Our Favorite Things, 2024

The 2026 Chevy Equinox is more than an SUV.

It's your Sunday tailgate and your parking lot snack bar.

Your lucky jersey, your chairs, and your big cooler fit perfectly in your even bigger cargo space.

And when it's go time, your 11.3-inch diagonal touchscreen's got the playbook, the playlist, and the tech to stay a step ahead.

It's more than an SUV, it's your Equinox.

Chevrolet, together let's drive.

Mr.

Chief Justice, may it please the court.

It's an old joke, but when an argument 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.

Hello, and welcome back to Strict Scrutiny, your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it.

We're your hosts.

I'm Melissa Murray.

I'm Leah Littnan.

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 are 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.

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.

I love that he showed his true colors last year.

Wow, that's a good one, Kate, that he's really not an institutionalist.

I think it's hard for anyone with a straight face to claim that now.

And I appreciate that the wool has fallen away from the eyes of all.

And by not only only joining, but actually writing the insanity that it was Trump versus United States and also Oberbright, I think he showed us who he is.

And I think that's actually useful information.

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.

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 really like that he is committed to the George Clooney circa 1995 male forward Caesar.

And I like that for him.

I'm sorry.

You're going to have to explain that with that.

But he really is that a haircut?

It's 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.

Yeah.

This is, this is, I feel like this is not the same same without JVN, but we will press on.

I don't know if we're going to go hair on all of them.

No, no, no.

Okay.

Next up would be Justice Thomas, who wants to go first on this one.

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.

I don't know if it'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.

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.

Passive aggressive.

I like it.

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 ours.

So thank you, Sam.

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

I'm just, I'm going to go be shallow.

Like, I, I do 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 gonna 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.

Yeah, and her rights and her flags.

Next, Justice Sotomayor.

So I

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's foreword 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 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.

I

have recently had occasion to reread the immunity decision, and that dissent remains one for the ages.

And I just really appreciate that she gave us that in this unbelievably shitty term the court had last year, that it produced that dissent.

So I obviously like a lot of 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 this.

We've been going around saying our favorite things about all of them.

No, 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 really tries to make it congenial.

And even when

I don't even know how she does it.

So good for her.

Justice Kagan.

Justice Kagan.

I like how cheeky she is.

Yeah, so that would definitely be one thing.

I feel like I have repeatedly expressed this, but the utter frustration she evinces, sometimes with cheekiness, sometimes with like barely

rage,

but the frustration like she clearly has at the stupidity and hackishness 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 ride at dawn that is just like energizing.

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 Prelagger, essentially just serve pre-laugher these pitches that pre-lauger uses to make these extraordinary arguments and also the kind of like unsparing contempt that she demonstrates towards 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 her argument.

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?

Is that what I'm saying?

Yeah, exactly.

Like,

that's the problem.

I mean, she's just basically trolling.

And everyone's like, yeah, why can't we have an ethics code?

She's like, I don't know.

Like, I think he'd be great.

I'd be down.

I love that.

She's great.

All right.

Neil Michael M.

Gorsuch.

Neil M.

Gorsuch.

I like that he brings geographic diversity to the court.

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

he makes snarking fun.

Right, exactly.

He justifies snarking, basically.

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 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's 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.

Next up, Justice Kavanaugh.

You can keep the silence in.

Okay, weirdly, I am going to say something you guys will probably jump down my throat for, but

during oral arguments, he seems like he's trying to be liked so hard that I sometimes almost want to like him.

Oh, God.

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 liked so much, it feels like that

there, you know, down the road that could be helpful.

It could get him onto the side of his side.

And yet it has never actually proved helpful.

Not yet.

It hasn't yet, but it just feels like it's out there as a real possibility.

False hope.

So

I

don't know if I've said this before or suggested it before, but I look at Brett Kavanaugh as, in some ways, 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 Ray 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.

I think it's great that he's a pretty good athlete for his age.

He did run that five.

No, that's what I'm thinking of.

And he was really,

you know, he was a good athlete.

I mean, we're all getting up there, and not all of us.

I'm not looking at you, Kate, but I am looking at you.

Like, we're not all posting like sub-four marathons.

Is that a thing?

Well, we're talking 5Ks.

He's running 5Ks.

I don't think he's running marathons.

He's killing him.

Killing sub-eight minute miles.

Yeah, he's killing the genre.

Good for him.

Got it.

Got him at that.

No, that's good.

I mean, again, I'm just being snarky, Kate, because I'm not running marathons, and I'm glad you are.

And I'm glad he's doing it too.

Good for him.

Justice Barrett.

I like her school marm energy.

I like that she stays on that.

