In the spirit of the holidays, Leah, Kate & Melissa force themselves to say something nice about each Supreme Court Justice. Yes, all of them. Then they take a break from the tomfoolery at One First Street to share their favorite things. Whether you’re doing some very last-minute holiday shopping, looking to indulge yourself, or craving a good book or podcast, there are ideas for everyone.

Programming note: we’re taking a break next week, but will be back on January 6, 2025 with a very special–and timely–episode on the presidency.

TRANSCRIPT

Show Intro Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the Court. It’s an old joke but when an argued man argues against two beautiful ladies like this. They’re going to have the last word. She spoke, not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity. She said, I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.

 

Melissa Murray Hello and welcome back to Strict Scrutiny, your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it where your hosts. I’m Melissa Murray.

 

Leah Litman I’m Leah Litman.

 

Kate Shaw And I’m Kate Shaw. Every year for the last few years, we have done a Favorite Things episode, and we wanted to keep up that tradition. So, per usual, we’re going to offer some gift-giving ideas, kind of guides of our own you can use if they’re helpful. But we’re also adding and we’ve added a bit over the years and we’re going to continue to add today some hopefully fun new traditions that if they work, will add some levity, some warmth, maybe some joy to what has been a trying few months. So we hope you enjoy the episode.

 

Leah Litman So first up, we are going to start a new tradition and it’s going to be a go around game. And we are going to say our favorite things about each justice. So should we go in order of seniority? Sure. Okay. Let’s start with the chiefy chief.

 

Kate Shaw I love that he showed his true colors last year.

 

Melissa Murray That’s a good one, Kate. But he’s really not an institutionalist.

 

Kate Shaw I think it’s hard for anyone with a straight face to claim that now. And I appreciate that the wall has fallen away from the eyes of all. And by not only joining, but actually writing the insanity that it was Trump versus United States and also Oprah Bright. I think you showed us who he is, and I think that’s actually useful information.

 

Leah Litman I like that. I was going to say, I appreciate that he doesn’t do weird shit to cover up his male pattern baldness. Respect. I also like this is kind of related to yours, Kate. If I’m going to be forced to say something not about appearances and looks like he is the savviest politician in the entire world because it was looking like he was losing control of the court and he regained it and showed us that with a vengeance. And I just think people might have something to learn about the insane political instincts and long games and machinations of John Roberts.

 

Melissa Murray So, yeah, he was like the Tom Hanks character in that pirate movie when Sam Alito was like, I’m the captain now. He’s like, No, bitch, you’re not, actually. And yeah, I was actually going to also say a hair thing, but I don’t. I wasn’t thinking about his male pattern baldness. I, I really like that he is committed to the George Clooney circa 1995. Male Forward Caesar. And I like that for him.

 

Kate Shaw And I’m sorry. You don’t have to explain what that.

 

Melissa Murray He really is, that a haircut is like a haircut. It’s like it’s a very sort of forward haircut. Yeah. Yeah. And so it’s fine. I’m trying to say nice things.

 

Leah Litman Yeah.

 

Kate Shaw This is. This is. I feel like this is not the same without Trayvon. But we will press on. I mean, I don’t know if going to go hair on.

 

Melissa Murray All of that. No, no, no.

 

Leah Litman No. Okay. Next up would be Justice Thomas, Who wants to go first on this one?

 

Kate Shaw I think I won. Okay. I don’t know if you guys feel this, but I have sensed this slight vibe shift, which is, I think six months ago, we were pretty sure that if Trump won, he would be out the door quickly to make space for somebody much, much younger. And I think his ego is getting in the way and he’s not going anywhere, at least right away. And that could save us from someone. 40 years younger than him, which I appreciate. So that’s what I’ll say about.

 

Melissa Murray Herbert’s ego in as much as what would the utility of like giving him private jet travel and fancy vacations be if he weren’t on the court? So I like that he is just so unabashed about it. Like the man had a whole separate income stream that basically duplicated his actual salary.

 

Leah Litman Well, so what I was going to say is he seems to be good at asking for things without asking for them. Right. Like the conversation that ProPublica reported between him and the Republican legislator, where he was like, you know, unless you raise those salaries, you’re going to get some retirements, after which, you know, the billionaires stepped up to basically offer said alternative funding stream. You know, the guy knows how to drop a hint.

 

Melissa Murray Passive aggressive. I like it.

 

Leah Litman Yeah. Okay. Next up would be friend of the pod, Samuel Alito. What can I say about Sam? So my highlight for him would be, or my favorite thing would be every hero needs a villain, and I feel like he is very good at being r. So thank you, Sam.

 

Kate Shaw He gave Leah a whole book, and I will always appreciate that.

 

Melissa Murray I’m just I’m going to go be shallow. Like, I do think it’s amazing that he’s managed to be post 70 and his skin looks relatively supple. It has fallen off in the last couple of years. I’m not going to lie. He was a lot better when we started the pod. But still pretty strong. And I also like how supportive he is of his wife.

 

Leah Litman Yeah. And her rights. And her flags. Next. Justice Sotomayor. So I think it is truly admirable, the pains she goes to to continue doing her job, like with such care and attention to details and to every litigant, even while her colleagues are just embroiled and descending into madness. You know, I think about Kate, you mentioned your colleague Karen Tani is forward to Harvard Law Review about how the court curates its own docket. Right. And like the cases that it chooses to give attention to and the litigants it chooses to give attention to. And I think Justice Sotomayor really models someone who gives attention to every case and every litigant in a way that is really admirable.

 

Speaker 2 I.

 

Kate Shaw Have recently had occasion to reread the immunity decision, and that dissent remains one for the ages. And I just really appreciate that you gave us that in this unbelievably shitty term the court had last year that it produced that us.

 

Melissa Murray And so I obviously like a lot of things about Justice Sotomayor, but I think. Related to the court, my favorite thing about her is she is always willing to try and find the kernel of good in her colleagues, even where most of us might really question if it exists. Like she I mean, she’s on.

 

Leah Litman This we’ve been going around saying our favorite things about all.

 

Melissa Murray Know But I mean, she really digs deep. I mean she’s on this like girls trip with Amy Coney Barrett. I mean, she really she she really tries to make it congenial. And even when I don’t even know how she does it, so good for her.

 

Kate Shaw Justice Kagan.

 

Melissa Murray Justice Kagan. I like how cheeky she is.

 

Leah Litman Yeah. So that would definitely be one thing. I, I feel like I have repeatedly expressed this, but the utter frustration she evinces sometimes the cheekiness, sometimes with like barely concealed rage. But the frustration like she clearly has at the stupidity and happiness of her colleagues and some lower court judges is so eminently relatable. I love it. And I also think the way she writes makes not makes me, but like helps me want to stay in the fight and to keep fighting. Right. And it feels like a shout of like we right at dawn that is just like energizing.

