Well, thank you guys.

Welcome to Law Talk with me, Charles C.W. Cook, and of course, John U.

And of course, Richard Epstein, before we start this week on the topics du jour.

John You, I have heard a rumor that you at some point in the past played horse at the

Supreme Court with Charles Barkley. Can this really be true?

You know, Charlie, you know, once again, I am the subject of scurrilous lies, rumor, and innuendo.

But in this case, it's true. And it's one of my greatest, greatest moments as a native of Philadelphia.

Two parts of the story. One is I clerked for Justice Thomas

in the early 90s and people just drop in to say hi to him who have nothing to do with the law or

the constitution or politics. So one day, right before Christmas, Charles Barkley dropped in

to see Justice Thomas. The side story here, by the way, is that it also, because he was playing for the Phoenix Sons at the time,

amazingly, Justice O'Connor, heard he was in the building, intercepted him before he made it to Justice Thomas' office,

grabbed him, had him put the star on top of her chambers Christmas tree, and next day,

that picture was on the front of the Arizona Republic newspaper. So a small shout out to Justice.

So Connor shows you her political skills. Anyway, he came to see the justice. And of course,

you know, being from Philadelphia, given that Barclay spent his best years as a basketball

player in Philadelphia, I was pacing outside his office like a father waiting for the son to be

born or Dar to be born. And when he came out, I said, Justice, please let me take him on a tour of the

court. So Justice said, fine. So I got to spend an hour with Charles Barkley. I took him,

I mean, this was before iPhones. We have no photographic evidence, but it is true. I took him.

I had him sit in the chief justices chair where he could make rulings. I had him stand behind

the podium, making arguments. And he was playing it up. He was gesticulating and pointing.

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