S7: Our Favorite Things, 2025

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One last time that's 60% off your first order of Smalls plus free shipping when you head to Smalls.com for its last strict. Let's keep justice. Please support. It's an old joke. But when I argue in there and argue against it, it's beautiful ladies like this. There's one how 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 or for next. Hello and welcome back to Strix Crutney, your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. We are your hosts. I'm Kecha. I'm Leah Lilliman. And I'm Melissa Murray and it's that time of the year again. Here at Strix Crutney, we have many traditions. One of them is talking about Samolito's skin and his purported skincare regime. Another is talking about Brett Kavanaugh's intellect. And another is just generally calling the court out on its BS. But another tradition, which we always do in the festive season, is our favorite things episode. It's just like Oprah's favorite things only with lawless courts. It's amazing. So if that sounds confusing, here is how it works. We just kind of go around with some gift giving and gift soliciting ideas. And then we also touch on a few of our other favorite things with kind of random banter, some of it, but not all of it, scot is related in the mix. And today we are delighted to be joined by a special guest, someone who is usually behind the microphone slash scenes not in front of one. That's right. It is our fantastic intern, Jordan Thomas. Welcome to the show, Jordan. Thank you for having me. It's super cool. Love to finally be able to contribute in a way that's not just behind the scenes. This is really wonderful. Well, you've been contributing a lot behind the scenes. Jordan is truly the gift who keeps giving us this wonderful. He's here because he is one of our favorite things. Exactly. Literally, whatever. Exactly. Yes. So you can all follow along. The general categories that we talk about in the episode are something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. I do want to note that this last category presumes you can read, Brett, so I'm not sure if we have any picture of us to recommend. Just pride, puppy. That is not on. I mean, maybe it should be. It was maligned in the oral argument of momwood. It was. But it was perfectly maligned. Okay. We will then do a little bit of shit chatting about the last year and the next one. And for our final segment, we're going to be joined by returning guest and friend of the show Ellen Wyentrop, a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. So some of our favorite things are what? Separation of powers, agency independence, and campaign finance regulation. And our favorite things, our least favorite things are what the court is going to do to all of those ideas. Exactly. So let's start with something you want. I'll go first. This is something I have, but you all should want the cozy earth cuddle bubble blanket. It is surreal. It's like this waffle texture that's super soft. My dog and I fight over it like seriously, cozy earth. If you're listening, Stevie should be a model for you. I have so many photos of her wrapped in this blanket. We are all obsessed. It's heavy. You haven't said this. It has like almost a weight in quality to it. Right. No, that's part of like the waffle thing that I meant to convey. Yeah. No, it's slightly heavier than your average blanket, but still soft. It's just excellent. And something else. So Jones Road, I know they're like most famous product is the miracle bomb. I love their tinted moisturizer. It's the only tinted moisturizer that feels more like moisturizer and less like foundation to me and like isn't oily. And I just love it. So I'm also going to mention a couple of things that I have and that you might need. Okay. The first is an electric scooter. So think Vespa, but kind of off brand. So there are now some Vespa competitors. And one of them is Aventura. And I don't mean to disparage it by calling it off brand. It's just not a, you know, like Vespa is a pretty famous Italian company. So Aventura is an American company. They're making these electric scooters that look just like Vespa's like if you kind of like squint. But the basic outline is the same. It is fully electric. So there is a big square battery that you just bring into your house and plug into a wall. So you don't have to like go to a separate charging station and it's not a hybrid. It's like purely electric. And the price point is for a scooter like way, way, way, way less than a Vespa. Some of them are like under two or three thousand dollars. And this is like a, you know, baby motorcycle. This is like a thing that will transport you all around New York City where I live. And it is actually amazing if you live in a place where you need to go like a mile or two or three with stuff. So you can't like walk faster jog necessarily comfortably. And there just are not necessarily subway stations between point A and point B. Transport my older children to the bus and subway stops on the scooter. And it's just kind of an amazing way to get around New York City. Wanted to shout out that company which has been great so far. And then very different is I was at my book club recently and like for some reason somebody asked for people's recommendations about the supplements they were taking. And there was a lot of endorsement of gruns or grounds. I don't even know how you say it like super food vitamins, which are these like little gummy bear packets with like nine gummy bears that you're supposed to take every day. So you get to eat a lot of vitamins in the form of gummy bears daily. I'm not totally sure. Like I feel any health effects yet, but they're pretty delicious. And it's kind of awesome to be taking gummy bears for quasi medicinal purposes. So those might be something that you need to either view into the super food like gruns vitamins yet. Liam Alyssa Jordan, I assume you are not. You made me take some on the road to Oh, yeah, give me a pack on the Amtrak. What do you think? And then remember I had an amazing headache and was just like really totally effed out the far show. Do you remember that? I think that I drew you to the vitamins. I don't know. Should I try again? I mean, I don't want to. I mean, not the four alive show. I think I mean, Leah, she pushed them on me so hard. I thought like she was like it was Molly or something. She was a vitamin. Moas. This sounds like taking care of entry in the burn book for Mrs. She was a pusher. She was a pusher. She was a pusher. All right, you're not ready to endorse. I share them with our listeners. I'm going to try again in 2026. I'm going to get my microbiome in check with your gruns. I'm going to get them. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm going to plus one the cozy earth bubble blanket. I think cozy earth that you need to have coal and Stevie together in a beach poo golden doodle. Cuttle off. Like I think something could happen there. I think it's going to be really cute. He loves the bubble blanket. He's actually fighting my son for it. Um, they go back and forth and sometimes I see coal kind of trying to drag it out of my son's room, but it's really heavy. So it's just very hard, but it's really cute to watch. Other things that I want, um, true botanical skincare, love it all the time. Um, low key shore that this is what is keeping Samuel, Alito looking so fresh face. Um, or maybe it's just hate. I'd like to think it's true botanicals, but, um, who knows? But here are some less expensive things. I think we should have a range of different price points here. And I know that true botanicals can be kind of pricey. Something that I absolutely love that is very accessible. Elf liquid camel blush. Like you can buy this at Amazon. You can buy it at CVS or Walgreens. It's a liquid blush and you just sort of tap, tap, tap it on your cheekbones and then blend. And it looks like a really sort of natural flush like, like that you were just embarrassed. It's fantastic. Highly recommend. It's in my turn. It is your turn. Yes, your turn. Like, and you better bring it Jordan. But something that I want, I have very long hair for those of you who are watching on YouTube or elsewhere, you can see I have a gigantic afro. So hair care is very important to me. And I've recently started experimenting with different forms of hair care. As it gets longer, you know, I try to just see how I can keep it looking beautiful and voluminous. And somebody told me that tea tree leaving conditioner really keeps it shining and keeps it healthy and long. And so I'm definitely looking into the new tea tree brand of leaving conditioners for those of you with long hair and curly hair. Then I need to moisturize it after I get out the shower. And I love the pink moisturizer brand, but I'm running low. So things I want is I need an emergency supply of pink. Pink moisturizer is seriously old school Jordan. Like that was around when I was in high school. Hair