 

Kate Shaw And I feel that way about both her writing and her persona at. And substantive questions during oral arguments like it is profoundly energizing to listen to her eviscerate and also listen to her lift up advocates who deserve both of those kinds of treatment, like listening to her, as we’ve highlighted with Solicitor General pre Lugar essentially just serve pre logger these pitches that Pilger uses to make these extraordinary arguments and also the kind of like unsparing contempt that she demonstrates toward some of the advocates who appear before her and deserve it. Always polite and always graceful. But I do find like a real jolt of energy often comes from listening to her at oral argument.

 

Melissa Murray Yeah, I think again, I think she’s super cheeky. I also appreciate that she goes on this like summer tour where she goes to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and basically is just like, Why can’t we have an ethics code?

 

Leah Litman Yeah. Exactly. Right.

 

Melissa Murray Like what what’s the problem? I mean, she’s just basically trolling and everyone’s like, Yeah, why can’t we have it? Think so? I just like, I don’t know. I think it’d be great. I’d be down.

 

Leah Litman Right.

 

Melissa Murray I love that. Yeah, she’s great. All right. Next up Neil Gorsuch.

 

Leah Litman Neil M Gorsuch?

 

Melissa Murray I like that he brings geographic diversity to the court.

 

Leah Litman So I like that his self-satisfaction makes him easy to criticize or okay to criticize without seeming like I am going too far or like we are going too far just because like, he’s just so.

 

Melissa Murray He makes snarky feel.

 

Leah Litman Right. Exactly. He justifies snarking, basically.

 

Kate Shaw I like that he wrote a book that someone not us because we don’t have time, but someone is going to write an extraordinarily satisfying takedown book review of Please, I’m putting this out to the universe because his book has, I think, some profoundly dubious characterization of some basic factual dimensions of some of the cases he talks about. And we just recently finished our hate read a book review of Josh Hawley’s Manhood The Masculine Virtues America Needs. And I don’t think we have it in us to do the same to Gorsuch as book. But I really would like someone to, and I appreciate that Neil wrote a book that will make that easy for the right reviewer.

 

Leah Litman Next up, Justice Kavanaugh. You can keep the silence, then we’re okay.

 

Kate Shaw Weirdly, I am going to say something you guys will probably jump down my throat for. But I during oral arguments, he seems like he’s trying to be liked so hard that I sometimes almost want to like him.

 

Leah Litman Oh God.

 

Kate Shaw It almost works. Or it’s not quite that I want to like him, but I feel like his kind of keening need to please could be useful under some circumstances. In substantive cases. Like he just wants to be like so much. It feels like that. That, you know, down the road that could be helpful, could get him onto the right side.

 

Leah Litman But that has never actually proved helpful. .

 

Kate Shaw Not yet. It hasn’t yet. But it just feels like it’s out there as a real possibility.

 

Melissa Murray Mmmhmm. False hope.

 

Leah Litman So I, I don’t know if I’ve said this before or suggested it before, but I look at Brett Kavanaugh as in some ways like an inspiring story about how much you can achieve without having any real talent or smarts. So, you know, if I look around at the world, you know, the Tiktoker Addison Rae is now a Grammy nominee. Right. Like that is inspiring. And in some ways so too is the fact that Brett Kavanaugh managed to be a Supreme Court justice despite his mediocrity.

 

Melissa Murray I think it’s great that he’s a pretty good athlete for his age.

 

Kate Shaw He did run that five court.

 

Melissa Murray That’s why I’m thinking. I think he was really nice. Yeah, he’s a good athlete. I mean, we’re all getting up there and not all of us not looking at you, Kate, but I am looking at you. Like we’re not all posting like Subfour marathons. Is that a thing?

 

Kate Shaw Well, he we’re talking five case. He’s running back. He’s I don’t think he’s running marathons. He’s no minute mile guy.

 

Melissa Murray He’s killing the genre. Good for him.

 

Kate Shaw Got it. Got him at that. No, that’s.

 

Melissa Murray Good. I guess I’m just being snarky because, like, I’m not running marathons, and I’m glad you are. And I’m glad he’s doing it, too. Good for him.

 

Leah Litman Justice Barrett.

 

Melissa Murray I like her school marm energy. I like that she stays on that. Like she reminds me of Eliza Wilder in Little House on the Prairie. She was the school teacher and Almanzo sister before Laura became the school teacher. And just like kind of like prim and like I feel like, you know, like and she’s an equal opportunity destroyer. Like she will wrap everyone’s knuckles, like, not just her liberal sisters, but all. I don’t mean sisters in that she’s liberal, but they’re ladies. And she will also rap the conservative brothers. Like she’s just like she’s an equal opportunity schoolmarm. And I like that for her.

 

Kate Shaw I think she’s been conditioning her hair differently and better. And I like it. I think is I think there’ve been some improvements in her hair.

 

Leah Litman I appreciate the Dilulio ness of her thinking that her Republican bro colleagues are engaged in the project of law. I just think it must be nice to be able to inhabit that type of fan.

 

Melissa Murray Always gets her school. Marmee Going exactly. Yeah. That’s where she she’s like, What do you mean? Like And then she’s wrapping knuckles and.

 

Leah Litman I’m like, Yeah.

 

Melissa Murray But I like that. Like, I like that she’s there for that.

 

Leah Litman Yeah. Okay.

 

Melissa Murray All right. I’m finally last, but certainly not least. Definitely Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson favorite thing about Justice Jackson. Go, Kate.

 

Kate Shaw I mean, that she decided to be the first Preme court justice to, like, take a turn on Broadway, like legendary. I love that. That she’s been thinking about that since college. I like that, too.

 

Leah Litman Yeah. There is so much to like. Like the energy and positivity that she brings to the oral arguments. Like while still being able to channel like the righteous indignation and kind of horror like what her colleagues are doing. Like, I just think that is a really tricky balance to be able to strike. And she somehow does it. And also, anyone who can secure Beyoncé concert tickets. That is.

 

Melissa Murray And disclose them.

 

Leah Litman And disclose them, respect, respect.

 

Melissa Murray So my favorite thing is that she’s married to Dr. Patrick Jackson. And before you jump all over me, let me explain myself. It’s not him, per se, but I like that she has him out there being so unabashedly adoring of her, and she’s just sort of saying, you’re like, Yes, bitches, this is what I deserve. I am beautiful, I am smart, I am capable, and this is what I deserve. A doctor who unabashedly adores and worships me. And I think every person needs to know that that is what they deserve. Someone who unabashedly adores everything about them and is leveling on their level. And that’s what I love about her. Aspire to more.

 

Kate Shaw One of the many charming things about her memoir is the sort of early development of her relationship in college. They were really young when they got together. She and Patrick. Anyway, so it’s a very, very.

