tv Supreme Court Term Review CSPAN August 10, 2017 4:32am-6:01am EDT
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landscape. a discussion on standing up to working families and embracing regressive values. that 230, a look at winning back power. developing strategies for the type of society progressives want to see. elizabeth warren and ben jealous speak at the congress. pamela and al gore, join us for live coverage of the net roots nation conference on c-span. at the supreme court term, a panel of judges talk from the key cases are in the university of california at irvine, this is an hour and a half.
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[applause] >> good morning. i am pleased to welcome you to the seventh annual supreme court determined event. our first event was held in a closet. we are expanding. this event brings together the law school, university, and the broader orange county community to talk about what is most important but neglected institutions, the supreme court. before turning to the program, i want to thank a number of people and organizations who made this possible. the special events team, from
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school with such a reputation for teaching and the cause of justice. it was your hard work that made it flourish, your kindness which made it a joy to go to work each day. we will always be in your debt. thank you for everything you have done. [applause] [applause] two years ago at this event, there were comments on the hodges case, recognizing the right to same-sex marriage.
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a 2015 term was likely to be the empire strikes back. case that would have affected labor unions. justice majority started -- aesident obama nominated judge but senate republicans objected to him feeling these -- filling the seat. president trump nominated judge gorsuch to the bench and he was confirmed in the spring. participated in a handful of decisions. he is already making his mark on the court. continue to circulate about justice kennedy. empire strikes back might have had its release date pushed back
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2007 to 2013 she served in the department as assistant. , she argued 12re cases on behalf of federal government. previously, he taught at duke law school and at the university of southern california law school. he is one of the country's leading experts in constitutional law. he served as chief judge on the court from 2000 722 thousand 14. he graduated from ucla. prior to the appointment to the
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bench, he served as chief judge to united states claims court. a particular focus on federalism. he was at our panel two years ago. has there from harvard law school with a lecture on my. to keep the program moving, i have asked them to speak for no more than seven minutes on one of the courts cases. the panels will be able to engage with one another and take questions. we will take questions from the live audience, on twitter using tag.#-- hash
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we have changed our format for audience questions for you rather than stepping up to the microphone, there should be .ards that you can fill out i will make an announcement that he passed the cards to bio. they will be collected and i will be able to ask questions from there. please keep your questions short. please keep your writing legible, and please keep them questions. to keep things moving, i would like you to please save your applause until the end of the program, except for now as we welcome our panelists. [applause] >> i'm going to talk about the tribal band. -- travel ban. because of the time i will skip
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over some things. i presume most people are familiar with the political context of it. i will focus on this opinion from the supreme court, about what it says about the court with the relationship with the president. provocativeover opinion. the executive order, second one the president had issued citing .ational security the executive order said the purpose of the travel ban was to reduce the burdens on homeland security. there are two more courts about have blocked the ban. this isonale is that unconstitutional discrimination
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on the basis of religion. another court says we do not need to reach that constitutional question, where we will uphold an injunction against event because the president exceeded his authority under immigration laws. the president asked for two things. he wants the court to hear the appeals of both those rulings and to block the travel ban in the meantime. because of the temporary nature of it, it creates this unusual dynamic where the stay application and marriage question intersect in an unusual way. one of the court does on the stay application might be the entire ballgame because the order might expire before the
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court hears arguments. cutting to the chase, it lets part of the ban takes effect. not written by anyone member of the court. you can search through this entire document and look for the .ames those names do not appear at all. says remarkably little in this opinion. it is not even focusing on the merits. state -- stayp a application, the first is likely success of the marriage. it'll must decide who will probably win. saidis case come the court we will not focus on that.