Like, I mean, she reminds me of

Eliza Wilder in Little House on the Prairie.

She was the school teacher and Almonzo's sister before Laura became the school teacher.

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 also, I don't mean sisters in that she's liberal, but they're ladies.

And she will also wrap the conservative brothers.

Like she's just like, she's an equal opportunity school marm, and I like that for her.

I think she's been conditioning her hair differently and better, and I like it.

I think there have been some improvements in her hair.

I

appreciate the Delulu-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 thing.

That's what always gets her school marming going.

Exactly.

That's where she's, she's like, what do you mean?

Like, and then she's rapping knuckles.

And I'm like, yeah.

But I like that.

Like, I like that she's there for that.

Yeah.

All right.

Finally, last but certainly not least,

Justice Katanji Brown Jackson.

Favorite thing about Justice Jackson?

Go, Kate.

I mean,

that she decided to be the first Supreme 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.

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 at 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 and disclose them.

And disclose them.

Respect.

Respect.

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 thinking, 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.

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 I saw your eyebrows go up.

Like, where is she going with this?

Yeah.

You landed it.

You landed it.

I did.

I did.

It was all very PG.

Want a treatment for your moderate to severe Crohn's disease you can use at home or on the go?

Talk to your doctor about the Antivio pen, an option after at least two IV starter doses.

Antivio helped many people achieve long-term relief and remission at week 52.

Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment.

Antivio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious.

PML, a rare, potentially fatal brain infection, cannot be ruled out.

Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, or are prone to infections.

Liver problems can occur.

Visit Ntivio.com today and learn more about the Nntivio pen.

Individual results may vary.

Before all the algorithm-fed blah and the endless sea of dupes, shopping used to feel more fun.

But here's a confession fashionistas.

You can find that fun feeling again on eBay.

It's not mindless scrolling.

It's a fashion pursuit.

And when you score that rare Adidas collab or the Dior saddlebag you've been manifesting, it's a rush.

eBay has millions of pre-loved finds from hundreds of brands backed by eBay authenticity guarantee.

eBay, things people love.

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.

You should also use this if you have grabby, ASCII kids.

Like just limit them to four gifts, something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read.

Follow us for more parenting tips.

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 Eris tour, especially the mashups.

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 three or four, but you can never have too many.

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.

It's 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 Ana Luisa 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 rando 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.

As Taylor Swift said, who uses typewriters anyways?

Well, maybe not me, but I think I I would like to decorate with it.

Like, I just love the idea of 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.

I like the go big asks, dream big.

There are small local efforts to do like alternatives to Amazon Prime.

So there's a, like in New York, there's a grocery delivery app called Mercado, which we'll get from like lots of Sahadis will deliver from there.

And like this, there's like a seafood place in Brooklyn by me, Mermaid's Garden, I think it's called, that is on there.

Anyway, so it's, they do like Italy now also.

Anyway, so if you want to like avoid Instacart and like Whole Foods slash Amazon, but for grocery delivery, Mercado, 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 sun I need.

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 answers.

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 due.

Like that's what I, I need someone who's going to do that in two days or less.

But I do think you're, you said something completely offhand to me the other day about going to the Legos 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.

You go to the fucking Lego 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

enter your credit cards?

Well, no, no, I'm saying like, no, you have to, it's a 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 monies beyond just Jeff Bezos.

What's your something you want?

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 you do.

Okay, so there is a designer on the Laurie side named Kalmeyer who makes beautiful suits.

So my friend Issa dressed me for both of our live shows in June, including this like mustard suit I wore to the Tribeca live show that is by this designer Kalmeyer.

And I want one of her suits that I actually own as opposed to just borrow.

So that's another thing I

I have, so this is literally me just sharing something that I have found incredibly useful in my life and with my family is we have an electric scooter that we are now on our second electric scooter.

We had one last year that we just kind of rode into the ground and we have a second one.

Rides two people.

We like ride our kids around in like the one to two 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 walk with a kid and the subway doesn't conveniently go to.

Electric scooters actually amazingly helpful.

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

We wear helmets.

So

I wear a helmet and 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 a non-zero risk that happens.

So I think you have to be super, super vigilant.

But I've been an urban cyclist for

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 tickets.

I want those too.

I want to go see Ellie the Elephant so badly.

It's so I, the games 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, six or eight 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

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 they the tickets were totally reasonable.

And the team is amazing.

Yeah, Ellie 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 was a little annoyed that it was all men and all these sports that seemed 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 10-year-old boy and his like super broy friends know the New York League stats like they know the left.

They have jerseys.

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 were like these kind of free tickets they were just giving out in Brooklyn.