style. I have an afro. I mean, the only people I would take hair advice from are Jordan Thomas and Lisa Barlow. So these are endorsements that are worth. I resent that. I resent that. I was going to say to you, Jordan, you should also try curl mix, which is great for curly hair. Highly recommend. Thank you. So next category, something you need. So I was going to recommend the Peloton app stretching classes. I have basically had problem sleeping since, I don't know, November 2024, December 2024. Not sure why, but that's when my insomnia kicked in. And I found that Peloton's evening stretch classes, specifically with Maddie Majokomo. They, I love them. They're so helpful. Like hip openers really help me relax and like fall asleep. So definitely recommend that. Something you need for the perfect puppy in your life are farmhounds dog treats and badlands ranch food. My dog is obsessed. Okay. So I was debating whether to put this in the want or need category, but I decided need and the thing that I want to put in the top of my need list is a personalized bobble head. So is this a moment when I can pull out the personalized bobble head? It's allowed. All right. So Leah Lippman is the genius behind this personalized bobble head. Unless you got yours. George, you're at the law school right now. So we didn't tell you to bring the prop. So we will have to post pictures like stills of all these. We'll have to photo shop it. But yeah. So this is my personalized bobble head, which is on my shelf. It's joining my bobble heads right now. Or John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Barack Obama and now myself, which I think is a question. I'm pretty happy about it. That's the court we've been dreaming of. Exactly. Exactly. We need a fifth vote though, guys. There's four. It's more of a... I'm like, I'm right here. Okay. I'm on my bookshelf. Yeah. So that's right. So that's the court is you, me. John Paul Stevens, David Souter, I'm the brawl. Let's tell you something. I'm the brawl. I'm the brawl. I'm the brawl. I'm the brawl. Okay. So actually, that's right. The thing I need is now a bobble head of my co-hosts. So I can actually have all of us behind me. All right. So that's what I'm going to work on for next year. And actually, this is the opposite. I don't usually record in this room. But since I am in here, I'm going to show you something else I have, which is actually my husband last year, no, no, no. Maybe three years ago actually, for Christmas, got our whole family, these little action figure dolls made of ourselves. And it was like... I think it was an artist. Actually, now it wasn't three years, probably four years ago, because it was like a COVID creation. There was an artist, you know, people found all kinds of crazy ways to try to make money when everything was shut down. And so this artist, I think, is no longer doing this, was like making these personalized action figures. And we'll go well with my bobble head. So you can also try to find somebody making those. I'm okay. Quickly, a couple other things. Lily Allen tickets. We're going in New York. Leah, you're going to go in DC, right? Oh, yeah. I'm going in DC. I was... I thought I was going in DC with at least one of you who said I couldn't go to New York. I could go to DC. So I guess tickets. And then it's like, I said I couldn't go to New York after all. I said I couldn't go in DC, but... I mean, you haven't been born to me. Are you looking at me? I did do that. That was really stupid. Luckily, you have friends in DC who I know will take those tickets off. I totally, for honestly, Leah, I forgot I did that. I can only blame Paramount Apods. I just reminded you. I think you did. All right. Last thing, and then I'm going to turn it over to Melissa. You need T-shirts made by Leah Lippman, limited edition T-shirts. Like this one's scripting all along. Can you even... Sorry, like in my hair's no way. Okay, you can see it. Because Leah makes and sometimes gives out these T-shirts at live shows. That's great. Like the ones we're going to be doing in California in March. So if you were already thinking about, or maybe even weren't thinking about, but should be thinking about getting tickets to one of our two live shows, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, now you know there are potential T-shirt giveaways in the mix. So get those tickets. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to make just the tip ones. Oh, wow. That's pretty exciting. Reason enough. Okay. Shukzutni's brought to you by Planned Parenthood. The courts matter. The law matters. But so do the people behind the cases, the patients, the families and the communities that Planned Parenthood serves every day. This year, the attacks on reproductive freedom have been relentless. President Trump and his Congress have defunded Planned Parenthood, a move that harms the health and lives of 1.1 million patients across the United States. Planned Parenthood is in court to keep this disastrous law from taking away health care from millions of people, but they urgently need your help. You can rush your gift by visiting PlannedParenthood.org slash defend. No matter the size, your donation makes a real difference, helping Planned Parenthood meet this moment and protect access to care when it matters most right now. So don't wait, donate today at PlannedParenthood.org slash defend. That's www.plannedParenthood.org for slash defend. If you work in university maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP, because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip-off, and Granger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRANJURE, visit Granger.com or just up by Granger, for the ones who get it done. So things that I need or learn that I needed this year. So first up, Caddys Readers. And yes, folks, Macular Degeneration is real if you are an older person, and I am the oldest person on this podcast. So this year, I got myself some readers, and not just any readers, I got Caddys readers. So these are fashionable mine, actually are camouflage, and they are very, very cool. And you can get them in all kinds of strengths, you can get them as progressive readers where you can see over the top, and then under, I don't know, they explained it to me some kind of way. Either way, I can read again. It's fantastic. I'm going to recommend it to some of the Republican justices, so they too can read again. So helpful. So helpful. I'm just the gift that keeps on giving. In addition to those readers, I also love, and I brought a prop, Black Wing Matt Pencils. Like I don't know about you, but when I start writing an article or whatnot, I like to actually write it down on paper, just the tip. And I love writing with these pencils. It's like a really soft lead. It makes a really nice line. And like sometimes when I'm doodling, I just like doodle all over my little notes for myself. And I like doing it with a Black Wing Matt Pencil. They're really great, and they have a really cool eraser at the bottom. So highly recommend that. And then since November 2024, As Leah suggested, it's been really hard kind of dealing with things. So one way that I have been dealing, and I don't recommend this, but every now and again, I think it's nice to open a bottle of As Ever Rose from my someday friend, the other MM, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, and have a little glass, like a little tipple. I'm just a point you don't have a prop to show us your open bottle. I actually do. I would even, I hope you didn't even strip that. Let me see that bottle. I would have, like actually I forgot. It's actually in the, in the done. But it actually is surprisingly good wine that you can buy on the internet. Like not, it's not all wine you buy on the internet is great, but this is pretty good. I like it. We're freshening. All right, Jordan, over to you. I'll return back to the theme of tickets. So Lily Allen tickets are, I think for those who are fans, I hopefully get a chance to see her. Actually, I really like Hard Rock, and I know that that's an unusual genre for listeners of this podcast, but those of you who are sympathetic, Evan Essence just announced a new tour with Spirit Box, and I absolutely love Evan Essence. Why is he talking about Evan Essence? Like this wasn't a band from the 1990s. Everybody listens to Hard Rock. Not everybody listens to Hard Rock. This is not about me. I'm not sure that they have Evan Essence. This was a hard rock. I don't know if that's hard rock. You didn't listen to the, I'm listening to the young person. I'm going to go, okay. Evan Essence is over there. That's because you were reading in the 90s, Kate, like we and I, like, I don't know that Evan Essence is hard rock. What do you think, Leah? I say no, but I say no too. That's fair. And Jordan? That's fair. I mean, Evan Essence to be fair, I think aside from Lincoln Park is the most mainstream of hard rock bands. When you look at their streams on Spotify, it's basically Lincoln Park in