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we're going to look at the equities, namely which side will be hurt more if they lose here and the broader question of the public interest. , theoking at the equities court decided for people outside the country who had a connection to the u.s., the court said the -- the travel ban cannot apply to those people. remarkably, in evaluating that and looking at the equities, it described how the lower courts are talking about the impact on these people who could not enter the country. if the lowerecide courts got that right. they said we are going to leave that in place and not disturb that. when it came to the people who did not have a bona fide tied to part of theis is
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media's opinion. here thattatement in said the president, interested andnforcing the travel ban using the executive authority to do so is at its peak when there is no tie between the foreign national and the united states. it sounds like the court is that withh saying regard to people who do not have any pre-existing connection to the u.s. come the president has unfettered authority to say you cannot enter the country. there is a separate opinion by justice thomas, joined by other says the court has made a decision on this case. the conclusion that the government has made a strong showing and is likely to succeed on merits. the right way of ascribing the
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majority opinion, he caught it -- called it a compromise. productnion must be a of people on the court who did -- want the public the court did not decide everything. looking ahead, we have two more issues on the travel ban to look forward to. the court agreed to hear arguments in the fall. it is not clear if there will be anything for the court to decide in the fall. overtake the arguments. it is possible the case will go away. there is ongoing litigation and lower gate -- the records over what that bona fide connection to the u.s. means. in particular, the trump
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administration has taken the position that only a limited member -- number of family members, not including grandparents, that limited number of people can enter the country. there is a fight over that. that could make its way into the spring court to clarify what it meant sometime in the next couple of weeks. that seemed tol suggest that the public like the result that the court got to in this case. usually has a sixth sense of what will be an acceptable decision. they gravitated towards that. talk about themes of the term. this court has been mostly and upholding pattern since justice scalia died. there were not a lot of blockbuster cases this term. we will have some interesting
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cases to talk about here. -- theyt has managed did not bring the highest profile cases. one case of transgender rights come the case when away. that is about to change. we will have a case is coming up in the fall. we will have a chance to talk about those later. >> and a term that was characterized by an uncharacteristic three -- degree the mostness, important of the three cases was -- the caseled andn as lee versus tan better known as a kind of proxy fight over the cancellation of the trademark of the washington redskins football team.
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the question had to do with the constitutionality of the .rovision of the 1946 act it forbids the registration of marks that are found to be disparaging to persons, institutions, beliefs, or to national symbols. the argument in the redskins case was that the term redskins has long been understood as a slur against native americans. this particular case arose in a factual setting but raised the same legal question. it concerns the use of the mark for a dance rock group those trying to read appropriate a re-appropriate a term used against people of asian descent. it was found to be disparaging and therefore not able to be registered it.
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-- to be registered. a member of the band challenged that decision and prevailed before a federal circuit. a unanimous supreme court ultimately agreed. but unanimity was characteristic court.f the supreme resultsimity of the about the proper mood of analysis for reaching that result. the government's central argument rested on having a certain understanding of what exactly federal trademark registration does and does not do. the government emphasized that federal registration is not mrs. terry to use a particular phrase in public discourse or everyday conversation.
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-- necessarily to use a particular phrase in public discourse or everyday conversation. it makes it easier to defend a mark against other users who might want to use the same mark identified their different goods or services. the government said there is nothing that bridges speech -- a s speech.- abridge the government is adding additional production against people -- protection against people using that speech. it is providing a monopoly power for people of the trademark area of what really matters is whether there is a reasonable relationship between the current -- the criteria. a contrary conclusion would not only call into question the constitutionality of the
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anti-disparagement, but also other criteria the government uses, like whether or not the mark is just descriptive, whether or not there is a risk that the registration of one mark might dilute the power of another mark. movedpreme court was not by the government's framing of the case in these terms. the court really did not engage deeply with the government attempt to characterize federal trademark registration as a kind of a special sort of government program. .he court was extremely careful they were careful to avoid making broad announcements about the framework for thinking about trademark law.
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focused on this one provision, the anti-disparagement provision. approaches incal these two separate opinions. the matter what you can see of the federal trademark registration program as a kind or whethernt subsidy you consider it a regulation of commercial speech or any other kind of category under the first amendment, what the government cannot do in the context of that program is suppressed speech on the basis of viewpoints but it expresses. it expresses. the government has argued that theas not because disparagement been applied
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across -- ban applied across the board. regardless,id that just because it suppresses more viewpoints, does not make it viewpoint discriminatory. that is one thing the government cannot do. suggestion and elite opinion that the result might have been different if the disparagement bar can apply more narrowly. the governments inserted interest in protecting commerce that might be impeded by discriminatory speech. the court said in his lead opinion that it was not narrowly drawn for such a purpose. the purpose was to create a happy talk clause.
