The Atlantic

The Divergent Classmates

Neil Gorsuch and Barack Obama both graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991, but their legal ideologies are fundamentally different.
Source: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

In a 2011 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, President Donald Trump said that President Barack Obama “came out of nowhere. .. the people that went to school with him, they never saw him, they don’t know who he is.” Neil Gorsuch may be able to clear up the confusion.

Gorsuch, who Trump tapped on Tuesday to fill the Supreme Court seat left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991—the same year as Obama. But they don’t share many similarities aside from the calligraphy on their diplomas. Despite a shared alma mater, Gorsuch is lauded by many conservatives for his originalist interpretation of the Constitution, whereas Obama’s more liberal approach fits within an evolutionist framework. Of course, it would be odd and problematic if everyone were to, judicial system.

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