Evan Essence, so I love that. They have, you know, I just wonder if maybe the youth have gotten soft, Jordan. Maybe that's what happened. Now it's hard rock, but it wasn't. Well, I think that they were adjacent to other bands that I was going to mention, like Sleep Token, Spirit Box, Bad Omen's, Architects. Do you know any of these? Obviously, I do, Jordan. Anyway, these, all of these bands just released new music. They're all going on tour, continuing in 2026. Corn also, a band from the 90s is going on tour of 2026. So for those of us who are fans of hard rock music, it's just, it's going to be an amazing year of concerts that have just been announced. And I need to get tickets from many of these. I don't know how many I'll actually be able to go to, but I'll try. Aside from that, I'm wearing right now these beautiful set of Sony headphones, and they work very well for me, when I need noise cancelling. But what I actually need is there are a pair of behind the head headphones called Marathon Headphones that don't squish your hair. And so for those of you who have the same problem that I do that, you love to listen to music, you're listening to it 24-7, but you need something where you can just sort of wrap it around your head, good sound quality, and it's not going to mess up your due for the day. They're called Marathon. And I used to have this beautiful pair and they broke. So I am now studying for law school finals without my go-to headphones, and I desperately need a new pair of Marathon behind the neck headphones. Marathon, if you're listening to this, you can't buy this kind of. I'm not going to pull us a day. Some of those to the Yale Law School, 124 Wall Street, New Haven, Connecticut, I was 6511. Wait, is the brand Marathon, or that's a category of headphones that's called like, are they for running? Are they running headphones or that's just a brand? No, it's a brand, if you go on new type of Marathon behind the head, behind the neck headphones, so pop right up. So something to wear. My first recommendation is the Forma posture bra. And yes, this is the bra that Taylor Swift was photographed in when she was rehearsing for the Ares tour. And yes, that is why I bought my first one. But it's so good. It actually helps my back. That's actually a lot of stuff. Is it actually a posture that's the one that's supposed to give you good posture, right? It helps posture, and seriously, it really does help back pain. I love that thing. Really recommend that. And then, so this last year, we had the good fortune of being dressed by Argent at one of our live shows, and I am now obsessed. I just love their bright colors and all of the fun workwear. And yeah, it just makes, I don't know, work dressing a lot more fun than it ever was. I also still love the real, real, the outlet. And also anything Melissa recommends I buy. I end up loving. She is my worst enabler, but her taste is unparalleled. So can we tell them about it? It's a text exchange we have. Yes. So I got an email update that the Veronica Beard online store was having some kind of cyber Monday sale where everything was marked down. Some things like 80% crazy. And so I sent it to Lida. And I noted, FYI, the iconic scuba jacket, the scuba dicky jacket is on sale and heavily discounted. And so Lida, I sent her the precise website for it, the URL. Lida clicks on it and then a few minutes later, I see like the dot, dot, dot she's thinking through. And she's like, which color should I buy, Navy or Black? And so I said, both. I was just joking, but I think that I had to go wash dishes or something. And I think you bought them. Yeah, I did. Again, you're my worst enabler. I was just joking though. We'd have the idea. You were just joking. They came though and you love them, right? I do. That's great. They're going to go with everything. You're going to have them forever. Yeah. All right. My turn. Yep. Okay. So I am Quinn's Pilled as you know. And Quinn's I think is well known for its very accessible cash mirror. But do not sleep on the yak wool sweaters. Now I know you're thinking Melissa, yak wool does not sound terribly appealing. I too was a yak wool skeptic, but I recently purchased one of these sweaters. And it's surprisingly soft. It's even more accessible than the cash mirror. And it's the perfect length for layering with like a white t-shirt and then wearing with like quarterways in your sambas. Like the perfect like lounging around outfit. So and I think they're actually very, very durable. They don't pill. I really like it. Highly highly recommend. Also want to recommend the Uniclo white t-shirt. Has a great, really close collar. If you want to wear it under suits and whatnot. Also looks good if you're wearing a crew neck. They're so cheap. They're like $14 at Uniclo and you can buy them online. You can buy them in the store. Highly highly recommend. Also really enjoy the clearly collective collegiate scarf collection. So if you are an alumna of, I don't know, the University of Virginia, there is a scarf in orange and blue, the University of Virginia's colors with the rotunda on it and the lawn. And if you go to some other schools, I don't know like the University of North Carolina, I guess, they have scarves for you too in whatever your dumb colors are. Anyway, you are welcome. Welcome, our UNC listeners. Just to be clear, Melissa. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We love you, I'd say they're so great. Anyway, so highly recommend those. And right now, because it's getting cold in New York, I have longed for a hat that will not mess up my pixie. And I found the way soft cashmere beanie on Amazon. It's a little pricey. It's about $65. Like for a hat you might lose, so you got to hold on to it. But it's really like oversized. So it doesn't push your hair down and it keeps your quaffor in good shape. And you just like take off the hat and just like sort of fluff your hair and you're fine again. Highly recommend. Okay. I need more like Melissa enabling kind of shopping in my life. I just don't almost never buy anything. I do text you things. I know. You don't respond. Okay, because I don't stop doing it. I'm receptive. I have just sometimes indecisive. But I do think like, at least have a good shirt. T-shirts. My friend, he says always saying that. Just like, just let me just go shopping for you. But I would say half the shirts I wear in my body are like ones designed by Leah. It's just like they're great. So I will re-recommend Leah Limon T-shirts of the world. Our merch store on the website for the podcast, the strict scrutiny merch now has at least two baby onesies in the collection that is new. So and she loves wearing those too. I personally do not. And yet something to wear is the general category we're in. And I have a tiny new baby nephew. I only had the tate because I was like, I think it was going to be us. I'm buying him. I've ordered him a couple of these, but I don't think his parents listened to my podcast. So I think it's fine. I'm not going to ruin the surprise. But if you have babies in your life, get some of our onesies. And then the last is since we talked about cozy earth, which is the maker of that bubble blanket we were talking about, they also make really nice clothing. And I have a pair of their studio wide leg pants that are just like at home pajama kind of trouser pants that I often do also wear out of the house. And they are so soft and so comfortable. And I'm completely obsessed with them. And this conversation is making me remember. I've worn them so much they're getting a little afraid at the bottom. I should probably get another pair. I love them. You know, we're they're great for wearing. Where? To the airport. I wear them on the truck. I get to the train. I get to the train, but I'm duffy. No, no. Oh. When you want a ticket to Shawn Dough, because they're also cute. They don't look slubby. They actually look. They don't look slubby, but they are. I think they're women are allowed to wear pants in that world. Oh, that's true. Yeah, she's got to. Like you will be sticking it to him. You're in your lounge wear and your lounge wear is pants. Okay. You are a lady. Good point. Yeah. All right, Jordan, you're up. I'll double down on the strict scrutiny gear. It's basically all I wear these days. It's awesome. It's beautiful. Lawless hoodie right now and can never get enough of it. I also want crooked gear. I was at Crooked Con, one of the highlights of the year for sure. But by the time that I went to try to get merged, they actually had close emerged then. Oh, John. We are going to fix this. We are going to hook you up with some gear. That's good to know. But I did see online, you know, follow Crooked on Instagram and all your social media channels. And I saw that you can actually go online and get some of the merch that was at Crooked Con. So if you like me, Mr. Chancellor get merged. Something to wear is to go on to the Crooked site and look at their store. They have a very robust offering of items