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there is no adequate justification for the government attempting to draw distinctions on that basis. term,forward in the short the disputes that have centered on the disparagement bar in particular are over. the government has now filed surrender in the redskins litigation and will presumably see more registration of similar marks in the future. we will also see additional questions arising of how the courts reasoning applies to other aspects of trademark law, including a provision that bars registration of marks that are add alous and presumably rise to additional questions about government role in making judgments about what counts as scandalous speech and federal trademark registration. message that comes
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through the court decision in this case is a fundamental principle of free speech law, which is a notion that giving offense is not a sufficient reason for the government to or driveo censor particular views from the marketplace. -- appropriate response >> it is wonderful to be here. thank you for those kind words. i want to thank rick for this program. he came here and had the idea of doing the spring court program -- the supreme court program each summer. eventthe best attended and most attended event on the entire campus. thank you for doing this and including us. [no audio] [laughter]
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>> the case i want to talk about the state of missouri has a program which aids the schools in the state. and usee scrap tires them and playgrounds. it will not get the aid to religious schools. provision in the missouri constitution that prohibits them from giving aid to religious institutions. it was a time that congress insisted on such provisions for the condition of statehood. was deniede schools free exercise of religion to bashit from keeping the getting the aids that other schools get.
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-- getting the aid that other schools get. cases of thecourt question -- when is the. -- prior to this, there is only one supreme court case. the decision of locke versus davey. giving scholarships to students .ithin that state joshua davey had received one of these scholarships. he wanted to attend a seminary in washington. the state of washington refused to allow the scholarship to be
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used in that way. he said it infringed upon his exercise of religion. the key issue in the brief -- the united states supreme court, in a seven-to decision said that locke versus davey was distinguishable. the supreme court ruled against the state of missouri. court,an opinion of this except for one footnote. --tice thomas and gorsuch
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chief justice roberts said this discrimination against religion must meet the most exacting scrutiny. scrutiny,et strict meaning government action must seem to be necessary to achieve a compelling government purpose. the court found that strict scrutiny was not that. that is not a compelling government interest. the key issue is going to be locke versus davey distinguish ability. denied to whatng joshua davey was doing. it was because of what the institution is, a religious
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institution. the court concludes it is odious to discriminate against religion and term of the aid that it receives. the key issue is going to be how ?ar does this extend does this mean any time at government provides aid, it has to provide the same assistance to religious institution? he said this is just about aid to a playground, nothing more than that. others say this is just about an eight four program -- playground. -- aid for a program. it indicates a really want to
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overrule locke versus db. he said this is the first time in history that the supreme court has ever found that the government is constitutionally required to give government aid to a religious institution. the firstd to distinction that it was based on any joshua davey was doing, time government does not give aid to religious and the tuition is discriminating against what it is. that would violate the constitution. tos is giving money religious institution, and institution all about religious devotion and prayer. if you give money to a playground, that is something else. this is not about just the playground. now you are going to see in the
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norma's amount of litigation in any instance where the government is giving aid to secular institutions and not to religious ones, religious ones will sue and say this violates. justices on the court who would go towards overturning box versus davey. ins is can he voted majority 97% of all the decisions. even if you exclude the unanimous cases, justice kennedy was the majority 93% of the time. second was chief justice roberts. for lawyers litigating, my advice is to make a must attempt to pander to justice kennedy.
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-- make an attempt to pander to justice kennedy. then we will have a dramatic goal -- ideological shift. in light of his last comment, i should make it clear that when rick mentioned justice kennedy, that was not exactly correct. -- clerked for judge kennedy. about isi want to talk coming up to understand it was a case.e court state --
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-- it was a matter of due process where the criminal defendant is entitled to have handed to him any evidence proving lack of guilt or innocence. i want to spend a minute talking about it because it is not like miranda or the exclusionary rule , rehab rules in criminal law that serve some other purpose. oppression rules of to protect each of us.
