--- title: Neil Gorsuch: Harvard Law Classmates Sign Letter in Support description: Norm Eisen has been one of President Trump's biggest critics on ethics issues, but he backs his Supreme Court pick. canonical: https://time.com/4697246/neil-gorsuch-norm-eisen-letter/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-09T19:39:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:46:24.234Z article:section: Politics og:title: One of Trump's Biggest Critics Likes His Supreme Court Pick og:description: He's suing Trump, but he signed a letter in support of Gorsuch. og:url: https://time.com/4697246/neil-gorsuch-norm-eisen-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd347d8a32423dd78/6988b978656a3faabcbceb6d/gorsuch1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Judge Neil Gorsuch meets with Lawmakers on the Hill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: One of Trump's Biggest Critics Likes His Supreme Court Pick twitter:description: He's suing Trump, but he signed a letter in support of Gorsuch. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd347d8a32423dd78/6988b978656a3faabcbceb6d/gorsuch1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # One of President Trump's Biggest Critics Likes His Supreme Court Pick > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Mar 9, 2017 7:39 PM UTC  Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, meets with lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Feb. 1, 2017. Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, meets with lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Feb. 1, 2017. Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Mar 9, 2017 7:39 PM UTC Norm Eisen has been one of President Trump’s biggest critics on ethics issues, even going so far as to [join a lawsuit](http://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/) against him over his business dealings. But there’s one area where he backs Trump: [His Supreme Court pick](http://time.com/4653790/donald-trump-neil-gorsuch-supreme-court/). Eisen is one of 57 Harvard Law School Class of 1991 classmates of federal Judge Neil Gorsuch from across the political spectrum to [sign a letter](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/03/09/why%5Fwe%5Fsupport%5Fneil%5Fgorsuch%5Ffor%5Fthe%5Fsupreme%5Fcourt%5F133291.html) supporting his nomination for the Supreme Court. “Some of us supported Hillary Clinton, others voted for Donald Trump, while some of us supported thirdparty or write-in candidates,” the letter states. “What unites us is that we attended law school with Judge Neil Gorsuch—a man we’ve known for more than a quarter century—and we unanimously believe Neil possesses the exemplary character, outstanding intellect, steady temperament, humility and open-mindedness to be an excellent addition to the United States Supreme Court.” More than 150 classmates of Gorsuch’s at Columbia University, including both Democrats and Republicans, [signed a similar letter](http://time.com/4694153/neil-gorsuch-columbia-classmates-supreme-court/) of support earlier this month. Other signatories on the letter include former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. One notable member of the Class of 1991 who’s not on the list: [Former President Obama](https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/02/the-divergent-classmates/515541/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4697246/neil-gorsuch-norm-eisen-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4697246/neil-gorsuch-norm-eisen-letter/"},"headline":"One of President Trump's Biggest Critics Likes His Supreme Court Pick","datePublished":"2017-03-09T19:39:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:46:24.234Z","description":"Norm Eisen has been one of President Trump's biggest critics on ethics issues, but he backs his Supreme Court pick.","url":"https://time.com/4697246/neil-gorsuch-norm-eisen-letter/","keywords":["Neil Gorsuch","Supreme Court","Barack Obama","White House","Harvard","Columbia University"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd347d8a32423dd78/6988b978656a3faabcbceb6d/gorsuch1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd347d8a32423dd78/6988b978656a3faabcbceb6d/gorsuch1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Judge Neil Gorsuch meets with Lawmakers on the Hill","caption":"Judge Neil Gorsuch meets with Lawmakers on the Hill","creditText":"Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/neil-gorsuch/","name":"Neil Gorsuch"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4697246/neil-gorsuch-norm-eisen-letter/","name":"One of President Trump's Biggest Critics Likes His Supreme Court Pick"}}]}] ```