I'm Elizabeth Slattery and I'm Tiffany Bates.

And welcome to SCOTUS 101 where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court,

what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

This week we're talking about what we're thankful for, the Federalist Society Convention,

and we'll interview former assistant S.G. Nicole Saharski.

Before we get into the substance of today's episode, we have a request from our listeners. We will give out honors and dishonors

for the best and worst judicial opinions of the year in our final episode of 2017. So please,

if you have ideas, send your submissions our way with a brief description of why the opinion

deserves recognition

as either the best or the worst of 2017.

So what we're thankful for in this holiday season, we wanted to take a minute here at SCOTUS

101 to thank our listeners, first of all, and all of our wonderful guests that we've had so far

this year, and mostly White counsel, Don McGahn.

Yes. Without Don McGahn, we wouldn't have Neil Gorsuch and all the new fabulous judges such as Stephanos Bebis, Amy Barrett, Joan Larson, Allison I'd, Kevin Newsom, and many more.

We're also thankful for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership on judicial nominations.

He took a gamble back in February 2016 by declaring that the American people and not President Obama would get to pick Justice Scalia's successor. He held the seat open and it was an issue that limed large in the presidential election in 2016. I don't believe the Supreme Court has played such a large role in an election in recent memory. So thank you to Mitch McConnell for helping to ensure Justice Scalia's legacy on the

court. And we also can't forget about Chuck Grassley, who's gotten all these judges through

their confirmation hearings, and it was also ditched the blue slip where senators have abused

the courtesy. At least for appeals court nominees. Yes, indeed.

And finally, we're thankful for the growing Scoti shortlist. So last week, the president added

five new names, including the dogma lives loudly judge, Amy Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C.

Circuit. Who recently gave the Joseph Story Lecture here at Heritage, which you can watch on our website.

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