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this is actually geared toward the defendant. .hey choose this is a crime where please come in and cordon off the area and gather up all the evidence, they have access to witnesses. they can subpoena them. the police can call the men. -- called them in. evidence to this the defendants. noer cases, there is usually
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discovery. there is a real need for prosecutors. it has been 54 years, over half a century. there is strong evidence out many prosecutors do not live up to brady. the question is, the supreme court said that government must -- thatr evidence for is material for the defense. the question is, what does it mean to be material? this case with turner was based on what happened in 1984. this was before i was appointed to the ninth circuit. i was living in tc, a few blocks
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,way in the southeast -- in dc a few blocks away in the southeast. was abducted on the street, taken into an alley, , she wasinto a garage sodomized with either a poll or iron pipe, and killed. the government brought the case against nine or 10 defendants. wasfear of the government the group of youths headed -- had decided to do this lady. testified forup the government for a lesser suspense -- sentence. what the government did not
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disclose, i should note this is not an oversight. this was a willful nondisclosure. the body had been found by a street vendor. this treatment vendor had told the police that two other people have been rushing away from the crime. guy, when the defendant asked for the names come the government willfully refused to provide the information. this information that was not disclosed to the defense. themajority looked and said government has said this was done by a group. nothing really that the defense could have found.
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they said the reason the defendants excepted the group killing, they would not have this information. it would have looked very different if they had had this information. whyexplains convincingly the government should have turned over the evidence. , theakeaway from this case position of whether to turn over evidence from the prosecution come the prosecution always sees the case from its perspective. they believed it was a group killing and they found this evidence to where a group killing was not convincing. so they did not turn it over. here came to light 24 years
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after the event. the second thing to take away, the make bash man whose name was not disclosed, he was involved and found guilty in the killing blocksyoung woman a few from the scene of this crime. the second takeaway is that whenever the government failed to turn over evidence, not only can they risk convicting a an innocentn -- person, they are allowing someone to go out there and do it again. this has happened again and again. the third thing is, there is nothing in the supreme court's any -- onat casts
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what the government did here. finally, the government -- the supreme court mentions that the justice department guidelines avoid this problem. article that documents all of the cases where -- alltice department the instances where the parchment of justice has failed since 2000 -- department of justice has failed since 2006. all right i will try to fit two cases in my time. they raise the same two
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questions. the first question is when can you sue a federal official for damages for violence is -- violations of your constitutional rights? the second question is when you can get damages for violations? that is when an officer is liable for damages, assuming you are allowed to sue them. the two cases that raise these questions are ziegler versus -- and on and is -- hernando's versus mesa. the first case involved a group of men who were unlawfully present and undocumented in the united states. all south asian or arab. many of them were muslim. were arrested and fbi investigations in the wake of september 11. they were not suspected of any
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terrorist activity. noy found that they had connection to any terrorist activity. at the time, the fbi had a policy of holding until the training persons of interests that were undocumented. partially on the basis of public and that the fbi received, many of the tips were about reportedly dangerous looking middle eastern men. the men were detained in conditions that can barely be described as rent this -- her industry and -- horrendous. they were subjected to the strip searches. border patrol agent policing the .exas mexico border
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the colbert is a fenced in includes portions of el paso tech -- a pass out and mexico. that bridge that people actually passed between the two cities and countries. there were kids running around in the colbert -- culvert. say theyndez families were just playing games. others say they were perhaps trying to enter the united states. one of the boys hides under the leg of the bridge that spans the culvert.- the officer chased him and killed him. it turns out the boy was a mexican national who was standing on the mexican side of the border. the officer was standing on the
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u.s. side of the border when he shot him. is can youuestion sue in federal official for damages or for constitutional violation? there is no statute that allows you to sue federal officials for violating the constitution. it allows you to assume state officials, but not federal officials. suit -- the court said you can -- you often will not have a remedy for constitutional violations. that is the case for both of the above cases. and hernando, there was not forg to be a trial -- hernandez is, there was not going to be a trial.
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if there is no control child, the exclusionary rule not remedy the violation. another way can remedy a violation is to go to federal court and ask the court to give you an order or an injunction. cannot callndo's the federal court when the officer was pointing a gun at him and shooting him. plaintiffsome the could not have alternative available to them as well before they were detained. they did not know how or where they would be detained. after they were detained, they were held in isolation without communication from the outside world. allowedestion, are you to sue the federal official for damages? the first case said no.
