Hi and welcome back to Anacost, our first episode of 2015 and we wish you a happy New Year.

I'm Dahlia Lithwig, Slate Supreme Court correspondent.

So we're in the last week of a little break in our arguments the Supreme Court and I confess

I've spent it recovering from a whopping back injury.

But we figured we'd use this week's podcast to talk a little bit more broadly about how

cases make their way up to the Supreme Court, who the lawyers are, who bring them there,

and what happens when they get there.

Last month, Reuters published a really fascinating study that got a little bit lost in the Christmas

rush.

It offered some provocative answers to these questions.

It's called the echo chamber and the upshot is that less than 1% of the lawyers who file

petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court actually get their cases heard and yet 43% of the cases

that actually are taken by the court come from a tiny elite cadre of kind of super lawyers.

So I've characterized them in the past as the Harlem Globetrotters of the Supreme Court

litigators because they're amazing.

They can spin basketballs on their arms.

They can sink a three-pointer behind their back.

Later in our podcast, we're going to hear from not one but two of these super lawyers.

But first we wanted to turn to Joan Biscupic, who writes for Reuters and is one of the co-authors

of this piece.

Joan, welcome back to the show.

Thank you, Dahlia.

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