 

Melissa Murray I saw your eyebrows go up. Like, where she going with that? Yeah.

 

Leah Litman You landed it you landed it?

 

Melissa Murray I did. I did. It’s all very PG.

 

Leah Litman Next up is our gift giving ideas. We are going to go around and offer recommendations for something you want, something you need something to wear and something to read.

 

Melissa Murray You should also use this If you have grabby, ask kids like just limit them to for gifts. Something you want, something you need something to wear and something to read. Follow us for more parenting tips.

 

Leah Litman So first up is something you want. I’m going to go big in my asks here. So I want an album. Recordings of all of the acoustic surprise songs from the Eras tour, especially the mash ups. Like, I just think she has to release that as an album. It would be incredible. I would love it. So that’s one thing. Second smaller portrait of my dog. I already have like 3 or 4, but you can never have too many.

 

Melissa Murray My wants are pretty minimal. I guess a bit like the fifth Circuit. I would really like the Elena Kagan gold paperclip chain necklace. Like, I know it’s not just her gold paperclip chain necklace, but I saw her wearing it once and I really loved it. Just like really simple and it looks really nice. And I’m hoping that someone will get one for me for the holidays. Quince has a very good one, but lots of other jewelry stores like Anna Louisa have them as well. But it’s just kind of a classic thing and you can layer it. It’s really great. The other thing I would want is like just a totally random gift. I want a consumer classic retro manual typewriter. I don’t know if I’ll actually type on it, but I would like to put it in my background and have it on the shelf just looking cute.

 

Leah Litman As Taylor Swift said, who uses typewriters anyways?

 

Melissa Murray Well, maybe not me, but I think I would like to decorate. What? Like, I just love the idea of, like. Like an old school typewriter. And then I just saw this new green pan, nonstick ceramic cookware. And you all know I cannot stand to cook, but maybe I would if I had these really great pans. And then the last thing I just really want I want an alternative to Amazon Prime so I can stop being Jeff Bezos’ bitch.

 

Leah Litman I like the Go Big Ask string bag.

 

Kate Shaw There are small local efforts. So to do like alternative names, Amazon Prime. So there’s like in New York, there’s a grocery delivery app called Mercato, which we’ll get from like lots of societies will deliver from there. And like this, there’s like a seafood place in Brooklyn. Buy Me Mermaid’s Garden, I think it’s called that is on there anyway. So it’s they do like Eataly now also anyway so if you want to like avoid Instacart and like Whole foods slash Amazon but for grocery delivery mercato I think is an alternative. There’s like an annual fee, but it might be worth it. But you’re saying like, that’s not everything under the site I need, but it’s impossible for somebody to enter the market and be a genuine competitor. So I think you need to replace with multiple alternatives that fill some of the ends.

 

Melissa Murray What I need is someone to send me like three Styrofoam balls and some acrylic paint and pipe cleaners the night before. A diorama is like, That’s what I need someone to do that in two days or less.

 

Kate Shaw But I do think your you said something come up completely offhand to me the other day about going to the Lego’s website. And you know, there are things that you will sometimes do on Amazon because it’s fast and Amazon does have some Legos. But you know what? You know where you can find a lot more legos.

 

Melissa Murray Lego Store.

 

Kate Shaw You go to the fucking website. And so I actually ordered a couple of really good sets from the Lego website. So yes, do you have to like sometimes depending on whatever device you’re using. Enter your credit cards.

 

Melissa Murray Being Jeff Bezos’ bitch?

 

Kate Shaw Enter your credit cards? Well, no, no, I’m saying like, no, you have to use the little that’s the that is the cost. And the benefit is like the ease and like, you know, seamless transactions. But sometimes you have to put in a credit card, just make yourself spend a couple of extra minutes doing your online shopping in order to diversify the places that you give your money is beyond just Jeff Bezos.

 

Leah Litman What’s your something you want.

 

Kate Shaw So a couple of things that I want. I feel like this might be related to that necklace that you mentioned. I have not seen Elena Kagan’s paperclip necklace, but I do have a paperclip ish necklace from a designer named Jennifer Fisher. My husband got this for me. I love it. I would kind of like more of her jewelry. And if folks don’t know her now, now you do. Okay, so there is a designer on the Lower East Side named Carl Meyer. Makes beautiful suits. So my friend Elsa dressed me for both of our live shows in June, including this, like, mustard suit. I were to the Tribeca live show that is by this designer, Cole Meyer. And I want one of her suits that I actually own as opposed to just borrow. So that’s another thing I want. I have. So this is literally me just sharing something that I have found incredibly useful in my life and with my family as we have an electric scooter that we are now on her second electric scooter. We had one last year that we just kind of rode into the ground and we have a second one right? You people. We like ride our kids around and like the 1 to 2 mile radius where we have to take people for basketball practice and, you know, piano lessons and things like that. And it’s actually kind of amazing if you are in an urban place and don’t have a lot of access to a car and sometimes need to go places that are just a little far to walk with the kid and the subway doesn’t conveniently go to electric scooters, actually amazingly helpful.

 

Melissa Murray Are you worried about getting hit by something or do you wear a helmet when you ride?

 

Kate Shaw We wear helmets. So so we were having the kid wears a helmet and I mostly go where there are bike lanes. And I feel like people are pretty acclimated to bike lanes. But like, yeah, there’s, you know, a non-zero risk that happens. So I think you have to be super, super vigilant. But I’ve been an urban cyclist for, you know, 25 years. And so I’m really used to being very active, monitoring kind of the movements of cars and pedestrians around. So I feel like I’m a good defensive scooter. But yeah, there’s obviously a risk. Okay. And the last thing I want is I want some WNBA.

 

Melissa Murray I want those too.

 

Leah Litman I want to to Ellie the Elephant so badly. It’s so the games.

 

Kate Shaw Are so we’re talking about the New York Liberty. But if you live in a city that has there’s not one in every city, there are like a dozen teams now. There were eight, 6 or 8 when they started 20 some years ago. But the WNBA is an unbelievable delight and it’s exploding in popularity, but it’s still a lot cheaper to go see a WNBA like the first playoff game than it is to see like NBA playoff game, like my the games are now the finals are five games, not seven. But my kids and I and my husband went to two of the five of the playoff games at the Liberty One this year and the tickets were totally reasonable. And the team is amazing. Yeah. Ali, the elephant is amazing. The crowd is amazing. It’s like, I wish when we had been kids, there had been women, professional athletes like this. I just think I would have, at least as a kid, developed a very different relationship to professional sports spectatorship than I did. I just like was a little annoyed that it was all men and all these sports that seem to select for like the things that men’s bodies were better at or that they trained better at. And I was just kind of irritated by the whole enterprise. And so I just never got super into watching professional sports. And I think I would have if the WNBA had been a big thing when I was a kid, and I love that my kids are super into it. And it’s not just my 13 year old daughter, but like my ten year old boy and is like super bro. He friends know the New York Giants dads like they know.