that I hope to get into wear. Aside from strict scrutiny or Crooked gear, I need a new set of jeans. And I love dark wash jeans. I love the look of them. You can pair them with most types of outfits and you can sort of wear them down, wear them up. And so I'm in the market for dark wash jeans. And I love this brand called Mavi jeans. So something to wear. They have a nice dark wash style. They have a darker sort of off gray black. If you're into that, you know, for the Goth people amongst us or if you're just looking for something to pair with a nice sort of top that needs a black bottom, Mavi jeans are amazing. They look great. They feel great. I need some Mavi jeans. Can I ask a question, Jordan? Is it Mavi Mavi? Mavi jeans. That's from the 90s, Jordan. Like all of your picks are the many Mavi noodles. We are learning something important about you, Jordan. I've been old so. Are we going to say that 90s is old school? Old so, um, yeah, Jordan, this feels very over that one. Look at this. I was just like, this is a nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice. I've been watching it. I've listened to Evan Essence in third. I've blinded. What can I say, hello, so this is great. This is why we get along so well. Jordan, basically, our 50 year old woman is like, I'm fine with that. I love it. Um, okay. So one quick adenna before on to something to read. Um, I am wearing this cardigan that Melody got me for my birthday and I'm obsessed. It's a secret cardigan because Taylor hasn't actually made a reputation cardigan, but this is a reputation cardigan and I love it. Okay. So on something to read, I'm only going to recommend fiction. So Allison Esbach, wedding people, anything by Julian Long, I especially enjoyed the Penny Royal Greening series. Um, Lisa Claypast, the Wallflower series was my favorite. I love Sarah McLean's, these summer storms, V-E-Schwobbs, Barry My Bones and the Midnight Soil, Liz Moore, God of the Woods, all just fantastic books. You can get them all at bookshop.org and support your local independent bookstores. I also joined Book of the Month, which I really like. Um, just give the keeps on giving. Um, you know, you get to select different book every month from among their great recommendations. It's just super fun. Also in the category of fiction, something I wanted to highlight is the conservative slash Republican justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, their fiction. Um, just like making shit up. So by way of background, quickly, the Wisconsin Supreme Court appointed some three judge panels to hear challenges to the state's court-adopted congressional map. Um, that sounds weird. Just let it slide. You know, when the court was still conservative slash Republican control, they adopted a congressional map, you know, the procedural posture isn't worth getting into right now, but the court adopted the map and set it complied with the Constitution. Now some plaintiffs are challenging the map, which is an extreme partisan gerrymander. You know, the map was drawn using the state legislatures, extreme partisan gerrymander as a jumping off point. Anyways, several of the conservative justices on the court had an absolute fucking melty and got big mad when the Supreme Court appointed these panels to hear these challenges. And apparently they are so out of their minds, they hallucinated quotes from Supreme Court opinion. So just as Zeagler, for example, quoted the United States Supreme Court opinion in more versus Harper in saying that state courts role congressional redistricting is quote exceedingly limited end quote. It does not appear in more. And just as Zeagler has since modified her opinion, but in ways that are nonsensical. So now her opinion says state courts role in congressional redistricting is exceedingly limited in sites more, but it's sites the passage in more that just says state courts may not transgress the ordinary bounds of judicial review and election cases. IE that they have a normal role. You know, the opinion is laced with accusations. Um, it, you know, has many different sections, including a part titled a pattern of partisan judicial activism, Justice Rebecca Bradley also has a descent. And since I love my girl, Rebecca Bradley had to read a line or two from it quote, I'll just go with the ending. The majority nevertheless entertains yet another kick at the redistricting cat. Unlike Schrodinger's cat, this one most assuredly has been dead for years. I dissent end quote. Girl this one did not work. You know you got to do a wolf, not a cat, right? She missed the memo. Um, they're opinion. They're opinion. They're not even in the right family. Exactly, exactly. Like these opinions have big, like we are infallible because we are final energy, like how dare you criticize us? Um, but a challenge to this map could undo one of the worst Republican leading partisan gerrymanders in the country. So definitely a case to watch. Um, okay, I'm going to be a little shorter, uh, no shade, Lea, that was great, but I don't have, um, a lot of long quotes from one inch States Supreme Court, Justice is to read. As I said, fiction. Uh, right. Um, okay. Okay, so nonfiction, I'm gonna just do a little bit. I had hoped to be able to stay on this pod. I finally finished reading Robert Carrows, the Power Program, but I cannot say an untrue thing and I am so close and yet I am not done. So I really hope that by the time we get to 20, 26 is favorite things and hopefully well before I will be able to say I'm really done with it. But it's amazing, it's just so fucking long. But I'm inside of the finish line. Other kind of nonfiction books that stuck with me this year, Michael Lewis's, who is government, the Elon Musk biography by Kate Conjure and Ryan Mack called Character Limit was really, really good. John Whits the Radical Fund, we had John on the show to talk about it. Those kind of really stuck with me for the last year and just a couple of fiction books to recommend or re-recommend, Allegra Goodman's, Isola, so beautiful, Lily King's Heart the Lover, which I've already recommended, Kaviak Barr's Marder and Ben Shoddock's short story collection, the history of sound, every single short story in that collection, which is not my genre. Like I'm not a short story fan normally, but I absolutely adore these short stories. All right, nonfiction, Tina Nolzes, Matriarch loved it. I know everyone thinks it's just a little Destiny's Child Confessional, but there's actually a lot of black history. She talks a lot about her childhood growing up in Galveston in this very tightly knit black community, her work in Houston, how she basically transformed her daughter into one of the world's biggest pop sensations. So yeah, like Miss Tina is doing all the things and you should definitely get on that. I also loved Amani Perry's Black in Blues. Amani Perry is a former law professor. Now she's just a professor, not just a professor at Princeton, but she's left the law game and she's just crushing it. She's one of the most formidable thinkers, I think of our time. She wrote this fantastic book South to America. This is the follow up Black in Blues, where she talks about the linkages between blackness and the color blue. So there's a lot of meditation on the blues obviously, but also black blue. And what it means to have color in the absence of color, she's a wonderful writer, a serious thinker and someone that should be on everyone's radar. Some of you know that my favorite author is Jane Austin. And so I really enjoyed Rebecca Romney's Jane Austin's bookshelf, which are like all the things that Jane Austin and her sister Cassandra used to read as they were exchanging letters. And she was basically being a petty bitch writing stuff about people in her village. And like, that's my energy. And so I enjoy it. I enjoy Jane Austin. I love her petty vibe and highly enjoyed this book. In terms of fiction, I think Leah, you like this one too. I really enjoyed Taylor Junkin reads atmosphere, which is a book, I guess you might call it historical fiction because it takes place in the 1980s as the space program is sort of just getting off in terms of the shuttle program. And it's about a group of astronauts. You might like this Jordan since it takes place in the past. There's also Marie Bostick's The Book Club for troublesome women. I picked that up because I thought it was about our podcast, but it really wasn't. It was about something else, but I enjoyed it a lot. And then I also really want to recommend The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Karen Desai. