Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayor return to Yale Law School, their alma mater, to receive its Award of Merit and discuss how the Court actually functions. Dean Robert Post opens with each justice's background, and professor Kate Stith leads the conversation, which covers how the justices communicate about cases almost entirely on paper, the spittoons still at the bench, and the tradition of sitting at lunch in the chair of the justice one succeeded. Sotomayor points to her years on the district court as formative, Alito contrasts the isolation of a regional circuit with running a U.S. Attorney's office, and Thomas credits the EEOC with teaching him to work under sustained criticism. All three argue the Court lacks something in its makeup, whether geographic range or experience outside large firms. The session ends with each justice describing one of the others and the advice they gave students that morning.