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i said it is true that there are these order cases that says you can sue federal officials for damages. we are not sure if we agree with those cases, but we will not overturn them. unless your case is very similar , youe three prior cases are not allowed to sue federal officials for damages anymore. hernandez did, -- directed the court of appeals to decide that question body. wake of the the second question is assuming that you can sue an official, when are they viable under a document called qualified
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immunity? the officer also violated statutes. it -- in factid my late a statute. statute.e deficit would not have been qualified for immunity because .e did not know the facts he did not know he was shooting a 15-year-old national standing in mexico. the court did not decide whether the fourth amendment on excessive force actually applied to the officer under those circumstances. those were the cases that i wanted to discuss. i think they underscore something that is noted at the outset. the court is one of the most
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publicly neglected institution. they were not headline makers, you may not have heard about them before, but they are incredibly important. if you have a question, if you could pass your question .ard to the aisle there will be people coming through to collect the questions. paneliststo all the for keeping time. [laughter] while the cards are being collected, let me open up this question to the group. we only have a little bit of evidence about justice gorsuch. >> let me comment on greg's presentation. i cannot speak for the merits. that is a case coming for my court. i want to describe one issue that i think is important.
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i think it will be a bigger issue coming up. that is the problem of nationwide in junctions of district judges in a city or circuit in the country, issuing injunctions across the country. that is a new phenomenon. it started in the last administration, during the course of the last administration. they were very happy with it when texas joined some aspect for deportation. the obama administration's .olicies now the shoe is on the other foot.
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they were unhappy with this. i think it is a serious problem. justf my students at nyu wrote an article. he did an editorial in the l.a. times talking about the dangers of federal nationwide in junctions. what this means is one judge and one circuit gets to control the until the the -- law supreme court intervenes. have due idea that you eling views in the lower courts before it percolates up into the supreme court and it can choose among different views. it is an important issue. because thisn it will be a big issue coming up.
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>> a follow-up that anyone can answer. if you do not allowed nationwide injunctions, you have one rule in washington state and a different rule in massachusetts. how is the federal government to respond when it has a single immigration policy? >> you can have tax rules in different circuits. ,ntil the government acquiesces they will simply have different operating differently in different circuits. that is the way it operates. if it is important enough, the the government- takes it to the supreme court and says we need a nationwide policy. you need to take this case. the supreme court hardly ever says no.
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the government says we need one answer. >> in a situation where the question concerns the constitutionality of government action, the supreme court can be fairly motivated. >> most policies, there are different policies of many areas of the law that operate differently in different circuits. we muddle on. panelists these chance to respond to each other. i only had seven minutes. does anyone else want to respond? my first question is justice gorsuch, i think he was only there for the april sitting. we have some sense of him. how do you think he is likely to change the court used on the little bit that we know?
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what would our conversation look like have the other justice been on the court? that is open to any of you. >> i predict that liberals who look back on this glia days as days as the good old days. [laughter] yet to remember that what we have seen in the last 18 months is unprecedented in u.s. history. in 21 out of 24, the senate denied confirmation. never before has the senate said no hearings, no vote. this will set a precedent for the future. the president and the majority of the senate of different
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political parties, the -- given the electoral maps, it is highly unlikely the democrats will take the senate in 2018. if they do, president trump will not confirm those last two years. before has there been a filibuster of a supreme court nominee. neil gorsuch is going to be a very conservative justice. he is 49 years old. if you reminds on the court remains on 90 -- he the court until he is 90, he will be a justice for 40 more years. i think the key question is will the other justices -- it is that
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appointment that will ideologically shift the court. >> i have a couple things to say. i think it is remarkable. most new justices of the court talk about how it took them three or four years to feel like they knew what they were doing. he shows none of that. he has been extraordinarily assertive. confident. people call him aggressive. in justice kagan's first two years, she wrote several different opinions. neil gorsuch wrote that many as -- and his first two months in court. they were of the opinion on technical points.