Anyway, WNBA tickets, like it doesn't need to be the whole season, but like a little 10-game package or something.

Melissa, we should go in on those.

We should definitely go in on them.

I do remember when the WNBA started.

Stinks to live somewhere else.

This is 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?

Let's make this.

It's not up to me.

Or you could just fly out.

We can go to one of these games.

But I remember when the WMBA 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 gymnast.

Now, something we need.

Oh, girl.

Yeah.

Where to start.

So one is

emotional support fill-in-the-blank.

So Kate, you mentioned how your students gave you like the plush potato after the election.

I got an emotional support pickle as a gift.

Your students gave you gifts after the election?

No,

this is not from a student.

I'm

just just as a gift.

I got an emotional support pickle.

And it really makes me smile.

Like a little crocheted stuffy kind of thing.

Okay, I don't think I knew it was in the genre.

There's a pickle, there's a potato.

Exactly, exactly.

I really, yeah, am 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.

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 year-long subscription to my local MPR 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 blankets.

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's 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 Barrabee 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 work less weight than that that would be ideal well and if I then have to come out of my shell and meet people and interact I want some jow hand refresher so this is a hand sanitizer but it's also hardcore aromatherapy.

Every time I use it, 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?

I have so many needs, Melissa.

But whoa, I'll just mention a few.

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 with 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 mutuals words.

It's just like your people.

And that is, I feel like the kind of digital interaction that actually is really healthy and generative.

And so I feel like less less social media, more group chats.

I do like our group chats.

Yeah.

I love group chats.

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?

I am obsessed with Skim's soft lounge.

Like that fabric on the pajamas is

so nice.

I change into it seriously like every evening after like 8 p.m.

I just, I love it.

I love it.

And it's like actual lounge.

It is.

It is.

So I cannot recommend that enough.

I also am obsessed with the Cozy Earth Viscous from Bamboo crew neck.

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 reel online consignment, basically where I get all my workwear now.

And they just have amazing deals.

So also the Real Real.

Melissa's been mentioning these for years.

I have not ever.

I've been on The Real Real

2013.

Wow.

I don't think I've been here.

I am.

I actually ran into,

I think, the GC of The Real Real or the Associate GC and like just completely fangirled.

And she was like, no, no one's really approached me like this before.

Get ready.

Get ready.

The whole strict scrutiny team's on board.

All right.

All right.

I got it.

I will get on board before next year, before our next fair.

I'm going to make sure you do.

Like when I showed up in Austin wearing a wool blazer.

It was September.

I was like,

it was really hot.

And Melissa was like, I've seen this blazer too many times.

You need to change your clothes more and also not wear a wool blazer in Austin in September.

And that was true.

And maybe a real reel is the solution to that.

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.

It's fine.

It's nice.

Oh, it's an Arjun blazer.

It's very nice, but it was the wrong, it was seasonally off.

It was seasonally off.

That's okay.

That's why I'm here for you.

I'm here to tell you these things in a non-judgmental, but judgmental way.

A little judgmental, yeah.

A little bit.

Okay, so in addition to The Real Real, what are your something to wear recommendations?

Well, if you're going out and 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 up by my lips.

Not a literal corset.

Exactly.

I mean, I mean, there was this period where people were really into waist shapers because the Kardashians were into it.

And like, I mean, honestly, it just looks so uncomfortable.

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 Danessa Myrick's Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder, which is 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 reel 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.

This is so pathetic that 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, we 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

to kind of carry your water with you while you run.

Cause 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 a 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 at a city with water fountains, you just, you know, you can't like stop to drink along the way.

Anyway, Solomon is like one brand that makes like nice water backpacks.

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.

Camelback has one.

That's really what people seem to like.

Oh, you should try that kind.

Yeah, maybe I should.

But anyway, so you want a water backpack.

In addition to my

something to wear.

That's what I want.

You want a warbler.

Water backpack.

Okay.

I also, I want, but I've also already ordered these, so I more wanted to share it with you guys and our listeners.

I think family jammies are really fun.

And we do Hannah Anderson family jammies.

The dog ones,

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 jammies.

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 rec.

Those are, I used to love Hannah Anderson when my kids were really little.

It was so

soft.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's good, high-quality kids' clothing, but they also excel in the matched family jammies set.

And dog jammies, apparently.

Yeah, and dogs are well part of the family.

So you want a water backpack and pajamas for you and your dog.

Anything else?

These are my.

I am going to take over your wardrobe this year.

I think you might need to do that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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 Knoll.

This is a book about kind of laws that are empowering vigilantes, you know, as the title suggests, kind of like SB8 and other laws like it and kind of what that structure is doing to our democracy.