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I personally think it should have won. I thought this was one of the best books of the year. So before we go to Jordan, Kate and Melissa, any other nonfiction books to you especially in Jordan? Oh, geez, that was this year. Everyone, everyone. I mean, I thought it was obvious. She'd have been, I know, and Jordan actually gets the gold medal for wearing this sweatshirt. But Leah Lippins' lawless is a book that was... Just as you know, we weren't seating just Jordan to talk about it. How do you know that? Maybe you pulled the trigger too. You probably were giving it to the intern. Because he is an excellent hype man. But also... I wanted to talk to you too on the spot and not him. Yes, but I think he probably would have done it organically. But yes. Let's let Jordan go. Leah's a more... Let's let Jordan go. All right, I'm not going to be empty, but I will say I do cosine the endorsement of lawless that Jordan is about to make. Go ahead. Go, Jordan. I was actually going to lead with lawless. So you two are all for yoga. It's my top book of the year. We knew that. I just think it's really unique for the genre. It's so accessible. It's funny. In many ways, I brought my mom and dad up to speed on what's happening at the court. It's always wonderful when I can speak with them about what's going on. So Leah just did a phenomenal job with the book. And I think for those who love American horror story in the Barbie movie and one mix of pop culture and law, which is this podcast and encapsulated in a book so perfectly, that's lawless for you. So just wonderful. Deserves a best-soul or status that it's attained. Let's go. I just want to say, you know, Leah, have a little faith. Like, we did corny. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. I mean, I knew Jordan was going to say it. Look how he's dressed. I mean that. He's wearing. Look, he's wearing. I was ready. I was wrong. That's fair. That's fair. OK. I accept your critiques. Wait, but Jordan, you can leave it there. You are allowed to have it. My drop, but you are also welcome. I endorse other things if you would like. I will say that this book is premier amongst books, but I will give a few others. Another premier book, actually, I will say, Husband of the Pod, Chris Hayes, the sirens call, how attention became the world's most endangered resource as a phenomenal book. I think for people who are really into the anxious generation and generally thinking about how digital media is really changing all sorts of social interaction and personal cognization. It's just a wonderful contribution to that genre. And he does a really great job of actually proposing solutions as well and weaving in the law. So just Chris Hayes, the sirens call does it all. Another front of the podcast, Bad Law by Ellie Mistal, 10 Laws in a Ruining America sort of walks you through things like standard ground laws, different gun laws in different states that are really contributing to inequality and injustice across the country that I thought was very well done, especially if you like his other book, allow me to retort Black man's interpretation of the Constitution. It's very much a follow on to that. And it's very funny, as Ellie tends to be. A classmate of mine, actually, Yale Law School, Zachier Tommy's just came out with Charles Sumner, conscience of an nation. We love that one. Absolutely wonderful contribution. He actually wrote this or started writing it when he was a three-year-old in law school. I don't know how he made time to do it, but it's a wonderful new look at a forgotten figure of sorts. Everybody remembers Charles Sumner for his caning on the Senate floor, but people don't actually appreciate how much he contributed to the Reconstruction Era project. Like why he got cany? Yeah, he was actually, he was a radical. He was a part of the radical Republicans at the time. And he had a deep links to Frederick Douglass and not just Frederick Douglass, but several early Black lawyers in the Reconstruction South and was helping to lead the charge of Reconstruction, post-antabellum rebuilding. And so just really fascinating look at Charles Sumner from my friend, Zachier. I'll also put out there a new book by Sonya Sotomayor. I think we don't give enough attention to her. We're talking about Anthony Kennedy's new memoir. We're talking about Amy Coney Barrett's new memoir. But I will say, Justice Sotomayor just came out with the children's book. It's called Just Shine, How to Be Yourself, How to Be Great. I think is what it is. And it's really much in this sort of ilk of new children's books that she's put out in the past few years. She had one called Just Ask, Just Help. And so this one's called Just Shine, and it's dedicated to her mother. And it's really showing children how to explore differences amongst people, but also lead into themselves, and to be brilliant, to be kind, to be empathetic. And I just think it's really wonderful. At a time when you have cases like Mamu and V. Taylor that are making it more difficult for children in schools to access books of sorts because of parental opt-outs, it's really sort of telling that one justice is make it easier for children to access books because she's writing them herself. So I just think it's wonderful. I noticed Jordan that although you like to do these throwbacks, you haven't thrown back to another strict scrutiny book. The Trump and Dyer. There it is. We said the Trump and Dyer. I thought it was really the past year. It's a very, very long one. Just going to say this book after this year in this court, this is basically fantasy. This is a fantasy reading. It's moved from the nonfiction to the fiction. It's a fantasy. Oh, correct. Yeah, correct. This episode of Structur scrutiny is sponsored by Cards Against Humanity. Cards Against Humanity. It's not just about party games. Cards Against Humanity is the company that bought land on the US Mexico border to stop Trump's wall. It sued Elon Musk for $15 million for trespassing on that land. It used profits from red states to fund abortion access and it paid people to give a damn about the 2024 election. Like I said, not just party games. Did you even know all of that stuff they were doing? Rock on people. Cards Against Humanity is one of the only companies stupid enough to stand up to President Donald J. Trump. They don't profit from their political stunts. So if you want them to be able to afford a good lawyer, please consider buying one of their new games. There's Cards Against Humanity Tales, a book of fill-in-the-blank stories for horrible people. Basically, it's like Fed Sock Mad Libs. You're gonna love it. Or there's shit list, a new way to play the game where you write the answers. Basically sounds like a shadow-docket order from the Supreme Court. Or you can try party mouth, a new party game about shouting up senators as a coping mechanism for the hellscape that we live in. Basically, that's a Structur scrutiny episode. You listen to crooked media. So you probably are smart enough to figure out how to buy Cards Against Humanity stuff. So I'm not going to tell you. In any event, Cards Against Humanity apologizes for interrupting your podcast with this BS. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-Grainsure, visit Granger.com or just up by Granger for the ones who get it done. Maybe super quickly, just some highlights of last year and goals for the next. I absolutely loved our time at CrookedCon. It was just like a magical, energetic audience. I loved meeting the VIPs at our different live shows this last year. This might be surprising to people. I am not an extrovert, and yet I loved meeting all of you. How do you like it? I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm not sure if I'm right. I'm proud cheering for Chevron Deference, Judge Breyer making an appearance at our New York City live show. This is a highlight of the last few weeks. So guess what our producer, Melody Raul's number one song on her Spotify wrapped was. You're never gonna guess so I'm just gonna tell you. It's Tate McCrae's sports car. And this makes me laugh so hard every time. I remember she gave me permission to share it. It's okay, Melody, it's fine. I listened to Addison Rae's fame as a gun when I stretch. It's all good. One other highlight, completing the marathon swim, about one year after the bike accident. That was a major highlight. Yay. Okay, my highlights, I really wanna thank the folks at Argent for dressing us for our live shows. Thank you to Sally Christensen and Alex de Capo Patel for making us look so put together like an amazing rainbow of legal analysis. You were absolutely fantastic. We love that. Another thing I love, but I know Melody hates, is when Cole jingled bombs an episode. And if you don't know what that means, Cole has a little bell on his collar. And sometimes he just walks in and you can hear it and Melody absolutely hates it. But we all kind of love it a little bit. I also enjoyed our backstage shenanigans. I'm not going to be shamed for not knowing what just the tip is. That was not the whole. We're all here to learn and it's fine. I also really enjoyed meeting Jordan's parents and also Kate's parents. Kate's parents showed up in Chicago. And Jordan's parents, I will co-sign are just unbelievably lovely people who we've now met at a couple of live shows and are just like angels to walk there as far as I can