tonight on kqed newsroom, the nation mourns the passing of u.s. supreme court ruth bader ginsburg. amid the eulogies, memorials and tributes, a bitter political fight is brewing to name her successor, just weeks before the presidential election. it's been more than a month since classes resumed for students throughout the state, we will check in to see how school districts are navigating ongoing challenges and uncertainties over reopening classrooms for in person learning. welcome to kqednewsroom i am luigi molly filling in for priya david clemens who is off this week. on wednesday, u.s. supreme court chief justice john roberts eulogize his ngtime colleague ruth bader ginsburg

who died from pancreatic cancer last week. justice roberts said nearly 500 opinions and dissents she wrote in her 27 years on the bench will steer the court for decades. justice ginsburg was in champion of women's rights, who as an attorney argued six gender discrimination cases before the supreme court in the 1970s. winning five of them. meanwhile, a political fight is heating up on capitol hill over her successor. president trump and top republicans are aiming to nominate and confirm a new justice in the coming weeks. despite objections from democrats. joining me now by skype from mountain view is chen, he has a hoover institution fellow and former adviser to the presidential campaigns of mitt romney and marco rubio. and joining by skype from cambridge massachusetts is meiko brown macon. and a constitutional law professor at harvard university. i would like to start with you, you met justice ginsburg a

number of times, what kind of impact that you have on you? >> i did have the pleasure of meeting justice ginsburg, a couple of times. she was iniring. she was strong, she was quite an intellect and i will give you an example of a meeting with her, where she demonstrated both of those, i had the pleasure of being at a conferce with her at the federal judicial center, many years ago. she gave an address in which she talked about the way in which her personal experience of loss, had shaped her career. she talked about losing her mother, when she was in high school, about to graduate. and she said something that stuck with me, many years. she said, i wasn't going to sit in the corner and cry. in other words, that loss, actually had the effect of

inspiring her, to pursue her personal dreams. and of course to be an advocate for equity for all people. >> ank you for that touching how was justice ginsburg viewed in conservative circles? >> well, i think her prudence was often questioned. i think a lot of times, she was seen as somebody who came out on the wrong side of cases. but i don't think anyone doubted her intellectual heft. that she had a very kind heart, of a lot of people may know, one of her closest friends was the lead justice alia. someone revered in conservative circles. scalia and ginsburg had the unlikeliest of friendships, but one that was clearly very sincere. i think let a lot of people on the right, a lot of

conservatives weather in the law, or even political analysts, to have a great deal of respect for her. in some cases, begrudging respect. >> the politics of replacing her of course have been brought to say the least. is the fact that republicans are charging forward with a replacement, despite the nomination of merrick garland, president obama's pick for the supreme court in 2016. your old boss mitt romney, senator from utah, said he supports taking a vote on a replacement. were you surprised by that? >> i wasn't really surprised, no. senator romney is someone, i've always known him to be someone who calls it as he sees it. úimpeachment conversation, obviously being the only republican to vote in favor of convicting the president on any of the two charges. in this situation, i think his reading of the constitution's reading of historical norms

around nominations, made and considered when the president and senator are of the same party. i think that ultimately drove his decision. >> dean brown, what do you make of arguments that prominent republicans are making when it comes to moving forward with replacing her, before the election. you know, we heard what mitt romney had to say, he's also making the argument the u.s. is a center-right nation. do you agree with that? doesn't make sense to have the u.s. supreme court reflect that? >> well, i am not surprised that the republicans are pushing ahead, including because when merrick garland, was nominated by president obama, and mitch mcconnell was explaining this rationale for election-year rationale for holding him up. he at the same time said to a group of supporters, that if the situation were reversed, of course he would push ahead. he would want to push ahead. i ink that is really what is at bottom of this. the republicans, including

mitch mcconnell, have made the transformation of the court a priority issufor many years. they've done a very good job in pushing through. towards objective. and, the bottom line is that certainly, the republicans want to see a pointed to the supreme court, into the lower courts, judges and a justice, who shares their view of the constitution. >> whatis your response to this argument that it's hypocritical for republicans to move forward with a nomination in an election year, given what happened to merrick garland. >> well, the argument from mitch mcconnell, and from other republicans on capitol hill is that one has to differentiate between a situation where the senate and the presidency are up of opposite parties.