Second is The Interbellum 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 we 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 Knoll, 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 a 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 Hanna.

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 Susannah 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 Geidner's

legal newsletter, Abortion Every Day by Jessica Valenti, and One First Street by Steve Ladeck.

And one book I am anxiously waiting for in 2025 is The Summer Storms by Sarah McLean.

I love her, you know, historical romance books.

This is going to be a modern one, and I'm just super psyched to see what she does with it.

Awesome.

So I've read some, but not all of those.

So that is a great list.

I too, I'm going to repeat a few that I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before.

So I really loved Randa July's All Fours and Percival 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 love Huck Finn that much.

Do I need to reread?

It was 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, for 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 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.

Adele 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 like 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 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 Hillary Leichter's Terrace story, a very, very weird sort of couple short stories woven together, but you know, neither kind of defies the novel or novella versus short story distinction.

Anyway, really loved that.

And then a handful of non-fiction books.

One is Eve by Kat Bahannan.

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 PhD in fiction and she's not a doctor or a PhD 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 Dylan Penningroth's Before the Movement, two extraordinary books published in the last year.

By the Fire We Carry has made like several best book lists.

And then Dylan Penningroth's Before the Movement and Steve Laddock's Shadow Docket just won the Order of the Coiff book award, both of them.

So yeah.

Two more.

One, I finally read David Blight's Frederick Douglass Project of Freedom, a Douglas biography that got a lot of praise when it was published a few years ago.

I say read, but I actually listened 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 hadn't revisited it since I was a kid.

And so I really enjoyed that.

So that's what I got.

Okay, those are all really good ones.

I also read James and we talked about it.

I thought James was absolutely fantastic.

I also liked 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, Danzi Senna, is Percival Everett's wife, which I did not know.

And Danzie Senna had a great debut novel back in the day called Caucasia, 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 colored television is a hilarious send-up 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 highly recommend that.

I also read Jonathan Eag'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.

So highly recommend.

I also loved Colm Toyben's Long Island, which is the sequel to his wildly successful Brooklyn.

And this one finds Eilish 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 Il Yan 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 Kraft, who basically went undercover to escape from Georgia to the North and then everything that follows.

It's 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 Sears' 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, 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.

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 TeForest 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 earwitness testimony, which is where the title comes from.

So I'm really enjoying that and 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 Rowell.

The thanks 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.

Politicians strong-arming scientists, women being cut out of their healthcare choices.

And it's a six-part series.

Episodes are all out now if you want to binge it.

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 Mind Your Own with Lupita and Yongo.

This is by Lemonada, 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 longtime high school mascot, the Rebel, in favor of the humble southern buttermilk biscuit.

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 Megan Markle of 1970s, 1980s music documentaries, and I've loved it.

Before all the algorithm-fed blah and the endless sea of dupes, shopping used to feel more fun.

But here's a confession: Fashionistas: you can find that fun feeling again on eBay.

It's not mindless scrolling, it's a fashion pursuit.

And when you score that rare Adidas collab or the Dior saddlebag you've been manifesting, it's a rush.

eBay has millions of pre-loved finds from hundreds of brands backed by eBay Authenticity Guarantee.

eBay, things people love.

The 2026 Chevy Equinox is more than an SUV.

It's your Sunday tailgate and your parking lot snack bar.

Your lucky jersey, your chairs, and your big cooler fit perfectly in your even bigger cargo space.

And when it's go time, your 11.3-inch diagonal touchscreen's got the playbook, the playlist, and the tech to stay a step ahead.

It's more than an SUV, it's your Equinox.

Chevrolet, together let's drive.

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.

One thing collectively, which is that this is like a aspiration as 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 roadie carrying our luggage, and that was absolutely critical.

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.

Um, I don't, you guys, I'm 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

by the time I processed 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 two are just, I'm doing collectively.

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 a little bit.

I totally agree.

I'll go next because I don't want to go after Melissa because I feel like Melissa is 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 pull 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 or not all of the funny things that many of the funny things

so many that come out

so funny trying

not go to jail

also uh

style is off the hook.

One time you said you liked a blazer I wore and I was like, fucking put it in the Louvre because I know I made it.

It was a good blazer.

It was such a good blazer.

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 five to ten 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 manage 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.

Thank you.

All right, so it's my turn.

I have 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 being 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 chide us gently sometimes and really sort of pull us back 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.

And also,

Michael has to endure our pre-recording pre-recording chatter at the beginning of every episode, and he handles it like a champ.

So cannot because it's wild.

It is.

It is actually wild.

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.

She's an agent of the Chinese game.

No, she is not.