tell. They really are wonderful, Jordan. They are lovely. Thank you. Okay, I will briefly agree about the live shows in DC Leah mentioned cheering for Chevron. There was also at some point we shouted out the government workers in the crowd and just this roar came up and that was relatively early in this absolute dystopic nightmare that we were living through but just like so much gratitude to the people who are sticking it out and trying to do the people's work. Some of whom were our students. We had some former students. We did and we also had a member of the DC audience who spilled some remarkable tea afterwards. So I'm still thinking about that as kind of a highlight from the last year. Also a highlight, the same week of CrookedCon. We had a pretty high impact election including of New York City mayors or on Mamdani who will be inaugurated just a couple of days after this episode it drops. That feels like an exciting bright spot and in otherwise really, really dark time. My New York City book club has also been a great bright spot. Lots of recommendations on the WhatsApp and addition to substantive book discussion. I've watched a lot of children's both middle school and high school basketball in the last year as both of my older kids are really serious ballers these days and actually it's incredibly fun to watch your kids play increasingly high level basketball. Even if travel basketball is kind of the bane of my existence it's also been incredibly fun. And as awful as this administration as this court kind of as the two together are it has been just an enormous, you know, source of relief and comfort and often amusement and even joy to get to debrief it with you, Leah and you, Melissa and more recently you, Jordan and with our listeners. So that too has been a highlight of the last year. Jordan, how are you? Well, the number one highlight for sure of the past year has been starting to work with you all. I started in January so coming up almost on the one year anniversary and it's just been wonderful. I remember every live show I think I went to every single one this year starting with Ford on in February and onward and they've all been fun and unique in their own way. Actually the only one I did not go to was DC much to my chagrin because I was graduating that week. And so that's another highlight of the year was I actually finally in this very long JDMVA pathway had a double graduation in May, law school first and then 10 days later, business school. And now I'm in this sort of weird semester that remains because of the structure of my dual degree. But once I submit my last exam on December 22nd I will forever be done with being a student. So it's the end of an era this year, which is, you know, the legal profession needs you. Well, it's very exciting to be, you know, transitioning now to actually being able to use the knowledge and to try to in some ways contribute to this crazy universe that we're in right now. Every single week as you all recap on this podcast it seems like there's something else that's on fire. And if I could try to use what I've learned over the past few years and continue to learn through this wonderful lead education that is this podcast, you know, it's really an honor to be able to do so. So my big highlights working with strict scrutiny finally graduating getting ready to be impactful. And I'll also say listening to strict scrutiny. So my Spotify wrapped it said that I listened to 13,070 minutes which is a little, it's a little over 217 hours of strict scrutiny and it put me in the top. Nothing wrong with that. Top 0.05 percent, which I'm hoping means, I'm hoping that means I'm the number one listener from the past year. And that was a real highlight. I think Samolito might have you be. The hate listening crowd. He's zero 0.01 percent. I'm zero 0.0. No, he hate listening. But all of those are highlights. So some new years goals. Speaking of Samolito, I want to review Samolito's book. I just really want to do that. I think that would be fun. I like writing book reviews. So want that to happen. I also want to read uncensored versions of Elena Kagan's Descent. So I'm going to repeat that request. If there is a CrookedCon next year, I want it to feel like the same high as this year did on the heels of the November 2025 elections. I'd also like a Kavanaugh meltdown around that same time as we had this past year too. And finally, I want the three of us Melody, Michael, and Jordan to be in the same places for more extended periods of time. That would be great. I'm just going to do one, which is that I, I'm talking about Justice's books. I want Elena Kagan to write a book. But I don't want it to be a memoir. And I don't even really want it to be a law book. I want Elena Kagan to write fiction. I feel like she would slay in that genre. Fascinating. And that's all. Just put it out there to the universe. OK, I think I'm going to bring down the vibe a little bit. I think my goal for this year is literally just surviving this CrapTastic administration. I think it's just becoming, I think, especially as a personal color, I think it's becoming harder to imagine that you are insulated from the crap that they're doing, like that looking at all of the people being swept up on the streets, like just because you're a citizen, you're going to be exempt from that. Now that they're focusing on Somalis, I think black people can't be assured that they are going to be safe and inoculated from all of this. So I'm just saying that if you have friends in your lives who fall into these categories of people who are likely to be targeted or look like people who are likely to be targeted, I just think everyone ought to be aware. It just feels really unsafe. And that lack of safety feels very uncertain. Sorry. And that lack of safety feels like colds. Like I will protect it. No one's calling it cold. I'm going to protect me. I just think it feels really uncertain. And I just, you know, I think the goal is to survive and to take care of each other and to resist this. Amen. In a similar register for me, just more resistance, more energy and passion around continuing to make our voices heard. I think that the chaos is the point. The exhaustion is the point. They want us to feel the moralized and to feel like there's nothing you can do in the face of what's happening every single day from ice and the like. But I think that you look at the energy around the no Kings marches that took place this year. That was really exciting. More of that in 2026. More marches. It doesn't have to be no Kings. Think about what it is that we're passionate about and try to galvanize some sort of energy and movement behind it. We need to really try to show that the people are resisting and that they're political, but also on the ground, boots on the ground voices, being heard consequences to the actions being taken by this administration. So more of that in 2026. And also more institutional resistance, I think that the judiciary, the lower courts in particular, were great bullworks of constitutionalism over the past year. And I hope that we continue to see judges like Judge William Young on the District of Massachusetts. He got this terrible note that said, Trump has partens in tanks. What do you have? And he goes on to write this absolutely fire opinion that says, alone, all I have is my sense of duty. But together, you and I, we have this thing called the Constitution. Here's how that plays out in an opinion. And he wrote this wonderful opinion of holding free speech rights of non-citizens who are being ideologically detained and deported. So I think that continuing to see judges, all the clerks who are working for these judges, continuing to make sure that you uphold the bastion of constitutionalism in our country will be important. So people on the streets, judges and clerks in the courts, and hopefully we can try to fight our way through 2026. Thank you for being landing that as the conscience of the podcast, Jordan. Like, that's a great place to, I think, leave it. Strix Futanese brought to you by Cook Unity. Guess what, folks? I'm the kind of person who approaches holiday meals with a warm it up mentality. You heard me right? There are only a few dishes that I actually like to make from scratch myself, everything else. I like to order and warm up. And that's where Cook Unity comes in. because cook unity makes delicious, holiday meals inside that you can do just that for. They make holiday meal prep, effortless and easy because they have real chefs doing real cooking and delivering it right to your door. So you don't have to get in there. There's no cheese grating, there's no mincing, there's no dicing, there's none of that crap. 