c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. nz>> tune in to c-sn'u' live coverage of the 2024 national political conventioarting with the republicans four day event in milwaukee on july 15. ■ the democrats as they stay connected to c-span for an uninterruptedrk. watch the republican and democratic nationam#l conventios life this summer on c-span, your unfiltered view of powered by cable. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. wepanies and more

including mediacom. acom, we believe whether you live here or right here or way out to in the middle of anywhere, youcess to fast ree internet. that is why we are leading the way. yk>> mediacom supports c-span aa publiclong wh these other television providers >> this is jake fella skinny of alliance for justice. he serves as the justice program director to talk about legal issues including the supreme court. thanks for giving us your time. me. how would you describe your organization? gu we are a membership organization about 150 progressive organizations that work to build progressive power entrance fm st: how are you fun? guest: we are■jon. it's a combination of individual host: what does transform the

couran guest: we have a sayinghat a right is only as good as the people who interpret them's we want to make sure we have people on the state and federal judiciaries were trying to do justice for all. to fairly and impartially interpret our constitution. host: when you talk about that, how do you attempt to achieve that? guest: we do a lot of work on post-nomination where with allies and other organizations t there to scan the legal community and sdr wght there who would be good for theseospare them for interviews with senators and viousud commissione white house. they are nominated, we work to help fight for their nomination. we do research on their records.

any of the judicial nominations that comout of this white house and many past, we have a research arm of the organization thatand what they've done as attorneys and judges. ■oyb■,they served as judges formerly and we issue reports. we' d■hzv single court of appeas nomination that's come out of■b almost every white house for the past 20 years or so. host: the supreme court is the highest court of the land and what does your organization, how do you view the new combination? guest:■[ the supreme court for e first time in a very long time taken away people's rights, long-established rights. it's acting in a way that doesn'tyoha gifts from justice s to acting in a way that doesn't

demonstrateartiality like justice alito and the decisions they are issuing are really like a legislating from the bench in a way that conservatives 10■, ago, you would call them despots. host: drug, bum stban, are those illustrative of the position i think the bum stock banout is. this is an anc decision that was well within the of agency regulating firearms. administration as a response to a horrific event in lathe proviy reasonable interpretation of te or swooped into that case to rewriteit was on a very.

6-3 justices who said they are doing textualism now but that opinion on their behalf was not very textual that's a good illustration. the abortion drug cases different. it was a 9-0 unanimous decision on balf e it to the supreme court. part of the way itisdiction shof trying torvative district court before i was at the organization when this judge wasominated for that position, we warned the senate they should not confirm extremist to serverict court decision there was a

perfect example of that should have made it■@ to the circuit let alone the supreme court and supreme court rightfully struck it being way too extreme of an interpretation of standing law in the united states. host: i suppose one of the things your organization watch for is how the eventually decide to former president's claims about immunity. as far as what you are watching for, what is the expectation tet this point? guest: mm, the oralents signals that -- i don't want to predict too much with the court will do but i'■me question is presented. host: bau my sejustices were woe a distinction that doesn'tit's e

being versus actions outside of office not being protected. that distinction is nowhere in theit would be a to think that the president of the united states whoasade ■atuphold our cr laws could somehow be exempt from being held responsible outsidof the law. that's just not acceptable. fiefdom or a kingdom. ■the president should be held responsible like any other citizen. no one is above the law. host: i questions, it's (202) 748-8001 free democrats and independent 02. if you want to text us

tion at (202) 748-8003. of the current justices coming under justice alito over issues not only his o the conversation that was recently recorded. away from those two instances aboutim and what do you gain from that as f as him serving on the court? guest: this is a per■zng in a very partisan and ideological manner on the bench who is not living tprinciples d impartiality he made comments that were recorded by a journalist journan ■no get access to him, one-on-one access. the commen t made was that one of the other side will

and that he agreed with statements thating a religious n to the bench. what a justice or judge is supposed to be doing. they are case, trying to separate themselves ad interpret the lawas they possiby can. that's what the code of judiciar judge in the united states. united states is held accountable to a code of judicial conduct. the supreme court is the only court in the united states tha does not have a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics now. with those statements told me is that that needs to change right no as the long-standing principle goes,o personhere, y's

to decide for themselves whethed must recuse. that simply can't be the standard. the justices must be held to recusing in a way they should buy the code of judicial conduct. host: after the incident with the flag with justice person whs not motived by political consideration or desire to affect the outcome of the supreme court cases wldmeet ther recusal. i am therefore duty-bound to reject your recusal request from the senate. that was his response to the letter senator irvin and white house to chief justice roberts about this issue. st wrong. i ink this would say that

