I'm Elizabeth Slattery, 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 rumors of a rift on the Supreme Court, digital nominations,

and we'll interview Buckeye Institute's Robert Alt. So the court meets for conference later this week,

so we're going to report back in our next episode on any noteworthy orders. But speaking of

conference, Tiffany, have you heard there are these reports that Neil Gorsuch isn't getting along

with all of his colleagues? I have, and it sounds like phony baloney to me.

Particularly Elena Kagan, apparently. According to NPR's Nina Totenberg, she claims that the two

have been frequently sparring during conference. Now, I have to say at the outset, I take with a grain

of salt anything that I hear that purports to have happened in the conference. The justices are notoriously

secretive about these meetings. Even law clerks aren't allowed in. And, you know, the purpose of

conference, isn't it for them to be debating over issues and, you know, coming to a resolution of how

they're going to write an opinion in a case? So it seems like that's the place where they should

be sparring. Yeah, I think that's the whole point of a secret conference is so that they can yell at each

other and hash these things out privately. And I really doubt that any of the justices would

be talking about this publicly if that was actually what was happening. Very true. So Nina Totenberg

also had some not so nice things to say about Justice Gorsuch on the podcast first Mondays. So she says that during oral argument, he frequently says things like, let's look at the Constitution what it has to say about this. That's always a good place to start. Now, we already know he's folksy. This was, you know, his schick during the confirmation hearing. And I personally think it's kind of endearing. And yeah, I think we should start with the Constitution. That is a great place to start. So I'm wholeheartedly with Gorsuch on that. She also said that he doesn't add much to the conversation with all the questions that he's asking. But I think the whole point of oral argument is for the justices to wrestle with the legal issues before them.

So if they have questions, I hope they would ask them.

She also said maybe he's not as smart as we all thought he was. But anyone who's read any of his opinions or his speeches can see why that is patently false.

I think this is the real kicker of like how much of a stretch all this is. Like Neil Gorsuch

isn't really that smart. It's like, okay. Yeah. After reading his opinions and, you know,

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