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Cohesity, resilience everywhere. And now a very warm welcome to our guest for the end of this episode, Ellen Weintraub, we're recording this episode at the end of the week during which the court handed in a pretty we thought appalling performance in both Trump versus slaughter but the future of independent agencies and also RNC versus federal election commission about campaign finance regulation. And since this is our favorite things episode and independent agencies and regulating money and politics are two of our favorite things, we wanted to bring Ellen into the end of this episode. So Ellen welcome back to the show. Thank you so much, Pleasure to be here. Ellen, you are a former commissioner and I think four time chair of the federal election commission that is traditionally an independent agency. And obviously it regulates money and politics. So you have a lot of skin in both of the cases that the court heard this week. What did you make of those arguments? Well, it was not a particularly uplifting week for me. I sat through, I listened to both of them from start to end and I think there's a common theme in the two of them and it has to do with money. It's all about the power of big money in our government and in our society and whether the government is going to take any steps to address that or to try and push back against that, the big power of big industries. I know the Supreme Court is very fond of founders and sort of obsessive about what they thought. But let's face it, the founders were a bunch of guys and powdered wigs who carried muskets, wrote on horseback. It's not surprising that they fail to anticipate the needs of a 21st century economy and the need in particular for a cadre of experts in the government to have any kind of hope of pushback to protect the rights of citizens, consumers, employees against the unregulated power of billion dollar businesses. I thought it was really interesting. There was a very interesting pair of quotes in the slaughter argument where just a soda my ore, she wasn't pulling any punches. She just came right out and said, you're asking us to destroy the structure of government. And just as Kavanaugh seemed to be very concerned about the notion that these agencies are exercising massive power over billion dollar industries. Well, yes, that's kind of the point, right? We want to have an effective government so that somebody other than the billion dollar industries and the billionaires behind the billion dollar industries has a say and that their interests are represented. Yeah. Well, that was actually a part of the oral argument that I thought was noticeably absent. They were talking these really abstract terms about democracy, about administrative agencies being unaccountable to the people that somehow Congress is not a democratic institution, but the president is. And no one is really sort of drilling down to the actual reasons why we have a federal trade commission, the fact that it exists to prevent the consolidation of industries, of wealth, of monopoly power, and the very people who lined up to sit behind Donald Trump at his second inauguration are the very same people who stand to benefit from a hobbled or newly reconstituted FTC. And it was like no one would talk about that. And I think that was also absent from some of the media coverage, honestly. And I think again, this lack of awareness of what's really going on out there was echoed in the NRSE opinion where the, the, the justices, I'm sorry, I just don't think they know very much about how campaign finance really works because this is not- You don't have to apologize for saying that on this podcast. We agree. This is not the first time that I have heard them say, well, that's totally speculative, that would never happen. About things that are actually happening, you know, back in the Buckley decision, we had a clear statement from the court that said that individual contribution limits were necessary to deal with the reality or appearance of corruption inherent in a system permitting unlimited financial contributions. And we're pretty close to that system right now because the coordination rules are already just more, more whole than cheese if you wanna analogize it to Swiss cheese. And that is partially, I have to say, the fault of the FEC, which usually over my objection had a number of decisions over the years that really opened the door to more and more interactions between the donors and the political committees and the candidates. But the notion that all of this money is going to be stockpiled and added up and then funneled back to the candidates, we have seen this exact thing happening as long ago as the 2016 election. And it was both sides, both the Clinton campaign and the Trump campaign had these massive joint fundraising committees where they were collecting contributions in increments of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if you wanted to really push it, you could get to a million or perhaps more from individual donors. All of this money supposedly legal because it went to individual accounts of the individual state committees. But what really happened was that it went into their accounts and then immediately bounced back to the national committee to be used for the benefit of the presidential candidates on both sides. And we had a number of the state party committees who actually got dinged by the FEC, the larger problem was not addressed by the FEC. But they failed to report that they got these contributions and then sent them back to the national committees because they were in their bank account for such a short amount of time. They didn't even know they were there. So the notion that this kind of circumvention is not going to happen, that it's speculative or hypothetical is completely untethered to reality. Well, that wasn't the only thing I would say this week that was pretty untethered to reality. There just, there seemed to be a desire to dwell on the realm of abstraction, I would say, in both of these arguments and either a kind of a bad faith either failure to or just refusal to kind of acknowledge some of the on the ground dynamics. I think that was absolutely true in both of the cases. So let me ask, if I am not mistaken, Ellen, you, like Rebecca Slaughter, were fired by Donald Trump. And both to the extent that that gives you some special insight into some of the dynamics that we heard about in both of these arguments, but also sort of what unfettered presidential control has meant just in the year that Trump has been back in office and will mean going forward at an agency like the FEC, although feel free to comment more broadly, and also kind of what it might mean to unleash that throughout other pockets of the federal government, because we really struggle to find a limiting principle that the lawyer arguing against this agency independence was able to identify in this latter argument. And I think that is very dangerous. It's going to mean a loss of independence, it's going to mean a loss of independent voices. I mean, let's remember that the FEC is a little bit unusual in that it has an even number from each of the two parties. Most agencies are actually under the control of the president and his party, because most of the independent agents, most of these multi-member boards, which is what we were talking about in the slaughter case, have an odd number, and the chair is appointed by the president. So he's got control over these agencies. It's not a question of the president being these agencies acting without any input from the president. But what you're going to lose are any independent voices. And you're also going to lose if this goes down below the very top echelons of these agencies. You're going to lose expertise, and that's already starting to happen, obviously, across government, because a, the president fires people that he doesn't like their opinions, but b, it's going to be much more difficult to recruit good people to come back into government. Why would somebody want to build a career on providing service to the American people, good public-spirited people that are already working throughout the government, or have been working throughout the government? How do you get those people to have the incentive to come back to government if they know that they're going to have no job security, and anytime they voice an opinion that's contrary to the president, it'll just, they could just get fired. And the firing of people like me who did speak out, I think, was intended and received as a message of intimidation to other heads of agencies and to other government employees. So I think all of that is going to be to the detriment of the American people. Ellen, you mentioned these people that the president is firing in violation of these terms that Congress has set that now maybe the Supreme Court will make permissible going forward. How did you experience the process of being fired by the president from your post at the FEC? Some people have said that they got an email from someone. Others have said that they were supposed to get an email, but the person sending the email, typed their name wrong, so they never got the email. They found out from a coworker who was CC. I mean, it just sounds