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they challenged other members of the court on how they were doing things, when they were deciding. how they were reading statutes. indications,e watching an argument where he got some pretty firm pushback from justice kagan, who is a withce who can get along anybody on the court. she used a word like radical -- to describe argument he was making. -- i amefinitely interested to see the interactions between him and the rest of the court. i would echo erwin. if it changes anything it will be the confirmation process itself. i do not think his confirmation to the court will change the
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court. i do not think you will be that different from justice scalia. he will perhaps be more conservative than justice scalia was. i would also echo using the --logy of added details adjectives in which he described neil gorsuch is writing -- gorsuch's writing. the substance of his position, .hey were assertive were radical and perhaps revolutionary. he is not one to hesitate to be theed the law -- reshape law. borrowing on the statistic of
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the other justices taking a little more time and moderating the town among colleagues, erwin concern. the trinity there is defenses were notable because they do not often use the rhetoric they used in those cases to challenge the majority opinion or their colleagues. judge gorsuch use that rhetoric in a most every opinion he wrote. just react to what you said. the reason the nuclear option was used for the first time by with therats filibuster -- we had other times in the past where we were on the brink with the bush
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administration. before, when there was talk about the republicans using a nuclear option, they pulled back. if the confirmation process has changed, you need to send a thank you note to harry reid. i want to follow up on the gorsuch question. .alk about his separate opinion question of birth certificates and same-sex marriage couples. can you describe the case? case.is an unusual they have a law that says if a woman who is married has a child, this husband's name will
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be listed on the pacific area -- the birth certificate. the case involved two lesbian couples. througheived the child artificial insemination. the arkansas supreme court ruled against them. the supreme court in a 6-3 decision -- the supreme court said in 2015 that not only gay and lesbian couples have the rights to marry, but they have the right to go along with marriage. that means both spouses sign of the birth certificate. -- ites thomas and alito was surprising because of its sarcasm. it seemed to be mocking the lack
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of clarity. it was clear that these three justices not only disagreed with the majority here, but mrs. hodges. this is an the same day the supreme court ran a review. whether or not a business can ay and to serve a g lesbian wedding on the grounds of the beliefs of the owner. >> i am not sure that is correct. there were three dissenting justices. with of theion travel ban does not indicate which injustices join the opinion. ofause the case was disposed on the brief, the justice who defend it does not necessarily have to note there dissent.
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it is possible this was a 5-3 decision. it is possible it was 5-4. but i would not necessarily say it was 6-3. >> i disagree. does not note or concur [indiscernible] >> i am not sure they are any longer the world. they wrote a post about this. someone in chicago wrote an article [indiscernible] [laughter]
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>> they do not think there is a norm that requires a judge to never vote. curious, even if there is no opinion, do we assume -- as a reporter i deal with this all the time. >> it works by subtraction. [indiscernible] >> even in order with no opinion attached? >> i am not sure about that. [laughter] >> what is it like in your court? denyingstandard order the case, the fact votes are not
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ordered, does not mean everyone agrees. a summarying about reversal. i cannot speak to what the norms were. >> there is no doubt about this. i agree, if the supreme court does not know the difference is, that does not mean anything. but if they take an action, per for dissenture means you have joined. onjustice kagan may be twitter with an anonymous name. [laughter] >>. the question from the audience.
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with the justice kennedy set to retire anytime, can we talk about respect for precedents. to how the court can rule on roe v. wade? abortion case.s >> they always come to the same conclusion. residents should be followed, except when it should be overruled. [laughter] it is the only possible answer. we also believe there are types of presidents overruled. precedence over rolled. -- overruled. bythey are replaced i do not trump --
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believe that chief justice roberts or thomas or alito or gorsuch will carry it when it comes to something like this that matters deeply to them. maybe we can have a discussion about john roberts. i challenge anyone to find something in john roberts's career, that leads them that he might -- leads them to believe he might overturn roe versus wade. >> let me just take you up on that. when you see has votes in the obamacare cases, that is an institutional type of vote. overturning roe versus wade would be terrible for the republican party, torally.lee. -- elec
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>> i do not have the view that his votes in the obamacare case were institutionalist. [indiscernible] i believe john roberts voted because he got the government's argument. i think there are issues were john roberts cares very deeply. think about the only dissent he has ever read. i thought he would go along with the majority, but he wanted to be on the right side of history. he had a blistering defense. affirmative action is another area where he is a firm believer. their places when he would be in institutionalist. but not in the years when he care so deeply. >> not to drag us back into the
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discussion we were having, [indiscernible] could it apply if the chief justice was under that majority, could it mean he accepted that? >> it is interesting, when i was listening to this discussion. it was about, was john roberts going along with the majority? five is no doubt that the justices that found wrongful marriage majority would have voted to overturn the decision. does that mean john roberts was going along with them or not? i tend to agree with judge kozinsky here. has not know that means he five votes in affirmative action cases. >> this is an important distinction. it is one thing to go along because he -- because you know you are outvoted.