i think that the bottom line here, as it comes down to politics. this is a political consideration. there are a whole series of norms involved, there is a whole series of considerations involved. but when you boil it all down, this comes down to a political question. which is, given the opportunity, does the senate move ahead in considering a nomination for the supreme court, that has the potential to further entrench a conservative majority on that court. and, republicans in congress, republicans in the senate have made that decision which is fundamentally a political one. i don't know the democrats would decide differently if they were in control. this is how our politics have become. unfortunately, a lot of the norms that we have come to expect that two sides would observe in a consideration like this one, have been tossed out the window. starting in 2013 for example

when harry reid made the decision to move away from the institutional norm of having a super majority vote for lower court nonees. so this has been going on for some time now. both sides are guilty of eroding those norms. >> dean brown, a conservative judge is no doubt going to tip the scales on a host of cases for years, generations to come. one of the cases that the supreme court will hear, i believe the week after the election, is on the affordable care act. it is seen as an x essential threat to obamacare by a number of democrats. i am wondering is that your view, do you see it, do you see that case as being in existential importance to the future of the aca? >> it depends on how the justices reason about the case. which, involves the possibility of striking down an element of the law, and preserving other elements. i'm not sure that it necessarily

has to be an x essential threat to the entire affordable care act. i do know that, not having justice ginsburg on the court, will make a tremendous difference, likely in the outcome. thus, as to whether people continue to have healthcare, and i say that, not only because of the way she voted in the past, on the a portal care act. but because, this case has a standing issue embedded in it. justice ginsburg, was very interested in issues of standing, and, her whole way of approaching issues, she d a progressive lynch through which she saw cases. but she also was in many ways, a moderate. in terms of how she interacted with her colleagues, and i

think that sure, this case is a very important one. in the appointment of a new supreme court justice is going impact. ave a tremendous >> what is your take? >> well, it's a significant case for a number of reasons. it certainly has ramifications for the affordable care act. there are some bigger legal questions about whether for example the court will look again at a set of doctrines that has been acceptable for some peri of time for a long period of time. and there are some technical legal questions. but more broadly, it could throw the ball back into congresses court next year. if, for some reason the supreme court does strike down the aca, it does then require congress potentially to step in and address all sorts of issues. ranging from the medicaid expansion, that's been responsible for covering many americans, to this issue of pre- existing conditions exclusions.

which were a big part of the litical argument for the aca. so, this is a court case, yes. but it's more importantly going to be a big policy question, potentially at the very start of the next president's administration. >> president trump is expected to announce his pick for a replacement, tomorrow, the front runner appears to be judge amy coney barrett . wh can you tell us about her? in particular, what do we know about her take on landmark cases like roe v wade. >> well, judge barrett who is a judge on the seventh circuit court of appeals, is a law professor at notre dame, she is a former law clerk to justice scalia. she is said to have been a favorite of justice scalia. she is very well thought of. including in conservative circles. she is thought to be a skeptic.

of reproductive rights. and, she would be i think a very strong pick for the president, and would certainly change the balance of power on the supreme court where she confirmed. >> dean brown, do you think president trump naming a replacement, hurts the legitimacy of the court as an institution? >> well, it certainly could, to the extent that the american public finds the push ahead to be contrary to accepted norms. it's so close to the election, and myunderstanding is that americans would like the next elected president to make this nomination. >> with the election just around the corner, if this nomination goes through, does this rally undecided voters? >> to the extent there are

undecided voters i think there could be an impact. i think for those for example who live in suburban areas who make the uncomfortable with the president who consider themselves conservative, or center-right, this could give them the push they need to come back to the president potentially and vote for him. if they were skeptical going into this part of the election. >> dean brown, your take? >> well, at the same time, pushing through this nominee, this could result in a backlash. because there are polls showing many women in particular, who support abortion rights, are skeptical of confirming a justice who would not be. so there is a substantial political risk there. >> all right tanika brown nagin, dean of the radcliffe úharvard. for the study at and long beach in. thanks to you both. >> for millions of public