 

Melissa Murray Sabrina Ionescu. Yes.

 

Kate Shaw We have jerseys it’s like they went there was like a celebration at Barclays after they won the playoffs after they won the finals and they went and spent like six hours like listening to Chuck Schumer talk and shit. Like it was amazing. So and these are like this kind of free ticket they were just giving out in Brooklyn. Anyway, WNBA tickets like it don’t need to be the whole season, but like a little ten game package or something Melissa we should go in on those.

 

Melissa Murray We should definitely go in on them. I do remember when thw WNBA started.

 

Leah Litman I’m having FOMO this is why it stinks to live somewhere else.

 

Kate Shaw This is what what I want. I want Leah to just like spend a year or a semester at one of the fine law schools in the New York City area. Can we please do that?

 

Melissa Murray Let’s make this happen.

 

Leah Litman It’s not up to me.

 

Melissa Murray Where you could just fly out. We can go to one of these games, but I remember when the WNBA got started and you’re right, Kate, when we were kids, I think the only thing where women’s sports were kind of a big deal were the Olympics. Like every like really episodically. Every four years we’d find some very small teenager to celebrate because she was a great gymnastics.

 

Leah Litman Now something we need a girl. Well, yeah. Where to start? So what is emotional support? Fill in the blank. So, Kate, you mentioned, you know, how your students gave you, like the plush potato, the election. I got an emotional support pickle as a gift.

 

Melissa Murray Your students gave you gifts after the election?

 

Leah Litman No, this is not from a student. I just as a gift. I got an emotional support pickle and it really makes me smile like.

 

Kate Shaw A little crocheted stuff, that kind of thing. Okay. I don’t think I knew of. Yeah, I know. There’s a pickle. There’s a potato.

 

Leah Litman Family. Exactly. I really. Yeah, I’m into that. And I think they just make nice, nice gifts. So the other thing I need is I need the Wisconsin Supreme Court race to go the way it should this next year. That is super important to maintain control of that court.

 

Melissa Murray Yeah. So I’m going to start big. I need an independent media. And how do I get that? I mean, I’m already zero for one with the Amazon Prime, but I think I can make a dent in this one by getting a yearlong subscription to my local NPR affiliate. So that could be WNYC here in New York. But I also really love supporting my longtime Bay Area affiliate KQED and all of those folks. And I think that’s something I’m going to do this year just because independent media matters more than ever. And that is really important. Other emotional support that I think I need. Leah, I’m going to really dig into this muslin comfort sheets and. Blanket. So for January 20th, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be in bed with the covers over my head and I want covers that are super soft and breathable. And I really want to try this because it supposed to be this muslin and it wears really well over time. And when you wash it, it gets softer and softer. So I want to try that. I also want to try the bare be weighted blanket. So if it gets really bad on January 20th, maybe the blanket can just be weighted enough to smother me to death and put me out of my misery. That would be great. And if that doesn’t last weighted.

 

Kate Shaw Then that would be ideal.

 

Melissa Murray Yeah, Well, and if I then have to come out of my shell and meet people and interact, I want some Joe hand refresher. So this is a hand sanitizer, but it’s also hardcore aromatherapy. Every time I use, I’m just like putting my hands in my face so I can smell it and I know my hands are clean afterwards too. And then I’m going to go home. After shaking all those hands with people who maybe attended the inauguration because unity and I’m going to use my onsen towels. These are my absolute favorite towels. They’re awesome Japanese waffle weave. They’re super absorbent. They look great. They come in a variety of very fashion forward colors. Kate, you got any needs?

 

Kate Shaw I have so many needs, Melissa Okay, but, well, I’ll just mention a few of them. I agree. I also need an independent media. We all need an independent media. Sometimes employers will even match contributions to nonprofits, including nonprofit media orgs. So that might include NPR or ProPublica. If you’re in New York, the city is a relatively new outlet. If you’re in Chicago, the Chicago Reader is being revived as a nonprofit. So these are all places to support and to check to see if your employer will match your support of to double your impact. That is like a real thing. One thing I feel like I need, I have, but I probably need more. And I also just think we all need in our lives are group chats. I just feel like group chats are actually a very important social media. Maybe you guys know this like I have I’m on it. I’m not super active on it. I feel very conflicted about it. I’m very happy not to be on Twitter anymore. I do think the vibes on Blue Sky, as we have noted, are very good. And so I check Blue Sky pretty regularly, but the places that I find like the most fulfilling in sort of digital life are just various group chats. We have one, we’re on with melody all the time. I have various kind of like girlfriend groups. My husband and I have like a couple of groups that we were people we were tight with when we lived in DC. My family group chat and those are just these spaces that, you know, there’s not like strangers reading your words and you’re not, you know, reading sort of strangers or like loose mutual words. It’s just like your people. And, and that is, I feel like the kind of digital interaction that actually is really healthy and generative. And so I feel like less social media, more group chats.

 

Melissa Murray I do like our group.

 

Leah Litman Yeah, I love Coachella.

 

Melissa Murray So we’ve done something. You want something you need now? I think it’s time for something to wear. So, Leah, what would you like to wear in the new year?

 

Leah Litman I am obsessed with skims soft lounge like that fabric on the pajamas is.

 

Melissa Murray It’s really nice.

 

Leah Litman So nice. I change into it seriously. Like every evening after like 8 p.m.. I just. I love it. I love it. And like.

 

Melissa Murray Actual lounge.

 

Leah Litman It is. It is. So I cannot recommend that enough. I also am obsessed with the cozy earth, vicious from bamboo crewneck. I put it on every morning when I do physical therapy, like it has this really nice, like buttery fabric, but it’s also light. And so when I like, work up a sweat, it doesn’t feel like too heavy. I just. I really, really like it. Also super into the real, real online consignment, basically where I get all my work wear now and they just have amazing deals. So also the Realreal.

 

Kate Shaw Melissa’s been mentioning these for years. I should I have not ever.

 

Melissa Murray I’ve been on the real, real I should do any 13.

 

Kate Shaw Wow. I don’t think I.

 

Melissa Murray Actually ran into, I think the GC of the real real or the associate GC and like just completely fangirl. And she’s like, No, no one’s really approached me like this before I get ready, get ready. The whole strict scrutiny team’s on board.

 

Kate Shaw All right. All right. I got I will get on board before next year. Before our next.

 

Melissa Murray Film. I’m going to make sure you do know.

 

Kate Shaw Like when I showed up in Austin wearing wearing a wool blazer. It was.

 

Melissa Murray September. I was like. I was like, it was.