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and you do not have the votes to overrule it, so you do not make an issue of it. votes, you the four would not join that decision. it is a matter of arithmetic. this one?omments on >> i would say something. overturning roe could mean two things. one, there are five votes to have an opinion to overturn roe versus wade, and discontinue planned parenthood. and it is no longer a protected liberty interest. the other way to overturn roe without explicitly doing so is to apply that standard the court announced for determining whether restriction on abortion is constitutional or not, but to
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uphold every restriction on abortion you come across, thereby effectively rendering roe no longer the law on the ground. that is another way the courts could potentially tip away at roe, if there is an appointment. appointment, they could overturn roe. >> i did not say that. [laughter] >> i do not know that will happen. isas just agreeing it possible in a situation like that. samet be bound to do the in the next case. i am not sure the court will have a chance of the composition changes. but i do not have proof of this.
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it is important to note that justice kennedy is the only remaining justice of the three notasey who said, we will overrule as a matter of resident -- as a matter of precedent. the other justices retired. >> we have a question from twitter. we talk about justice kennedy's parts in gerrymandering views. -- justice roberts b suede be swayed? unconstitutional, partisan gerrymandering. >> anybody want to weigh in on that? [laughter] >> i am the moderator. i will briefly weigh in.
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i think it is unlikely he would be part of that. he is a justice -- especially arguments. he hates lines where you cannot figure out where to stop. to the extent it is a case about a numerical way to say, here is where it becomes too partisan. i think that chief justice will struggle with and not be happy with saying, that is too partisan, that is not. this is not something the court should be involved in. >> let me give a plug for the dissent. questions, judges have no business signing the issues. these are made by clinical branches, not judges. >> i want to disagree with judge
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kozinsky. [laughter] on, he was asked what is the most important decision during his time in the court. he said, reynolds versus sims. these are the cases that said a portion of legislature violates equal protection. it should be one person, one quote. but there is no issue more important than gerrymandering. legislature.the this has become more effective than ever before. in 2004, the supreme court filed a report that said
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gerrymandering is a political question, not to be resolved by the courts, because there is no standard to decide what is too far. said maybe wey will have a standard in the future, we should not close the door. two years ago, in a case with arizona state legislature, there was an opinion for the court saying the state can have an independent commission for congressional seats. sized she sharply at a the partisan gerrymander. she said they should choose representatives, and president -- and the justice kennedy joined that decision. endorsing partisan gerrymandering as being permissible. tea leavesys the
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point in opposite directions. >> why doesn't the democratic process work when gerrymandering maximizes power? that is the democratic process. what is inherently, objectively any worse about that than having on what a that turns particular justice house for breakfast the morning of the opinion? >> we will move on. [laughter] would say it is the party that controls the legislature that draws the districts and away the not only helps that party, totally apart from one person, one vote, where you had districts of varying sizes, that would be ok. >> absolutely. that is wide acre versus reynolds was wrong. baker versusy reynolds was wrong. these are political questions.
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has been no equal protection and voting at all. [applause] >> and we want it that way. [laughter] much does oral argument matter at the supreme court? you have numbered -- you have argued a number of cases. >> the thing you have to tell yourself when arguing to the supreme court, depending what position you are arguing, it matters quite a bit or not at all. when justices have been asked this question in public settings, they give roughly the same answer. it comports with my experience on the other side of the bench. oral argument does not often change the outcome of cases. occasionally it does, reveals a new dimension for the case the judges have not fully thought
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through. large, the supreme court justices have had a lot of time to read and review the brief and spent a lot of time thinking about the issues and oral arguments. kickingtime they spent the tires on their conclusions about how the case should come out. it is also the first time all the judges sit down together to talk about the case. oral argument serves the function of them talking to each other. sometimes through counsel or past counsel, to try to lay the groundwork for conversations to have an conference. oral argument matters tremendously in terms of how opinions are ultimately written. hazards of resolving cases comes to light, complications that may indicate to the justices they are entering what may be more
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difficult territory than they appreciated. you often see some of those becerns and efforts to incremental rather than prejudging a wide swath of issues. ultimately it is reflected in the court's opinion to lay the groundwork for continuing conversation. it has been a long time since i looked there. was it 1976 -- a long time ago. when i served at the ninth circuit for judge kennedy, i thought it was a thoughtful court. and much more influenced by the briefs and oral arguments than at the supreme court.