But she is just very generous and positive, but also has this like cutting humor.

So yeah, great combo.

Melody and I have like some good book talk, not they're 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 are 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 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 but 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.

Like,

it's a running bit.

I think we have to keep doing it just because everyone expects it.

But I love that you're trying to add more popular culture to your repertoire.

Like no one else tries as hard to get up to speed.

I mean, 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

how we can be impactful, even when it feels like everything is just going to shit.

So one of your best qualities is 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, I mean, like, just sometimes I'm just like, it's, it's just the perfect marriage.

Um, you know, we are the perfect marriage, if you will.

Like, we are three people, so maybe we are polyamorous in that respect.

Um, and that's interesting too, but I love everything about this.

Um, I don't think I could have made it through November 6th through 10th without knowing I had you all to come back to 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 Leah,

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.

Back in the day when we used to make all that merch, it was really all Leah just making merch constantly.

And

yeah, those were the, those were the salad days when we just made merch all the time.

And it's, 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

actually I'm not excited for 2025 but I'm excited for 2025 with you all and it's gonna be the only one of the only things about 2025

it's gonna bring some comfort we're gonna be the real project 2025 that's what we're gonna we're gonna rename this podcast the real project 2025 and no watch what happens no girl um

we're not

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 listened to the pod.

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 Gianni Janke, Jennifer Buttrick, 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 doing the podcast.

And again, the best thing about this is you are listeners and we wanted to give you a taste of the strict scrutiny audience that makes this all possible and this community so wonderful.

Hello, ladies.

Or should I say, bonjour, madame?

Hi, Strict Scrutiny.

I'm coming to you from Zurg, Switzerland.

Greetings from Germany.

From the Upper Valley of Vermont, New Hampshire.

I'm calling from the Great Southwest.

I am an APUS 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.

I'm Isaiah.

I'm a first-generation law student, and I just finished my 1L year at Mizzou.

I am currently a law student in the southeastern United States, also known as HEL.

I have completed my PhD 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 an applied 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 bat biologist.

I am a patent examiner.

I am an OBGYN 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 what I wanted to recognize you for was empowering me to be a court watcher.

That is a genuine train sound.

And in my small French town, I listen to you and I shake my head thinking that we are living in a strange world at a strange time.

I've been listening a lot while mucking horse pens and stalls and given the Supreme Court decisions y'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 podcast 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 Martharita and a Ginny Tonic cheersing to you three.

Please know that somewhere out there there's a pretty run-of-the-mill transactional attorney brewing coffee in a firm and saying out loud with a grin, grin, all I ask of our brethren is that they take their mother fucking feet off our necks.

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 things 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, some additional thoughts.

From gripping hidden histories to mysterious cold cases, Crookeds Limited series are your ultimate road trip or cozy couch companions.

Whether you're driving to your in-laws, relaxing in front of the fire, or just avoiding those awkward family convos, unravel the mystery of a prominent judge's death in killing justice, follow the shocking transformation of a Chinese civil rights activist into a MAGA Trump supporter in dissident at the doorstep, or immerse yourself in the hidden history of America's largest police force with Empire City, the untold origin story of the NYPD, named one of the top podcasts of 2024 by Time magazine, Vulture, and the New York Times.

You can binge these series and more, including strict scrutiny, at crooked.com or find them wherever you get your podcasts.

Strict Scrutiny is a crooked media production hosted and executive produced by Leah Lippmann, 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 Landis.

Music by Eddie Cooper.

Production support from Madeline Harringer and Ari Schwartz.

Matt DeGroote is our head of production.

Thanks to our digital team, Phoebe Bradford and Joe Matuski.

Subscribe to Strict Scrutiny on YouTube to catch full episodes.

Find us at youtube.com/slash strictscrutiny 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.

Only if you're nice.

Only if you're nice, not if you're naughty.

Coal for you.

There are millions of podcasts out there, and you've chosen this one.

Whether you're a regular or just here on a whim, it's what you have chosen to listen to.

With Yoto, your kids can have the same choice.

Yoto is a screen-free, ad-free audio player.

With hundreds of Yoto cards, there are stories, music, and podcasts like this one, but for kids.

Just slot a card into the player and let the adventure begin.

Check out YotoPlay.com.

With Plan B emergency contraception, we're in control of our future.

It's backup birth control you you take after unprotected sex that helps prevent pregnancy before it starts.

It works by temporarily delaying ovulation, and it won't impact your future fertility.

Plan B is available in all 50 U.S.

states at all major retailers near you, with no ID, prescription, or age requirement needed.

Together, we got this.

Follow Plan B on Insta at Plan B OneStep to learn more.

Use as directed.