Strict Scrutiny - Our Favorite Things

Episode Date: December 23, 2020

Melissa, Leah, and Kate bring some BIG OPRAH ENERGY to share some of their favorite things around the holidays and new year. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky

Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court. It's an old joke, but when a 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 legs. Hello, strict scrutiny fans. Welcome back. This is a very special episode. We're not even going to talk about the court or court culture or breaking news. Instead, we are going to channel our big Oprah energy and bring the people what they've been asking for, our favorite holiday

picks. So that's right, folks. This is a very special Strict Scrutiny episode where we're going to be giving you the rundown on everything that we're going to be stuffing stockings with this holiday season. So listen up. It's a big one. All right. Let's get started. Melissa, what are some of your favorite things? Okay. I think we should just note that I really wanted to do this episode. So yes, like I am the big Oprah energy. You get a holiday present. I'm mostly just here to get some last minute gift ideas. I'm here for you. Like you, you want some last minute gift ideas. I've got them.

Thanks, Melissa. So as you know, I am actually incredibly impressed with Justice Alito's skincare regime. I don't know what it is, but I will say that this man just turned 70 and his skin looks amazing. So if you too aspire to have the face of a 40-year-old when you are in your 70s, I like to think that Justice Alito is doing something extra special. I like to think that he is using the Cary Grand Skin Care Travel Kit, which is available at www.carygrand.com. It is a simple, elegant skincare regimen that is ideal for every age and every stage of life. The products in this two-week trial kit, which retails for just $25, are packed with ingredients abundant in antioxidants and omega fatty acids that

nourish and hydrate the skin while also helping to support skin's overall health. And I have used this. I love it. It feels super good. It's like an oil that you cleanse your face with, and then you put on a serum, and then you're done. So it's super fast, super easy. It feels really good. It smells really beautiful. And I like to think it is making me look like a 40-year-old slash 70-year-old right now. So I'm very pleased with it. And I liked it so much. I gave it to my girls. So you too can look like. Melissa did send me and Leah a package of it. And so we were hoping that it is the essence of what makes Melissa so beautiful in a bottle, but I haven't actually tried it yet. Have you Leah? No. You guys don't sound as excited as I want you to be. I want,

I want more energy from you. Like, well, because we don't think it can be bottled. You're not going for me. I'm going for Sam Alito. Say what you will, he has incredible skin. Can I say something when you say he's sort of not really aging? So I am right now reading, I just finished reading The Hobbit and I'm now reading

the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. And I haven't read these books in 30 years, but do you, the ring, is where the hobbits live, has been noticing for years that he's just not aging. And I think this ring of power is responsible. Anyway, so I'm not drawing any connections to Sam Alito. I'm just noting that other things have been aging properties. Or Gollum. Many connections could be drawn. So I don't know about rings. All I know is I'm trying this Cary Grant thing.

I really like it. I hope you guys like it too. I think it's a very affordable price point if you just want to try something out. And it comes in this little sort of travel trial kit. And it's very simple because I definitely do not have time to do lots of skin things. So this is perfect. And so I hope you like it as much as I do. I can't wait to try.

All right. My second gift idea is one for the little people in your life. And so I don't know if you're like me, but when I buy books for kids, especially kids of color, I would like them to see themselves in the books. And one of the things I really struggled with when my kids were younger were that books that featured

African-American kids were often about the civil rights movement. So it was sort of like, you know, John meets Martin Luther King Jr. or John is in a bus boycott or something like that. And I just kind of wanted kids who were doing normal things like getting a dog or going to the beach with their families. And a lot of the books just all had these civil rights or slavery themes. So along comes Jambo Books, which is a book club that was started by a Yale Law School grad, Misha Butcher Godfrey and her husband, Renato Godfrey. And they decided that they were having the same problem, finding books for their children. So they started this book club. It's a subscription book club. So every month you get two to three age-appropriate books

that feature children of colors as the stars of their own stories, doing things like making friends and raising pets, loving grandparents and fighting dragons. And the books all arrive in a personalized box that is decorated with art that celebrates the joy of childhood and comes with a personalized letter for your child. And they have offered us a special promo code for 10% off your subscription. So the code is J-A-M-B-O-S-S-P, Jambo Strict Scrutiny Podcast. So if you are inclined and you have some gifts to get for the young people in your life, this would be a great option. So I told you I started the process but didn't finish the process of ordering this for my kids, who I hope won't listen to this podcast before they open their Christmas presents. I don't even know if the first installment will

