i want to thank the oddups here on the radio and those watching on television and over the internet. tonight's program has been part of the club's good lit series, underwritten by the bernard orber foundation. i'm janet napolitano and this meeting of the commonwealth club of california is now adjourned. [applause] nods conversation [inaudible conversations]

>> all persons having business before the supreme court of the united states are admonished to draw near give their attention. >> number 759. better versus arizona. >> hear arguments number 8. r owe e against wade. >> probably the most famous case this court ever decided. >> dread and hairot existed as

slave people here on land where slavery wasn't legally recognized. >> but thing brown decision into effect would take presidential orders, and the presence of federal troops and marshals. and the courage of children. >> we wanted to pick cases that changed the direction and import of the court and society and that also changed society. >> so she told them that they'd have to have a search warrant. and mrs. matt demanded to see the paper and read it, see what its, which they refused to do so the grabbed it out of his hands to look at it, and thereafter, the police officer handcuffed her. >> i can imagine a better way to bring the constitution to life than by telling the human stories behind great supreme court cases.

>> lawsuit boldly opposed the forced internment of japanese americans during world war ii. after being convicted for failing to report for relocation , he took his case all the way to supreme court. >> quite much many of our most fame house decisions are ones that court took that were quite unpopular. >> if you had to pick one freedom that was the most essential to the functioning of a democracy, it has to be freedom of speech. >> let's go through a few cases that illustrate very dramatically and visually what it means to live in a society of 310 million different people, who stick together because they believe in a rule of law. >> landmark cases, an exploration of 12 historic supreme court decisions and the

human stories behind them. a new series on c-span, produced in cooperation with the national constitution center. debuting monday, october 5th, at 9:00 p.m. >> my parents came here and they came here without -- at the time they got here they barely spoke any english. they had no money. they had no formal education. and they struggled. life in america was hard. it wasn't easy. they can't walk off the airplane and immediately hit it big. in fact they were discouraged their first two years here. but they stuck it out and persevered. they never became rich. they never became famous. but my parents were successful because they were able, working as a bartendser and a maid, -- my mom did a lot of jobs. she worked at a factory build

eight resume numb chairs. then she work as a cashier as a hotel in miami beach. then she work as a maid right here in this city at the empireol palace. i lived here six years. then she went back to miami and worked as a stock clerk mitchell dad was a bartender, at banquets tech bowling alley, working those jobs, here's what my parents achieved. they owned a home in a safe and stable neighborhood. they raised four children and left all four of them with a life better than the one they knew, and they were able to retire with dignity and security. the next time someone tells you the american dream is only about how much money you make or whether you become famous or well-known, it isn't true. that may be part of your individual dream, but the american dream is about achieving happiness and fulfillment as you define it. bit the way, we call it the american dream but it really is a universal dream. people all over the world have this dream. they've had it for millenia, the desire not to just be better off

but to leave their kids better off than themselves. why they call it the american dream is because so many millions of people have been able to achieve it here, and not in other places. that's the real american dream. why was it possible? i believe it gap with the declaration of independence, because it has a very profound statement. we're one of the few and maybe the only countries in history founded on a spiritual principle. here's the spiritual principle. every human being, not every human being born in north america, every mcis born with certain rights, life, liberty, the pursuit of hypeness. those rights do not come from your government. they don't come from the king and dope come from the law. those rights come from your creator. we are going to have a government but the purpose of that government is to protect those rights, not to decide them or to grant them. and the only power we'll give the government is the power they need to protect those rights. those are words we have grown numb to. that was the reason why

everything else i just described to you is possible. because from that flowed political freedoms and also flowed economic freedoms and liberties. for example, the system of free enterprise. you know why i love free enter pies snuff you look at my background, the son of an immigrant, bartender and maid, never lived in a mansion, didn't inhaired money. you put all that information into a political computer, it spits out left wing liberal. [laughter] >> but you know why i'm not? i tell you why. because free enterprise and limited government is the only governing model in the history of the world where what my parents did would be possible the only economic mo mod until the history of the world where you can be more successful without making someone else worse off. i can climb without having to knock you down. the only one that says the economy is not a zero sum game.

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