like they're really doing this government thing at a really high level, like A-plus work here. Can you tell us your truck firing story? Yeah, I got an email. I actually was not in the office. It was late on a Thursday afternoon, and I was out of the office, so I was not staring at my email. It was a two-sentence letter. You're removed, effective immediately. Thank you for your service. They did say thank you. You did get a thank you. Not everyone did. I did get a thank you. I was called, but A, the letter was dated a week earlier. So I don't know where it was during that week, but it was dated January 31st. I didn't get it till February 6th. And then it was copied to both the staff director and the general counsel of the agency. And I think, as I said before, I think that was intended and received as a message. Like we're watching you, too. So this person is the first to go, and if you don't make sure that she's out of the building, then other people could follow. And I was subsequently cut off from my email. I was removed from, or I couldn't get access to the databases. They decommissioned the chip in my ID that allowed me access to the building. I was given a little bit of time to clear out my office, which was nice, I guess. But it was, I was not surprised to be removed by the president, but I thought that what would happen would be that I would be replaced in the normal course as would have been consistent with the law. But that is not, in fact, what happened. And by the way, another ramification of all of these firings is that it's a death-by-decapitation of various agencies, including the FEC. The FEC is supposed to have six commissioners, four is a quorum, and Iowitz down to two. All of the Republican commissioners left this year. One to join the administration, one to go into private practice, one to run for Congress. And then I was fired, so they don't have a quorum. And there are no nominations pending. So this is another way that the president fails in his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. That's the sentence that the originalists don't quote quite so often, also from the Constitution. But Congress set up this agency. They set it up in particular as a bipartisan body. And if the president can just fire people, willing, and so that there is no functional quorum, the agency can't enforce the law. It can't interpret the law. It can't do anything that it's any of its major important jobs. And the FEC is not the only commission that's been effectively decommissioned. The NLRB, I think, is in the same situation there are probably others. I think the CPSC maybe lacks a quorum, too. But Ellen, this is so interesting. I mean, the point about dismantling by decapitation. So Ramon Martinez in the argument said that this case was basically moved because the administration wasn't going to enforce it. He might have actually been exactly right, but for a different reason. Like, they're not going to enforce it because there's not going to be an FEC. Yeah, I think he or he's doubly reasoned right for even more reasons that he was identifying. But it did that when you were talking to Ellen, it made me think that, you know, their effort to completely sort of slash and burn federal government under the leadership of Elon Musk and Doge was actually pretty unpopular in certain respects. But I wonder whether this reflects a kind of effort to in more, you know, kind of gentile-looking ways like to just exercise the president's rightful article to power, but essentially get to the same place, which is agencies that can do none of the work that Congress empowered them to do and that the people often really need to go back to the first thing you said to do things like protect consumers, prevent corporate consolidation, protect laborers, and so much more. So before we go, Ellen, as you know, this is our favorite things episode. And as we've already said, agency independence and campaign finance regulation are among our favorite things. And dismantling them is one of our least favorite things. So we've covered some of that ground. We now want to invite you to share with our listeners some of your favorite things. Well, I'm sorry that Leah's not here because I actually have some recommendations for her because like her, I like a good mystery. Oh, good. So for Leah, some of the series that I've been listening to or reading that have given me a little bit of joy this year are the Veronica Speedwell series from Deanna Rayburn, which is just very diverting, shall we say, an Australian series by an author named Benjamin Stevenson that starts off with a book called Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. And it is quite safe. It's a, it's, it's, it's funny. It's, it's, as I said, diverting. I'm reading the latest Louise Penny, the Black Wolf. She's always wonderful. And then on a more serious note, I listened to the audio version of Judy Dench's memoir, Shakespeare, The Man Who Pays the Rent, which I found, you know, just wonderful and lovely for Shakespeare lovers out there. This is Happiness by Neil Williams set in a little Irish town, very transporting, anything by Amor Tolls and Elizabeth Strout. I would, I would recommend that. I also recommend getting out into the fresh air. I did some travel this year, saw animals went on a safari with my daughter and that was really special. Does Judy Dench read her own memoir? Actually, she doesn't because her eyesight isn't very good anymore. I see. But they found an actress who sounds like her. So you're reading. So you feel like it's her reading it. There are some excerpts. There are a few little sections of her reading things. But the rest of it is an actress who sounds like Judy Dench, reading Judy Dench's memoir. It's still good. It's fun to listen to. There's a dupe for every great. All right, well, Ellen, my job. Thank you so much. It's always great to spend some time with you. Happy holidays. Stay strong. Be well. Thank you. Before we take off, let's do a little housekeeping. Guess what? West Coast strickties. We are headed your way. That's right. Strict Street News headed to the best coast. And we hope that you will be there to catch us. We are going to be in San Francisco on March 6th at the Herpes Theater. You can catch us there. And you can just take Southwest or drive all the way down the five to LA and catch us the next night. March 7th in Los Angeles at the Palace Theater. Both nights are going to be absolutely fantastic. We are going to do what we always do, which is to say, we are going to get you up to speed on this court. There may be a little bit of dragging. Who is to say it's all my life? We have games. We almost always do games at live shows. They're often pretty epic. Always games like game stuff. We're going to be impeccably dressed. I'm a Melissa Wolley. I think I'm. Leah too. I'm not. I mean, I think ourgent's going to be dressing us. And if ourgent won't dress us, we're going to wear our pajamas. Because we're getting on planes. And we want Sean Duffy to know that he can't tell us what to do. So there you are. We might just do the whole show in our pajamas, just because we're not dressing up, because you say so. Secretary Lumberjack, anyway. And if you want to know what outfits we're really going to be wearing on the stage, you're going to have to buy tickets. Show up to see. We've got to be there. You've got to be there. Show up. Bob, we've been recording for such a long time. I literally like, is he a senator? Is he a secretary? Secretary. I like it. I just kicked my ring light. Oh god. OK, somebody got our core. Play on the plane. Play on the plane. So we're going to be landing this plane in San Francisco. Then we're getting on another plane and headed to LA. And we're going to catch you there. So grab your tickets now at crooked.com for slash events. You can get them right now. They make amazing holiday gifts. You know, there's someone in your life who's like, you know what I need for the holidays? I need to drag this court. Get that person some tickets for March 6 in San Francisco for March 7 in LA. You know what to do. Make it happen. MUSIC Strix Crudney is a crooked media production hosted and executive produced by Leah Lippman, Melissa Murray, and me, Kate Shaw, produced and edited by Melody Raoul. Michael Goldsmith is our associate producer. Jordan Thomas is our intern, audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis, music by Eddie Cooper, production support from Katie Long and Adrian Hill. Matt Degroat is our head of production and thanks to our digital team, Ben Heathcoe, Joe Matoski, and Johanna Case. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the writer's guild of America East. Subscribe to Strix Crudney on YouTube to catch full episodes. Find us at youtube.com slash at Strix Crudney Podcast. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to Strix Crudney 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. MUSIC For the ones who get it done. Granger for the ones who get it done.