come in time to be wrapped under the tree, but it sounds great. And I was going to say, I was going to call it actually two books that my nine-year-old recently read and really liked are graphic novels with kids of color as their protagonists or class act in The New Kid. I don't know if your kids have read these books. Oh yeah. We've read The New Kid. They're really wonderful recent books. But I'm excited to see what this service sends us. And then my final gift is brought to you with the imprimatur of royalty. And that, of course, is Duchess Meghan's new investment, Clever Blends Oatmilk Lattes. I don't drink coffee. I've never had coffee. But when I learned that Duchess Meghan's new investment, Clever Blends Oat Milk Lattes. I don't drink coffee. I've never had coffee. But when I learned that Duchess Meghan had invested in Clever Brands Oat Milk Lattes,

I decided I was going to taste coffee for the first time. And so I ordered it. I haven't tried it, but this is going to be a gift I give to people because I'm supporting Duchess Meghan and bringing down the British royal family all with my credit card. And I'm fine with that. So I don't have nearly as cool gift ideas. It's hard to follow this. If you want to feel super cool, listen to my gift ideas and realize how awesome and well-adjusted your life is.

How about that? So one gift idea for the little four-legged people in your life would be dog bandanas. If you think there is not a dog bandana for a particular occasion, I guarantee you, you are wrong. My dog, Stevie Nicks, has a bandana for practically every day of the year. Can't confirm. You can personalize your bandanas. You can get them. Where are you getting them from? So I'm just about to share. Okay. And I also have discount codes to share since my dog is a model for these dog bandana companies. Again, I told you if you want to feel well-adjusted and awesome, you're about to. So one dog bandana companies. Again, I told you if you want to feel well-adjusted and awesome, you're about to. So one dog bandana company you could use is called Handpicked by

Hadley, and that is on Etsy. And you can use Stevie's discount code, Stevie10, to get a 10% discount. Or you can go to Elle and Dill, also on Etsy, and use Stevie's discount code Stevie15. That's where Stevie's Handmaid's Tale bandana is from. So if you want counterculture bandanas, I would recommend Elle and Dill. Can you put a bandana on a child? Like, what's the protocol? So some people have asked this. I believe the answer is yes.

They sell them in various sizes, but not having any children of my own, I can't actually personally attest to this. Sorry. It'll be like some big, you know, cowboy energy, but I think it might be fun. I think it could happen. Like a bib. Second gift idea would be some Taylor Swift Evermore album inspired flannel. Evermore album is amazing. Unfortunately, however, the only merchandise she is offering from the album are sweatshirts with

Evermore-like images on them. But we all associate the album with that amazing flannel coat she's wearing. So if you want some Evermore looking like flannel, you can go to Madewell, which makes wonderful flannel, some of which looks kind of ever more like. So that's what I would recommend. And I think they're having lots of promos right now because they're trying to clear out the holiday merchandise and get ready for January. So you could wait until after the holiday to really cash in on that. Yeah. That's it, Leah. I mean, haven't I said enough to embarrass myself? No, these are great ideas. No, I was just trying to buy more time to come up with my own.

So I don't have anything as inspired. So I, you know, I bought a bunch of copies of A Promised Land, Barack Obama's autobiography, which I feel like is a good book to read and hard copy. So for like my father-in-law and, you know, various cousins and stuff, I think that's a nice gift. The Audible audiobook of it is great. Is it? You listen to it? Yeah.

Yeah. So I listened to it while I was washing the dishes. Nice. It's a long ass book. How many dishes did you wash? It's like over a series of nights, but it was like, it was like was watching The Dishes. Nice. It's a long-ass book. How many dishes did you watch? It's like over a series of nights, but it was like he was talking to me while I was watching The Dishes. Yeah, maybe I'll listen to it too. I haven't read it yet, but I feel like this one I'll probably read.