 

Kate Shaw Really hot and was I was like, I’ve seen this blazer too many times. You need to change your clothes more and also not wear wool blazer in Austin in September. And that was true. And maybe Realreal is the solution to that problem.

 

Melissa Murray I think it is the solution for you. I was just like it was uncomfortable because it was so warm. It’s a beautiful blazer.

 

Kate Shaw It’s fine. That’s nice. It’s it’s an argent blazer. It’s very nice. But it was the wrong it was seasonally, seasonally off.

 

Melissa Murray That’s okay. And that’s why I’m here for you. I’m here to tell you these things in a non-judgmental but judgmental way.

 

Kate Shaw Well, judgmental. Yeah. Okay. So in addition to the real, real, what are your something to wear recommendations? Well.

 

Melissa Murray If you’re going out and you’re. You’re wearing like a fancy dress and you want like a smooth line, or you just want to make sure that you’ve got lots of support with your outfit. I cannot recommend highly enough Honey Love shapewear. It’s really fantastic. It smooths everything. And the best part is your internal organs don’t move around. It’s not like you’re like, Whoa, is that my kidney? That’s now like, buy my little literal corset.

 

Leah Litman Yeah, it’s exactly.

 

Melissa Murray I mean, I mean, there is this period where people were really into waist shapers because the Kardashians were into it. And like, I mean, honestly.

 

Leah Litman It just looks so uncomfortable.

 

Melissa Murray Like, this is not that it’s just really nice and it’s comfortable. It’s easy to get on. I mean, some of the shapewear, like, I mean, it’s like hydraulics. You’re trying to get into that. You need a spotter. This is much easier and very effective. I really like it. So I highly recommend Honey Love and they’ve got lots of different kinds of shapewear for all kinds of things. I really love the Aritzia super puff belt bag, which holds a little bit more than the very ubiquitous Lululemon fanny pack, but it’s still very lightweight and stylish, comes in a lot of different colors and different fabrics. It’s fantastic. This is not a clothing recommendation, but I am totally into Janessa Merrick’s yummy skin blurring bomb powder, which is this really interesting, like no makeup kind of foundation situation. Like you take a little brush and you just dab it on and it kind of just blurs your skin tone. So you don’t need more makeup on top. It just kind of smooths everything out and a little goes a long way. So you pay like $39 for this. But I think it will literally last until the rapture. It’s so like it’s just a little goes a really long way. And then finally, I really love the Veronica Beard iconic scuba dicky jacket. So it’s a classic blazer that you can wear on your own. Or they have these little zip in inserts that you can use to change the look. But here’s my caveat. It’s crazy expensive. It’s almost $700 for the blazer and then in addition for the inserts. But and this is where the real, real comes in. Sometimes you can find really gently used or even new with tags, versions of this blazer on the real reel, and you can pick them up at a sizable discount. Or if you really want to try something new. Quince has a really fantastic dupe of the scuba blazer and it’s just $89 for the blazer and then a little bit more for the inserts and it looks really great. Super professional, very, very versatile.

 

Kate Shaw This is so pathetic that what I what I’m listening to your recommendations and I will heed them and make them my own because as we’ve discussed, I just like I’m not attentive enough to I don’t like know enough even to know really what I want. So I do need to work on my wardrobe in 2025. One thing I do want, I actually have a version of it, but I want a better version of it is a really good like running water backpack like that to kind of carry your water with you while you run. Because I ran my first marathon like a month ago. Congrats and thank you. It was not fast, but I ran like a five hour marathon, which in the marathon world is like not a fast marathon. It’s actually like there was definitely like an 85 year old lady in front of me as I was like in the last mile of the marathon. But I ran it. It was an awesome experience. But the training often happened like out of the city and I did not like when you’re running like 10 or 15 miles, like you do need to have water with you because if you’re not in a city with water fountains, you just, you know, you can’t like stopped drinking on the way. Anyway. Solomon is like one brand that makes like a nice water backpack. So I invested in one, but it was like not super big. And so I think I need a little bit more water because I want to keep running.

 

Melissa Murray Camelback has one. That’s really what people seem to like.

 

Kate Shaw They should try that kind. Yeah, maybe I should. But anyway.

 

Melissa Murray So you want a water backpack. That’s what you want to wear.

 

Kate Shaw Addition to make that you want to wear something to wear, that’s what I want to wear – a water backpack.

 

Melissa Murray Okay.

 

Kate Shaw I also I want but I’ve also already ordered these so I more want to share it with you guys and our listeners. I think Family Jammies are really fun. Yeah, and we do. Hannah Anderson family. Jamie is the dog. One’s pretty cute in the two years, three years I guess it’s been since we’ve this will be our third year with Shadow and some family. I mean she’s like a big girl now, so like, they don’t always have the extra large and whatever pattern that you know people jammies come in but I found some this year but yeah the Hannah Anderson ones are my rack.

 

Melissa Murray Those are I used to love Hannah Anderson when my kids were really little. Really soft.

 

It turns out though. Yeah, yeah, it’s good high quality kids clothing, but they also excel in the matched family jammies.

 

Melissa Murray And dog jammies, apparently.

 

Kate Shaw Yeah. And dogs are, well, part of the family.

 

Melissa Murray So you want a water backpack and pajamas for you and your dog, and you think that’s.

 

Kate Shaw These are my.

 

Melissa Murray I am going to take over your wardrobe this year.

 

Kate Shaw I think you might need to do that. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Leah Litman So final category is something to read. We will start with some friend of the pod favorites. So some. Of our, I think, collective favorites from people who are friends of the Pod. One is Vigilante Nation by John Michaels and David Noel. This is a book about kind of laws that are empowering vigilantes, you know, as the title suggests, kind of like SB eight and other laws like it and kind of what that structure is doing to our democracy. Second is the Inter bellum constitution by Alison Lacroix. This book is a phenomenal, rich, exhaustive look at federalism before the Civil War. I think so much of the book is really going to change how we teach and understand federalism going forward. So I would definitely recommend that. Also anti-Democratic by David Daly understanding and unpacking the different anti-democratic pathologies within the United States. So those are, I think, kind of the group ones, my particular ones that I loved last year. You might have heard me mention this in the Bookshop.org ads, but Bright Young Women by Jessica Noel I absolutely loved. It’s not a bright, happy book, but it’s just like a very powerful read from the perspective of, you know, the victims of Ted Bundy, like serial killer. And it’s fantastic. It just like looks at all of the different ways that, like misogyny infected, like our understanding of the crimes, the coverage of the crimes, the way they were dealt with. It’s really, really good. Funny story by Emily Henry. Another delightful read, You Should Be So Lucky by Kat Sebastian. Another kind of like romantic book that, you know, has some, like light fun elements to it. The Women by Kristen Hannah I think that was pretty popular this last year. Fight Like Hell by Kim Kelly about the history of the labor movement, The Hunter by Tana French and the Blue Stockings by Susanna Gibson, which is a history of this early cadre of like women writers. And I just love that. Also not books, but recommend to read subscriptions to Law Dork. Chris Geithner’s legal newsletter, Abortion Every Day by Jessica Valenti and One four Street by Steve Vladeck. And one book I am anxiously waiting for in 2025 is The Summer Storms by Sarah McClain. I love her. You know, historical romance books. This is going to be a modern one. And I’m just super sight to see what she does with it.