he needs to step aside and he one of the arguments he made flag, it was his wife that flew i teach judicial ethics. always tell the judges that if there that feels the neo express themselves politically in that way if the case comes in front of you in the a fair andk at what is happening at your home and make a distinctn whether your family member put that flag up. if that case comes in front of you, you have to recuse. at's the

circumstance here. host: the alliance jim is in md to start us off. good morning. caller:caller: morning. i would like to have ourimparti. judge things on their merits. the texas the mifepristone went out on a and a tempest in a teapot's. the supreme court' decision on the 14th amend section three, they added language to the constitution requiring congress to act to enforce section three. they had done things not be

talking about donald trump these days. guest:that section that i to wy decided. the question was whether trump could appear on the ballot in colorado. colorado secretary of state decided he could not becaused in insurrection. the constitution three of the 14 the men meant is clear. former elected official who has taken an oath of office to uphold the constitution cannot have acted in an insurrection or is ineligible for office if they have. is not up to the supreme■ecide . the states have a reasonable right b themselves and to the fact-finding in those

decisions. there is nothing writtenóiyúsect power to congress to decide that and the supreme court wrote language into section three that does not exist. laura is next in washington. caller:■: i'm calling because i question your ability to be able tondhe code of ethics that the justices do follow and what i see as basically pole vaulting over a flag of a justice that has done well in the biased, and neither has justice thomas. i know justice thomas has been targeted by biden for decades. justice thomas is a good justic.

all of them are. this constant barrage from aoc and want courts hey it is the conservative all have good reason for it. the roe v. wade■c, we did not know 50 years ago what we know n■;ow about babies in the womb. that is why they broughtti way f the casant get up there and tell me what i have reseched and found out to be an absolute lie. justice thomas is an exceptionally just man, unbiased, and a good human being. are the rest of the judges, but we with this political attack on anything that has to do with wat and the way our system is. america. this attack on our justices offends me.

gut: thank you for your comments. i am aberf the left. i love our country dearly. colleagues folks who would consider themselves members of the left also love our country. that is where you find that common humanity between us because we really do want the circumstances. we want our courts to be efficiently and doing j. i believe that you want that and i want that too. so i would ask that we can find some reasonable agreement. that is a mandatory code ofs conduct that is enforceable with real outside mechanisms other

than self ement applies to the supreme court of the united states of america. it is the only in our federal justice system that does not have a mandatory and enforceable code of conduct. the reason why you have seen some of these realreme examples with our u.s. supreme court be allowed to happen. it has been found that justice thomas took overgifts over the f decades since h■5s been on the ■this is just not reasonae. thas shoulde ncerned about. please go back and look at the facts and hopefully we can find some agreement that justices, not just those on the right but those on the to everye member of the court. i would ask that you please be opene idea that all of our

justices should be livinethicalt we can possibly ask of them. what is required of the highest court in the land. host: senate republicans blocked an effort to put anbill out. are there other ways to accomplish this? guest: the to is senator whitehouse's bill and it would create a mandatory and enforceable code of conduct. require the court to do that themselves so does not late what the code would be but requires the courts to d it within a reasonable amount of time, which is one way to address this. bills out there that would do a similar thing. senator moran wrote a similar bill that would create an enforceable code of conduct for the supreme court. it is going to require congress

acting for tto happen. there is no other way for us to be able to do this without the court agreeing toate an enforceable code of conduct. so on this one and without the house being willg entertain the fact that the court needs and enforceablehost: is there a sepf powers issue if congress decides the judicial branch needs a code of ethics? >> i do not think so. then ministration of the court power. is within congress's the article three, congress clearly are sufficient to be able regulate the administration article three only creates the supreme court must exist but gives congress leave way in

wh that looks like, including the number of justices who sit on the supreme court. host: it was 2023 where th own code of conduct. how is that different then what guest:nforceable and also not mandatory. it is a watered-down of a code of conduct that applies all other judges in the federal judicial system, so they have a this -- i call thed code of conduct's, replaces of there is a lot of should recuse or should do this in the code of conduct that applies to the supr court, so it is a watered-down version of the cod

b2n■wy other federal judge has to apply and there is no mechanism to enforce it. i think that is the key provision that is missing. 5host: this is jake faleschini joining us for this conversation. let's ar good morning. i blame a lot of what is going one democrats. being tt you could have lots of rights. rights, but those are worthless if you do not have willing to enforce your rights.

society and george w. bush and dal trump, with the help of the federalist ciety and the acquiescence of the last 25 years loading the bench wit ideologues, judicial ap democrats set by twiddling their thumbs pa supreme court pick. i'm sure there are procedural things he could have done to get merrick garland on thebut he die things. now the dem are pounding their chests about the ultraconrvate well, it did not t way. the democrats the bench. they do not do it.

