Both Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch spent their high school years on the campus of Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda. (Courtesy of Georgetown Prep / Facebook)

President Trump’s two nominees to the Supreme Court have in common more than just their conservative credentials. Justice Neil Gorsuch and Judge Brett Kavanaugh both attended the same elite prep school at the same time.

Brett Kavanaugh graduated from Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland in 1983. He played basketball and football there. Neil Gorsuch, who served as student body president and was active on the debate team, was just two years behind.

Among alumni of elite D.C. area schools, relationships like this aren’t unusual. Your high school buddy might now be on the Supreme Court — or running the Federal Reserve, like Jerome Powell, Georgetown Prep Class of ‘71.

Paul Murray, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s, said that after Gorsuch was appointed, he didn’t think his friend would get a chance to serve on the court.

“When Neil was nominated, I figured Brett’s chances were really low, that he would never get the opportunity. I texted Brett saying, I’m praying for you. Hope it’s your time. And he wrote back, ‘Thanks Murph,’ — that’s my nickname —And he said, ‘Wild times.’ And next thing you know he’s getting the nomination,” Murray said.

Murray used his network to draft a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging them approve Kavanaugh’s nomination. He tracked down 60 out of about 100 classmates, who all signed the letter.

“The network itself starts when you’re in school. It’s a close-knit school. We are tight classes. Friendships lead to business, and so you have a lot of people that have been successful,” Murray said.

James Molloy, who graduated with Neil Gorsuch in the Class of ‘85, signed the letter. He says going to a school like Georgetown Prep isn’t about getting access to people in high places, but getting a good education — the groundwork for success.

“You really build the foundation of life friendships when you attend Georgetown Prep, and those are your friends for life. For some, that meant going to Ivy League schools, going to the courts and obviously ending up as a nominee or in the court itself. Others it’s leaders of industry, successful people in multiple professions,” Molloy said.

Alexandra Tydings, a graduate of Sidwell Friends School, helped write another letter this week. The letter was addressed to L. Francis Cessna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, who is also an alumnus of Sidwell Friends.

“Francis, as Sidwell Friends alumni, faculty and community members, we write to urge you to reconsider the immigration policies you are promoting,” read the letter, which was signed by more than 300 members of the Sidwell community.

Tydings says she’d been wanting to do something in response to the Trump administration’s family separation policy.

“He happens to be the person that I had access to through this network of schools, and he happens to be very close to the president and directly involved in the immigration policy. So he was the closest thing I could get to to try to make my voice heard,” Tydings says.

She admits there’s a kind of privilege that comes with attending schools like Sidwell or Georgetown Prep.

“Being in Washington, we are close to people in power. Sometimes they’re our friends’ parents, and sometimes they’re our former alumni,” Tydings says.

She’s lived in the city most of her life, and is under no illusions that a letter from alumni is, on its own, going to change immigration policy. But Tydings says she feels like it’s her responsibility to use her privilege and access to help those who don’t have those kinds of connections.

Paul Murray, who helped with the letter supporting Brett Kavanaugh also acknowledges his words may not have much effect on what’s sure to be a partisan confirmation battle. Still, he thinks it does say something:

“Most people, if they had 150 of their high school friends when they’re 53 years old stand behind you, I think that says a lot,” Murray says. “You know, we know Brett from over 37 years ago, yet he’s the same guy we knew back then. He’s just at a different level now.”

This story originally appeared on WAMU.