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they pretty much have their minds made up. it may have changed. justice kennedy bringing them ethos of the supreme court, things may have changed. in my days, it mattered little. >> let's try to get to a few more questions. how likely is it to see executive case that will be dismissed as the travel ban case in october? meaning, the court will never fully decide. i will stay away from the word moot, because of the legal meaning. there are plenty of ways you can see the case goes away. i alluded to the case earlier. there was a separate version about refugees lasting 120 days.
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the ban on refugees from six countries only lasts 90 days. by the time the court hears arguments, those 90 days will have elapsed. you have to think that something will replace it. certainly possible the president most people can come in, but it seems just as likely, more likely, the president will say, we have looked at the vetting procedures, there are problems, and we need to permanently or for a longer period of time ban people from these countries and maybe other countries. there will be challenges, but that is a new case. it is hard for me to see in the supreme court, even if they hear arguments, ultimately deciding --y want to roll -- rule whether or not it is legally
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immigration laws and other big issues in a case where the practical implications are little if any at all. i think the court will not ultimately issue a decision on the legality of the dayay entry ban or 120 suspension plan of the refugee programs. they wanted to allow the government to devote the necessary time and resources to the government's own review of refugee procedures. opinion, thes court said it anticipated the government would complete its review of those procedures within the 90 days that it said. there is every indication in the opinion and expects the government to complete the internal review process, the
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duration for which was tied to the cessation of the refugee program. second, the point of the internal rep -- review project was to potentially generate new ones. if the government does that, it is no longer the same case. toit just allows entry ban expire, there is no longer a wide controversy for the court to do anything about. third, i think the compromise nature of the way the court deposed the stay applications, leaving injunctions in place in some respects, and modifying and others, indicates a desire for the court to avoid controversy and maybe step in with too much force. for all of those indicators, absent some significant change before the court hears the case in october, it is likely we will
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not get a supreme court decision that determines the legality of day executive120 order. >> the government never does anything on time. [laughter] >> no, it is a serious question. what if they get close to 90 days and they say it is more difficult than we thought, we now anticipate six months rather than 90 days? what happens than? -- then? the supreme court says what? >> if the government really thinks it will win -- >> i am a suggesting they are trying -- they genuinely say it is a hard process, there is no suspicion of manipulation. >> one of two things could happen. evidence thectual government made its best efforts it would takeod
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and could not complete the process in the window, they may have to find a way to address it . compromise, soal justices can agree. if the government does that, it will create issues for the government. when the president signed the first executive order in january, they have to review existing procedures. but they never started that, even though the internal process had not been joined under the first executive order. by the time the government created the second order, they should have that information about how long the process to review existing procedures would last. they modified the time period, and the court seemed to think they should be held to it. i do not see that operating to the government's benefit, even
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if that might be the case. >> that is a great question. the only thing i would add to what leah said, it seems to me that might be a new case. isuess what they would do say, we are amending the executive order. is whether debate there is a national security rationale for what the president did. the assessment might be different if it is six months as opposed to 90 days. it is something i could see the supreme court wanting lower courts to take the first crack at. it is possible. ultimately, this will probably come down to how interested they are in actually deciding this issue. do they want to lay low and not issue something big, or do they feel this is something where they want to find a way to answer the question?
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right thateah is they do not want to do something big. but that remains to be seen. >> i had a great last question what -- question, which would be about term limits on the supreme court. [laughter] >> but we will have to come back. there is a reception right behind you. please feel free to enjoy. please join me in thanking our panelists and we will see you next year. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]
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>> tonight a discussion about the future of the democratic and republican parties. here is the preview. millennials are the biggest generation in america right now. the republican party is not super popular among millennials. there are a few barriers on entry that the republican party will have to change. gay marriage is one of them. how would you start making changes to appeal to a new group of voters that think differently than their parents and grandparents without alienating grandparents on who you rely on as your base to win elections now. that is one of the growing pains
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in the republican party that i will be fascinated to see how they handle that over the next decade or decade and a >> i don't think it will be a viable party in the next 20 years. but you can watch this tonight on c-span at 8:00 p.m. ,t the city club of cleveland corey lewandowski talked about the presidential campaign and the first six months of the presidency. this runs one hour. >> good afternoon. welcome to the city club of cleveland. i
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