Washington (CNN) When Neil Gorsuch joined the Supreme Court in 2017, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had something in store for him.

About a quarter-century earlier, a young Gorsuch was a clerk splitting his time between Justice Byron White, who had hired him but retired, and Justice Anthony Kennedy.

White tasked Gorsuch with organizing the so-called clerk manual, a set of notes meant to guide law clerks as to their responsibilities. White wanted to pass on the binder to his successor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in case she might find it helpful as she organized her chambers.

"Well, fast forward about 25 years or whatever it was," Gorsuch told CNN in an interview, "in my first week on the court, what do I receive?"

"A note in my inbox along with a big binder saying, 'You may recognize some of this. I hope I've improved it a little bit since you've last seen it,'" Ginsburg wrote, according to Gorsuch.

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