the same bird working opposite sides. that is the way i view it at this point. and uld encourage -- i am a blac encourage black people to become single issue voterstie issue. otherwise, do not vote. host: i hear you. i really do. i am not going to cast recriminations on what happened with past administras, you press fantastic on what he has done with our lower courts. administration has given to the issue that he has put on our lower courts, just two weeks ago he hit 201 federal judges that he has now

placed on our district and circuit courts. that one was also justice jackson on the united states supreme court and opinions it hn incredible. she so i would ask that you plen administration's record and everything they have been doing to make sure our lower courts are filled with justice minded judges hopefully that will change your opinion a little. fast. the types of judges■■@ the most diverse judiciary we have ever seen ever inh history, more than

60% of president biden's judges have been women, more than 60% people of color. 90 women oca that he has put on the bench. and many from diverse professional backgrounds as well. has put more public defenders on the bench in the last 3.5 years than all other past presidents combined. it is a remarkable transformation of the federal juary,take look at that and decide, is that the kind of bench you want to■k seen the future or would you rather see a bench that is more like down in texas? host: how has that rate compared it is very similar. at this point in trump' tenure,

he had put almost the same number of judges on the nch as president biden has done now. and thats pace compared to past presidencies. jimmyt a few more total on the bench during his tn they kind of lagged a little bia carter.similar i want to say the biden administration needs to foll e. they need to go all the way through the end of the year.thi. you have to swing all the way rough, so i want to see them do that because if they do not and they take their eye off the ball, if senator schumer takes his eye off the ball then they are not going be trump'sd, b'm confident that they have the desire and ability to do it and

that they will keep doing it this year and follow through. host: let's hear from jack in maryland, democrats line. caller: i am wondering if your guest sees the irony in justice alito's excuse for flying the upside dowagfe. she did it. hat she does. but he has all the temerity in the world to overturn roe v. wade and basically remove the right to half the population's bodily autonomy. i find that ironic. with respect to justice thomas, we have his wife directly staff, basically him to encourage donald trump to continue, to keep going and keep fighting in the midst of the january 6 in so that is where

we are. these on the bench hav have no shame. and that is where we are. at this point, i am not sure what we could do other than make sure we voteections have conseq. so in we are basicallyanother generation of n thomases. i didlito seems to think his wife should have auto■nomyr s he rest of the female population of the united ss shou( have autonomy over their bodies. and i agree with your prescription. center, he asked aboutue

concerning the flags. i what you to hear what he had to think about it th back in 20d dispute, the washington post report w there and mrs. alito s was a sign of intel distress. no one back then this was for stop the steal. until two weeks ago, i cannot imagine that one person in 100 in this count had to associate an upside down flag with the stop the stea so justid address the point. it was irrelevant because whatever she meant by it has no bearing on his obligation in this case. you ted the standard for

recusal. that is what comes first is the host: that was from a recent program. what do you think of the rationale? guest: ippreciate ed's position,■' real stretch to think that two folks who are deeplyand who aree not aware that this was very much a little statement. if it had just been one flag, that might be an argument■÷ that someone could buy, but to also add a second property on the alito's to have appeal to heaven flag■b has

religious fundamentalism undertones and also political right wing undertones, to put those two things together i think for people to assume that there was a political statement beingthe dia neighborhood dispute. it was a dispute about national politics, specifically about president trump. specificalerring to trump. this was in the midst of a national conversation about whether thehp insurrection was n insurrection or was not an insurrection either way, that flag took on a specific meeting at that time and thel to heaven flag also has a very specific political connotation ■othose two things combined can lead many reasonable people to believe that ali i in californ'o

should have better control over his wife. it is part of an■x effort on the part of the left to delegitimize the supreme court because for a long time democrats havethe judt canybody who has had a course n high school civics would know the purpose of the supreme court is to follow the constitution, not to invent new rights that are not in the constitution which means a perfect example will be roe v. wade. there is nowhere in the constitution that guarantees a man an unconditional right to

abort an unwanted child, never has reached viability that no longer depends on his mother for survival■]uwe, the court argued, because there'■'s vacy. there is no on guaranteed right to privacy in the constitution. our law enforcement agencies like the fbi would nots or phone records to pursue criminals. so the purpose of the supreme court is to follow the constitution, which is what this court is d.that is why the demoo mad, because for so long they have been g judiciary to enact laws they cannot get passed through congress. guest: i appreciate would ask yt to see another side ofdelegitimt

folks are recognizing that and x the problem at the moment. you alito the argument is that justice alito should have controlled his wife better. i would say that is far from the truth. no one■y justice to haveled his wife. what folks are asking is if that his wife truly feels the need to fly this flag and make a public stateme tcoulm being biased and having a political position, that he step aside sove confidence in the impartiality and fairness of our highestthat is what we would ast theyd many others feel like the court is trying to do constitutional