So I got something maybe about two weeks ago for some students. So I think I've mentioned that I was the chair of our appointments committee, which was a lot of time and work. And we had a group of students interview all the candidates who came through for callbacks. And that was like a serious undertaking. And they wrote up these very detailed notes on the candidates. And they were just like an awesome group. They read the papers and asked penetrating questions about the papers. So I wanted to send them a little something.

So there's this great bakery in Manhattan called Funny Face Bakery that does these like face cookies. And so they did RBG face cookies and then just like some chocolate chip cookies they threw in. So I sent everybody RBG cookies. And maybe I should have mixed up the Justices. But like she's just the other faces are just like hard to render. And anyway, they had like a, you know, an order, a menu order item that was RBG face cookies. So it was made very easy. So those went over well. They're such good cookies um so that's a gift idea um i haven't yet put in the mail for you guys these like spiced pecans that i make and that i aspire to like send

people as gifts oh melissa's making the faces it's like i should do it these are really good i had some of those oh you had them we were on the TV set together last, like this time last year when we were covering impeachment. That's right. That was like 157 years ago. God, but it was really a year ago. It was just a year ago. Someday someone will let me appear on television so I can make all of my faces to a live audience. TV execs, if you're interested, you know where to find me those are great faces if you want to make those faces on tv i feel like that that can easily be

arranged those were delicious those are like they were good they were really good and i made a shit ton um so i just need to actually like i'm just scared of the post office still like they're just the post office by me is like there are long lines because they're not letting a lot of people in at once but like every time i pass it i'm just like oh I gotta mail stuff but I don't really want to wait in line for this long so there's that a friend got me this fabulous sweater that has when there are nine write a very famous rbg quote on it that is not is not in the closet with me right now and so I can't actually pull out and show you guys or describe to our listeners. But Melissa, right, you think this is, it's probably from this like Etsy, like crafter? No, I think it's from this very fancy label called Lingua Franca, right? And there's a store on

Bleecker Street in New York City. And I think they also sell through a museum. I think they sell through the Guggenheim and the Whitney and also have their own standalone online presence as well. But they're really pricey. So they're cashmere sweaters and then they have these embroidered things on the front. One is like Champagne Mommy, When There Are Nine, Vote, they had one of those. And so, but they're $400 or more. So I think it's possible my friend, when she gave it to me in this like very sort of like ceremonious kind of way. And I was like, oh, thanks for the sweater. But I now realize I was not sufficiently. I think you need to go back to your friend and be like,

thanks for the sweater. I had no idea what I was getting. But there's a hack. So as you say, you can find all kinds of people on Etsy who are incredibly talented and make lots of beautiful things. But there's this woman with an Etsy store and the store is called The Lady Duff. And she also embroiders cashmere sweaters with the, you know, emblem of your choice. You can have it say whatever you want to say. She has a whole Schitt's Creek line. She also embroidered sweatshirts. So if a cashmere sweater is not in your budget,

you could also get a sweatshirt and have it embroidered. So I got one that said, I'm speaking, per Kamala Harris. Oh, I've seen that. That's great. Yeah, it was great. And so I got one as a gift for another person. So that's another one, too. You could get one for your friend and like, look, I got this knockoff version of your gift.

For $50. For $50. Yeah, I think she'd appreciate that. I don't think she needs cashmere. This is not thematic, but I will say one of my favorite cheap acquisitions in this kind of quarantine period is a pull-up bar that you install in like your doorframe. Leah's nodding. Do you have one of those? No, but I'm getting one. So I'm doing pull-ups for the first time since college and it is so much fun and you can really build pull-up capacity quickly and they cost like $20. And

we actually did anchor ours with screws, but you can have just the tension ones that you just like, you know, hope you've like tightened enough that they're going to hold you up. But you're getting one, Leah. Seriously, pull-ups are really fun to do. Are they? Okay. Melissa, you're trying to get me to get a Peloton. So Leah and I are going to get you to get a pull-up bar. I have not said anything to you about getting a Peloton. I've just said, if you want, like Leah has been pushing for the Peloton. Leah jumps everyone in. She's a pusher of Peloton. It's true. It just sounds really fun to do classes with you guys. Like, have you been talking SCOTUS or the law, like, on your bikes or no?