 

Kate Shaw Awesome. So I’ve read some but not all of those. So that is a great list. I do. I’m going to repeat a few that I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before. So I really loved Miranda July’s All Foreigners. And first of all, Everett’s James. I mean, just the formal conceit of James is just so brilliant. And I was a little bit like, I don’t know if I even like love Huck Finn that much. Do I really do I need a reboot? It’s a little bit like Demon Copperhead. I was like, Do I need to reread David Copperfield to actually read and get Demon Copperhead? And the answer is absolutely not. James is you know, remember many people was like the best book of the year. It is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim in the book. James, in this book, who is the enslaved person who accompanies Huck on and Tom Sawyer for part of it on this, you know, kind of journey down the river to an island and much, much, much more. And I don’t want to say too much about the formal conceit and the language of the book, but it is stunningly brilliant in conception and execution. I absolutely loved it. Highly, highly recommend it. Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. I had somehow never read and read sometime earlier this year, and it’s set in 2024, which is pretty wild and has shockingly current resonance, including some there’s dystopia and political figures who will just like ring very, very current, even though the book is, you know, decades old. Elena Ferrante’s days of Abandonment. I had never read, even though, you know, I’ve read other books of hers. And that’s a tough but really excellent book. Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted is a fiction book, but it’s kind of in the tradition of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, which is that’s a reported book where she goes undercover and works a retail job. Waldman kind of did the same to research this book. But then the book itself is not this memoir, but in fact, a fictional account of this kind of like, big box store in upstate New York and this amazing cast of characters in the store. And it’s just incredibly well done. I also really loved Hilary Lecter’s terrorist story, a very, very weird sort of couple of short stories woven together. But, you know, neither kind of defies that novel or novella versus short story distinction. Anyway, I really loved that. And then a handful of nonfiction books. One is Eve by Kat Bohannan. I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing her last name properly, but it is kind of an evolutionary biology book about women’s bodies and has chapters on everything from menopause to breastfeeding to why women are better distance athletes. And it is. Lyrical and beautiful. She’s like a Ph.D. in fiction. And I she’s not a doctor or a Ph.D. scientist, but it is deeply researched medicine and science in the book. And I thought it was incredible. And then we’ve had on the show before the authors of a couple of wonderful books that Leah didn’t mention. So I did want to shout out Rebecca Nagel’s by the Fire We Carry and Don Penning Roth’s Before the Movement, two extraordinary books published in the last.

 

Leah Litman Year by The Fire We Carry has made like several best book lists and then Don Pendergrass Before the Movement and Steve Latics Shadow Docket just won the Order of the Coif Book Award, both of them. So yeah, two more.

 

Kate Shaw One, I finally read David Blitz, Frederick Douglass Project of Freedom, a Douglass biography that got a lot of praise when it was published few years ago. I say read, but I actually listen to it. But it’s a great it’s beautifully read. And, you know, I don’t know what 20 hours or something. So it takes a long time, but I highly recommend it if you have not read it. And then I reread To Kill a mockingbird with my seventh grader who was reading it in seventh grade. So last spring. She’s in eighth grade now, and I’m glad I did. I actually, as a lawyer, had not revisited it. I haven’t revisited it since I was a kid. And so I really enjoyed that. So that’s what I got.

 

Melissa Murray Okay. Those are all really good ones. I also read James and we talked about it. I thought James was absolutely fantastic. I also like Percival Everett’s erasure, which is the basis for the movie American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright, which is fantastic as well. And that got me down a big rabbit hole where I figured out that one of my favorite authors, Danzy Senna, is Percival Everett’s wife, which I did not know. And Danzy said I had a great debut novel back in the day called Caucasian. But she just wrote a new book this year called Colored Television, and it’s just a fantastic novel. She’s a terrific writer in her own right and color television as a hilarious sendup of academia and literary culture. And it’s about Jane, a mixed race writer and college teacher who is desperate for money and struggling to finish her second novel and somehow talks her way into a meeting with a Hollywood producer who is making a sitcom about a biracial family. And it’s kind of hilarious. So I highly recommend that. I also read Jonathan Eagle’s King A Life, and it is just amazing. It’s going to be the definitive biography of Martin Luther King. It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography this year. Just absolutely fantastic and sweeping and amazing. I so highly recommend. I also loved Colm Toibin’s, Long Island, which is the sequel to his wildly successful Brooklyn. And this one finds Irish Lacey, 20 years later, trapped in a marriage on Long Island with Tony, who was her love interest in the first book. And there is a surprising turn of events that requires her to return to her Irish hometown and reconnect with old friends and an old love. And I’m just going to leave that tantalizing detail there. I also read Eliane Wu’s Master Slave Husband Wife An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom. And this was also a Pulitzer Prize winner. And it is just absolutely fantastic. It reads like a novel, but it’s actually nonfiction about these two enslaved people, William and Ellen Craft, who basically went undercover to escape from Georgia to the north. And then everything that follows is just absolutely amazing. So riveting and just it should be made into a movie. Full stop. Fantastic. And then my last one, which is absolutely fantastic, is Rob Sierras, the beautiful poetry of Donald Trump, the strictly unauthorized version. And Sears realized after reading some of Donald Trump’s tweets that this is a man who has a way with words. And so he combed all of Trump’s tweets and all of his speeches for signs of poetry and realized that if he just rearranged some of the phrases and words, the beautiful verse emerged. And the results are stunning and surprising and of course, hilarious. And I highly recommend it. It’s completely sold out on Bookshop.org because it’s that great.

 

Kate Shaw Okay, so that is, I think, I hope, a useful list of book recs for your book gifting and just general reading pleasure over the holidays and in the coming year. Let’s now mention a couple of podcasts and I just have two that I wanted to mention, but I’m curious if there are others that you all are listening to that we should tell our listeners about. The first is one that friend of the show, Cliff Sloan, flagged for me. It’s called Ear Witness. And it’s a story of two Forrest Johnson, who really appears to be I haven’t listened to the whole it’s like eight, I think, episodes, but really appears to be an innocent man who has been on Alabama’s death row for a quarter century for the murder of a police officer. He was convicted basically on your witness testimony, which is where the title comes from. So I’m really enjoying that and I’m looking forward to finishing it. And I also want to mention a podcast called Less Radical, which is about Dr. Bernie Fisher, who is a fascinating figure who really revolutionized our understanding of and treatment of breast cancer. The show was produced by our own fabulous producer, Melody Rawal. The things that Dr. Fisher got for his revolutionary work was being dragged before Congress for a misguided hearing that destroyed his reputation. And the themes of the podcast are just all too familiar. Are politicians strong arming scientists, women being cut out of their health care choices? And it’s a six part series. Episodes are all out now if you want to binge. Yep.