interpretation to the best of its ability at times but was accused of being overly political goals from the left. i think tharn( that now it is te from the right.preme crt therar of this that we can look back on over the past 25 years of this court, certainly voting rprotections. united sendingion system despite congress having cleaed and having said that should not be the case, that it is not protected by our constitution. so i would say there are many instances now where it feels

through the constitutiong are dy instead. host: this is fro catherine. catherine joint is from ohio, democrats line. caller: good morning. my what is wrong with us that we would accept supreme court justices that lie and and they do not do it once, not a little white lie. did you take the cookie from the coyou over4 million, then there is a problem. how can justify judging me as a woman and my right you

won't even line ? we cannot have trust in anybif g that you have saiderything that you have told the american people is a lie. . accepted people do this to us? it never happened before. host: thanks. guest: thank you for that point. there was a recent report that came out from my at ethics report who looks at the donations that we know of at reported as being gifted to various iccourt over the last 2r

alone has ce 10 times more gifts than any other justice combined. it is an aur statistic, an absurd fact. and that is the reality is far as we know it. self reporting of s thomas as he has had to correct the record times and my organization has done a lot to well. and this needs to be fixed. to americans, this looks like corruption. anit is a bedrock our justice system that you ca impartial if you are receiving gifts from one side or e other of a party in

litigation in a dispute. with justice thomas several times. not just parties in general disputes but also in ideological disputes that we know justice thomas was on vacation with right-wing ideologues that are hundreds of millions of dollars donating to right-wing f local infrastructure like ed whelan's organization that have a vested interest in the outcome of these cases from an ideological perspective. so we need like the gift span that currently applies to all other federal employees in cgress that does not allow them to take more than $50 in should that not apply also justice system that our court should be above being paid out by either party in a litigation dispute?

i agree with the caller. i think there is legislation at problem. we need to fix this problem. need congress to act and investigate this to the full extent p arm to dig io the facts here and understand what has been going on and how far the corruption has gotten into our federal judicial system. host:jpxo one more call from gin texas. caller: i believe the should not be appointed for life. they should serve a years and tt because when stay in power he began to believe in your own power and thomas has been a problem from the timthgoing thr- when he was involved with the■,a

hill, so he has been a problem from the is -- now this isof the judges are catholics and we all know that catholics are ve conative. they are putting their views into the laws being made and roe v. wade, we all know how catholics feel about abortion and they areoing

the terms act. i appreciate it. i gus like to end on. there are a lot of ways we withe courts. there are a lot of solutions and there dropping a fair number of bills is problem. we just have much traction on it. i think the comments from texas on theub line is a good example of this because we know from polling that term limits is an issue tcuand also judicial es -- cuts across the partisan divide. more than 80% of amens think the suprforceable code of conduct, a of conduct. between 70% and 80% of americans thinklo justices and judges should have term limits, so the

terms act is out there now, term for supremertti would go ia retirement where they could hear some cases but noth president would be able to elect or appoint a certain number timy are presidenreconsistency so ite gamed bipartisanship and and that sort of thing. we need that sort become a potiurt now, so i appreciate the caller's comments and i hope that is the kind of unifying action we can across the partisan divide juice system that we are all a proud of. host: here is a look at live

covege coming up on c-span. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, the boeing ceo dave calhoun tesfies before the permanent subcommittee on investitions regarding a series of safety issues at his companyncluding an incident in january when a jet flight. at 4:00 this afternoon, 2024ntl candidate and former president donald trump will speak to voters at a campaig of these evs live on c-span, c-span now online at c-span.org. later today, a discussion on climate change and racial equity in black communi tavis smiley willelcles los angeles mayor karen bass, the naacpre its hosted by kb ole radio in

angeles. watch online at c-span.org. tune in to c-span's live the 2024 national political convention starting with the republicans a four day event in milwaukee on july 15. next up, catch the democrats as they convene in chicago kicking august 19. stay connected to c-span for an ■&0. watch the republican and democratic con on c-span, c-spa, app and online at c-span.org. of politics powered by cable. ■ lovers, c-span has a number ofo best-seg nonfiction authors and inntl viewers q&a,

here conversations with nonfiction authors and others who are making things happen. most plus episodes are weekly hour-long conversations that regularly feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of the about books podcast takes you behind-the-scenes of the nonfiction book publishing industry with insider interviews, industry ues and bet sellers lists. find our podcasts i dowoading the free c-span now apple or wherever you get your podcasts and on our■[n> websi■4te, c-span.org/podcasts.