Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recalled that Justice Samuel Alito said Thomas had seemed “scary” when the two overlapped at Yale Law School, explaining why they had not become friends. The anecdote emerged during a rare interview with Senator Ted Cruz and offered a light-hearted glimpse into the justices’ earlier lives.

Thomas said Alito was a year behind him at Yale and described asking why they had not known each other despite spending two years at the university together. He said he wore bib overalls and combat boots while studying there, and joked that he was relieved mobile phones had not existed to take many photographs; Cruz also noted Thomas’s shift from left-wing politics in college to conservatism.