 

Melissa Murray All right. Mine are pretty quick because I don’t have time to listen to any other podcasts but the ones on the Crooked Network. But when I do, I listen to you mind your own with Lupita and Django. This is by Lemon Nada, and it’s a storytelling podcast in which the Oscar winning actress narrates stories from the modern African diaspora. It’s really great. There’s also a really terrific podcast. It’s a series called Rebel Spirit with Akeelah Hughes, and it’s a documentary where Hughes goes back to her hometown in Florence, Kentucky, to convince her town to abandon their long time high school mascot, the rebel in favor of the humble Southern buttermilk Biscuit. Yet what ensues is a very richly reported meditation on race and culture and sports. Really fantastic. And then finally, this isn’t a podcast. It’s a Netflix documentary, and it’s called Yacht Rock, the documentary. And it’s absolutely fantastic. And I will not hear a word against it. It is the Meghan Markle of 1970s, 1980s music documentaries. And I loved it.

 

Leah Litman Okay. So now to bookend our gift guides with another favorite, things go around game. We are going to usher in a new tradition about saying our favorite things about each other.

 

Kate Shaw One thing collectively, which is that this is like a aspiration in addition to favorite things, which is I absolutely love it when we very occasionally in our insane lives get a little bit of like downtime together to hang out. Like when we were in Hawaii like a year and a half ago. That was so fun. And I just really wish we had more time in our lives to occasionally do that. We had a great.

 

Melissa Murray Roadie carrying our luggage and that was absolutely critical.

 

Kate Shaw He’s fun, but with or without any spouses of the pod, I really wish that we had. We were able to do that more. I hope you guys are going to do a little bit of collective. You guys are both so goddamn fast at synthesizing everything and writing and thinking and I just admire the shit out of it, both like the speed and the depth that you both bring. And I constantly am. Like, I saw the Fifth Circuit issued this crazy ass opinion with 150 different concurrences and with what By the time I you process that, Leah has like read them all and like written up a show note about them, it’s out of control and you’re just so generous and selfless. Leah on the kind of labor front. And Melissa, I don’t understand how you fire across all of the different literary cultural genre like spaces that you do at any given time. Deep history, you know, Greek philosophy, reality TV. Like it’s insane and so impressive. Anyway, you tour. I’m doing a collective. I hope that’s okay. Yeah. I’m just like, endlessly impressed by both of you and feel deeply lucky that I get to spend time, you know, basking in your auras on a weekly basis. But I just wish we got to do it on the beach and totally agree.

 

Leah Litman I’ll go next because I don’t want to go after Melissa because I feel like Melissa’s very good at this and I don’t want to follow her. So, Melissa, I’ll start with you. I feel like you are so good at the pull and the like in the moment reference where you can just immediately take something someone said and do this like crazy pole, either from pop culture or like philosophy or literature and whatnot and just make it hilarious. Like the references are out of control. Also, I don’t think our listeners appreciate how fucking funny you are because you make us edit out all of the funny things are not all of the very things that many of the funny things that you say.

 

Kate Shaw But there are so many that so many that come out because they get a little cheeky.

 

Leah Litman So funny.

 

Melissa Murray I’m trying. Trying to not go to jail.

 

Leah Litman Also style is off the hook. One time you said you liked a blazer I wore and I was like, fuck and put it in the Louve because I know I made it.

 

Melissa Murray It was a good blazer. It was such a good blazer.

 

Leah Litman There we go. So, Kate, I can’t believe you just said like you are jealous of like, the speed and depth we go into because I feel like you are, like, one of the craziest, busiest people I know. And, like, you are constantly jetting around, but then you have like 5 to 10 minutes to, I don’t know, like pop in to a note and then immediately add like these like high level thoughts that I feel like make an episode and like, make our commentary really work that I just, like, wouldn’t have come up with. And second is you managed to be very cool without making me feel bad about myself. And I feel like that is a really admirable quality and I’m not sure how you do it because I don’t know many people who do.

 

Kate Shaw Thank you.

 

Melissa Murray All right, so it’s my turn to land this. Okay, let me just call out the folks in the background who are not on the camera right now, Melody and Michael, who make us sound great all year long. You guys are absolutely fantastic. Melody, I so appreciate your patience with us because we are always turning it around. Be like, Hey, what about a whole new series this summer that we plan to take off on Project 2025? And, you know, I appreciate that you roll with it. You try this gently sometimes and really sort of pull us back and try to keep it contained. But you’re really good about letting us do our thing, and we really appreciate that. Michael, you are such a great new addition to the team. I love how you very graciously invite us to record so this isn’t all for naught and we always have backup recordings. Thank you for that. Because like some of us are not tech savvy and thank you for getting crooked to give me a new microphone in the new year. I appreciate that a lot.

 

Leah Litman And also, Michael has to endure our pre-recording chatter at the beginning of every episode, and he handles it like a champ. Yeah. So cannot.

 

Melissa Murray Because it’s wild.

 

Leah Litman It is. It is.

 

Melissa Murray Its actually wild.

 

Leah Litman Off the chains. And Melody. I feel like she keeps me cool and hip with the kids, like she’s the one that got me into TikTok. So yeah, really?

 

Melissa Murray She’s an agent of the Chinese.

 

Leah Litman No, she is not. But she is just very generous and positive, but also has this like cutting humor. So yeah, great combo.

