the new Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.

Of course, Scalia and Ginsburg were famous friends, but also frequent sparring partners at the court.

They referred to themselves as best buds.

They shared a love of opera, and their families were very close.

They spent New Year's Eve together many years.

And there's this great photo, a famous photo of the two of them, on a trip to India, where they rode an elephant together.

Ginsburg has also said that Scalia helped improve her work, her work product.

She's famously talked about there was one case where she wrote the majority opinion,

requiring the all-male Virginia Military Institute to admit women.

And she's told the story over and over about how Scalia showed her an advanced copy of his dissent before she finalized her majority opinion.

She said, that ruined her weekend, but in her view it pushed her to strengthen her majority

opinion.

She was very upset that it ruined her weekend.

So are Alito and Kagan, the new Scalia and Ginsburg?

Well, for starters, they have similarities in terms of their questioning style at oral argument. They're very precise, incisive questioners.

I have to say they're also a little terrifying.

And I think they're arguably two of the best writers on the court.

They've traded Barbes in their written opinions, most recently

in the North Carolina redistricting case that was decided not too long ago. Kagan wrote the majority

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