No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. I one time hopped on video to Melissa while doing a class, and she was really creeped out. I was, I didn't know what was happening. You were creeped out. Not by you, but just like by the circumstance. I mean, it was like literally, like I do it first thing in the morning.

So, you know, it's like, I don't even, like my hair is a mess and whatnot. I'm like half awake. And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, Melissa. And I'm like, who the F is that? And it was Leah. And I was like, oh God. All right, I have one more pandemic

kind of inspired gift idea, but it's also not really SCOTUS themed. But it could be. I forgot the name of the movie I've now promised you I'm going to try to watch, Melissa. Will you remind me of the name of the movie? The Woman in Gold. Oh, The Woman in Gold. So we invested like maybe six months ago in a little tiny projector so you can watch movies outside, which allows for some socializing outdoors in these pandemic times. And we at least are still not indoors with anybody, not in our media family.

And so like my kid turned nine a couple of weeks ago. And so we put this little, you know, hung a sheet in our backyard and put this little projector out and played Harry Potter 3. And three other kids came over and they sat in kind of like opposite quarters of the yard. And it felt very safe. And they got to actually have a gathering. Anyway, these little tiny like projectors cost a couple hundred bucks and actually are pretty awesome to have. And I feel like that could be a really good gift idea. Oh, that's a good idea. And you could watch one of any number of SCOTUS themed films, many of which we actually promoted I think about this time last year when we did an episode about SCOTUS goes to the movies. All right.

You could have a SCOTUS film festival. We should actually mention that there's the Pauli Murray documentary coming out. I actually, apart from it's the same team that brought you the RBG documentary, I don't know much about the film itself. Do you? I do. So it's brought to you by the team that brought you RBG. So that's Julie Cohen and Betsy West, and they are doing a documentary on Polly Murray. And Polly Murray, we've mentioned many times on this podcast, was an African-American lawyer who really, I think, sort of started probing this idea about using race as a means of analogizing to the issue of gender. So, you know, what Thurgood Marshall did for race jurisprudence, she used those same moves to sort of talk about what she saw as the same kind of invidious discrimination against women. She called it Jane Crow. Again, a sort of nod to Jim Crow. She's never really gotten her due. Ruth Bader Ginsburg mentioned her and credited her in the grandmother brief that she

filed on behalf of the ACLU Women's Rights Project in Reed versus Reed. But she really has been lost to history, but there's been this real effort to recover her. There is a center on her. They are trying to renovate and restore her childhood home in North Carolina right now. And there's currently a fundraising campaign to do that. And so I think it's really terrific that Julie and Betsy are bringing this film forward and really shining a light on her. And she's just exceptional.

She's a graduate of Howard Law School, the University of California, Berkeley's law school, and also Yale Law School. So, and she was also the first African-American woman to become an Episcopalian priest. So she's a first on many levels. And can we tell people that we're going to invite Julie and Betsy to the show to talk about this? I mean, we kind of did on Twitter. Oh, yeah, we did. Okay. Twitter, just us and a few

million of our friends. But yes, so they're going to be coming on to the show to talk about their work on this documentary and about Polly Murray and her life and legacy. So really excited. And she's not related to me. Like that's also important to note. Someone on Twitter said that Pauli Murray was my mother and I had to disabuse them of that. In the same way I've disabused people of the notion that Charles Murray is my father. I am not related to either of these Murrays. Although she's sort of a spiritual godmother of a lot of sort of feminist legal theory, right? I would love for her to be my spiritual godmother. That's right. That seems right. Absolutely. So should we wrap? Are we? Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. We hope this gave you a place to start if you have any last minute

gift gaps that you have to fill in. Thanks for indulging us. This was just a good way for us to let off the... Before we go, we should say, there's all kinds of fabulous merch. Maybe it goes without saying, but like mugs, dog bandanas, sweatshirts, t-shirts, you know, visit our website. Tank tops, like you name it, we've got it. Face masks, all of it.

Tote bags. You can get it all. But thank you for entertaining this little offshoot episode. We hope you have a safe and healthy holiday season and we look forward to seeing you in a brand new spanking year, hopefully under better circumstances. So see you then. Many thanks to Melody, our producer, and to Eddie Cooper who does our music and of course to all of our subscribers.