 

Melissa Murray Melody and I have like some good book talk. Not there, not talks really, but like good side book conversations. And she’s the one who turned me on to Book of the month. Kate, I think you were like the most generous person about other people’s work. Like, you always find a way to highlight other people’s work and make it relevant to what we’re talking about, and you’re just really, really good at. Calling out and giving people credit where we’re just like, we’re so busy that it’s sometimes too hard and we can miss things that are really important. But you’re always really great about calling attention to people whose work is really relevant and might go overlooked. And you’re especially good about doing it for people who are junior. I also love how gracious you are when we snark on your pop culture because it’s a running bet. I think we have to keep doing it just because everyone expects it. But I love that you’re trying to like add more popular culture to your repertoire like no one else tries as hard to get up to speed. I mean, if if Brett Kavanaugh could just apply this kind of work ethic to other things, like everything would be totally different. And I love that about you, Leah. You’re like the heart and soul of this whole enterprise. You’re always like, I was supposed to write the show note for the December recap. I went to go do it and found that you had already done most of it. Like that happens all the time. So you were like the beating heart of this. And you have such a clear vision for the show and like what we should be doing and, and how we can be impactful even when it feels like everything is just going to shit. So one of your best qualities that you are unbelievably pessimistic and realistic and yet you channel your rage into something positive and it’s so nicely complementing Kate’s incredibly delusional optimism in some cases. Like just sometimes it’s just the perfect marriage. You know, we are the perfect marriage, if you will. We are three people, so maybe we are polyamorous in that respect. And that’s interesting, too. But I love everything about this. I don’t think I could have made it through November 6th, through ten, without knowing I had you all to come back to you because it was like kind of a dark time and like knowing that I would be able to come back and talk to you guys about it made it easier. I will also say we are. You should go into your own T-shirt making business like you just made me the best in search of emotional support. Billionaire T-shirt. And you’re always doing stuff like that, like making these great T-shirts. You know, back in the day when we used to make all that merch, it was really all, yeah, just making merch constantly. And yeah, those were those were the salad days when we just made merch all the time. And it’s your genius like all of it. And we just wear it and we wear it proudly. So I’m glad we are all in this together. I’m excited for 2025. I’m not excited for 2025, but I’m excited for 2025 with you all. And it’s going to be.

 

Kate Shaw One of the only things about 2025 ish is going to bring some comfort.

 

Melissa Murray We’re going to be the real project 2025. That’s what we’re going to want to rename this podcast. The Real Project 2025. And.

 

Leah Litman No. No girl.

 

Melissa Murray Watch what happens.

 

Leah Litman We’re not.

 

Kate Shaw All right. Finally, we have a tribute to our most favorite thing, you, our listeners. Earlier this year, we asked you to send in voice memos telling us a little bit about yourself. And when you listen to the pod.

 

Leah Litman And a brief kind of side note here, a special thank you to the listeners who responded to my desperate cries and pleas when I needed to go to the Aras tour after I couldn’t go this past summer. And they literally made it possible. So Johnny Janky. Jennifer Patrick, Laura Petto, Alyssa Frederick. Like the insane grace and generosity you showed, was like, truly moving. And I now have a video of myself seeing Cornelia Street live in which I like burst into tears the moment, like I realize like what song is playing. And yeah, I just cannot even articulate like, how meaningful that was. But back to the listener voice memos. Okay, so we can’t play all the listener voice memos, but we did listen to them all and they mean so, so much to us. Our reviews aren’t always the kindest, and there are challenges to do in the podcast. And again, the best thing about this is your listeners and we wanted to give you a taste of the strict scrutiny audience that makes this all possible. And this community is so wonderful.

 

Listener Montage Hello, ladies. Should I say beautiful? Madame. Hi. Strict scrutiny. I’m coming to you from Zug, Switzerland. Greetings from Germany. From the upper valley of Vermont. In New Hampshire. I’m calling from the Great Southwest. I am an APC government teacher and debate coach who works at an international school in Taipei, Taiwan. I’m a financial analyst listening to you from my home in Newcastle, Australia. I just finished my second year of law school at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Isaiah. I’m a first generation law student and I just finished my one year at Mizzou. I am currently a law student in the southeastern United States. Also known as hell. I have completed my Ph.D. and started a position as assistant professor of musicology at Wichita State University. I am a veterinary student at the University of California, Davis. I’m in Mill Valley, California, and I sell real estate here. I’m listening to you from Butte, Montana. I’m an attorney who works on offshore fisheries. I’m actually a physician. I practice anesthesiology here in North Dakota. For work, I’m going to five mathematician working on problems in the ocean domain. I’m a dairy farmer in Wisconsin. I’m a sign language interpreter from Melbourne, Australia. I am a vet biologist. I’m a patent examiner. I am an Ob-Gyn and a full time abortion provider in Chicago. I always listen to the podcast on my Monday morning runs, and I have had strict scrutiny in my ears on cross-country flights, on cross-country drives. I am a mother to a nine month old and I have been listening to the pod during my maternity leave. And when I wanted to recognize you for was empowering me to be a court watcher. That is a genuine change. And in my small French town, I listen to you and I shake my head thinking that we are living in a strange world, a strange time. I’ve been listening a lot while mucking horse puns and stalls. And given the Supreme Court decisions you all have been going through. Just feels like the fact that I’m actually shoveling horse manure is relatable content. You’ve helped me learn about the law whilst flinging a lot of poop. I mean, it’s literally got to be in the thousands of pounds by this point. So thank you for inspiring me each and every one of you for being true to who you are and making law approachable and fun, even in the face of the demise of our democracy. I am just so appreciative of all your work and for making the Supreme Court and all its shenanigans so accessible. Now I listen to your podcasts to keep abreast of how the right is dismantling the rule of law and get ideas for how I can help defend democracy and civil rights. It feels like a voice of sanity and reason. You guys allow me to process it along with you and release all of that rage that I feel as a fellow swifty. I’ll say that I definitely enjoyed the collective excitement over Taylor releasing the Tortured Poets Department. I think that Taylor should absolutely make an appearance on the show. I love you guys and thanks for the Taylor Swift references, too. I’m really just going to keep doing abortions by day and keep listening to you all by night. Keep on fighting the good fight. And I’m sipping Martha, Rita and the Jenny Tonic. Cheers saying to you three. Please know that somewhere out there there is a pretty run of the mill transactional attorney brand coffee in a firm and saying out loud with a grin. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their motherfucking feet off our necks.

 

Leah Litman Some concluding notes if there are positive or unhinged court developments you want us to highlight in the New Year, please feel free to write in with them. We love being able to celebrate the great thing some of our listeners are helping to do. We all need to find positives these days and a note on our programming. We will be off next week but will return in the new year with a special episode tailored to the day. The episode will be released. So in the meantime, happy holidays from everyone at Strict Scrutiny and we will see you in the New year. Before we go.

 

Melissa Murray [AD]

 

Kate Shaw Strict Scrutiny is a Crooked Media production hosted and executive produced by Leah Litman, Melissa Murray and me, Kate Shaw produced and edited by Melody Rowell. Michael Goldsmith is our associate producer. Audio Support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landes. Music by Eddie Cooper. Production Support from Madeline Herringer and Ari Schwartz. Matt DeGroot is our head of production. Thanks to our digital team Phoebe Bradford and Joe Matausky. Subscribe to Strict Scrutiny on YouTube to catch full episodes. Find us YouTube.com slash Strict Scrutiny Podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to Strict Scrutiny in your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. And if you want to help other people find the show, please rate and review us. It really helps.

 

Melissa Murray Only if you’re nice.

 

Kate Shaw Only if you’re nice, not if you’re naughty.

 

Melissa Murray Coal for you.