school students in california, the fall semester kicked off a virtually, to keep kids and teachers safe. but now, more schools can apply to reopen for in person instruction. under a statewide color-coded monitoring system, any school or district is eligible, if they are in a county in the right ear. indicating they have moved from widespread to substantial transmission of covid-19 for at least two weeks. most bay area counties are in the red tier, including san francisco which launched an online dashboard, to track which schools have applied, and gotten permission to reopen. meanwhile, a public school in marin coty has artie been holding in-person classes for almost 2 weeks. joining me now by skype from richmond is julia mcavoy. and joing by skype from mayor and city izzy togo garcia. the superintendent of the celso lydia school district. i want to start with you, because you chose ahead of a lot of other public schools to reopen early.

and i wonder, after a few weeks of this, what was it about your district that made you feel compelled to open when you did? >> we felt really compelled to open for two reasons. one, a large number of our parents expressed some challenges and concerns around their ability to engage with distance learning. and, had requested an in person option because we serve the historically black community, and a large number of low income students, and they really needed us to be open to go back to work. in addition, we had we were one of the first schools in the county to bring back students for in person learning. and so, we had to run three different programs over the summer. with up to 80 students, we ran a bridge program for transitional kindergarten students. we ran an extended school year program for students with iep's. and then a partnership with the hannah project. which is a local nonprofit organization.

we felt like we had the protocols in place, the experience in place. to apply for a waiver with the public health averment. and the state, and we were the second public school in the state to be granted a public health waiver to operate school. so, we went ahead and opened. >> what has been the reaction so far from parents and students in your district? >> we have 115 students enrolled in our school. 102 of them have been present every day of instruction. so, pretty high. parents, and kids were really excited to come back to school. i think one of the things we didn't anticipate was how much kids would miss school. they are really engaged. >> julia, one of the stumbling blocks at the distance learning was getting all students access to digital devices, and access to the internet. ito co., you were able to

achieve that in your district, but julia, you've been looking at oakland, and rural districts in california, what are you hearing on that? >> i think we have to give some credit to the large districts like oakland and san francisco, which have really provided thousands of devices for students. thousands of hotspots for students, trying to make sure that every single person got connected and has a high-speed connection. in the rural areas, it's really hard to get high-speed internet to some of these outlying areas north of sacramento. and, it remains a hurdle. it's really why some people are raising this cry for universal basic internet that internet should be a basic, public utility. like water and electricity. it should be affordable for everybody. >> ito co., you reopened to in person classes about two weeks ago, but you did have a positive covid-19 case, on your staff, what is your protocol for when that happens? >> our protocol is, to cooperate with our public

health department and do a track and trace. it did happen before reopened, and so, that's why we delayed by one week. and, you know, we have a bunch of safeguards in place. health screenings, health screenings for staff, and the only person that can order a covid-19 test is the public health officer. there was no concern from our public health officer over the ca we had. she didn't even order any, the assistant public health officer didn't order any follow-up testing in this case. but obviously, if that was ordered that is what we would have done. >> julie, san francisco and alameda counties have both been upgraded from that purple tear to the red tier. which indicates they are getting the pandemic somewhat under control in those areas. that also means that districts and schools, can apply to reopen. from what you have seen so far, are they actually doing that? >> a good number are, but the

ones that are applying to reopen our almost nearly all charters, parochial schools, or private schools. we see very few if any large urban districts that are trying to take those steps right now. and, one of the reasons is that in order to do this, you have to show your local public health department you are able to meet a whole laundry list of requirements. you've got to have staggered arrivals, you have to have isolated cohorts. you have to have all the ppe in deep cleaning. and then you have to have protocols in place if you do get a positive case, what is your communication plan to work that out with your school? and then there is testing in contact tracing for staff, and teachers. so, there is a lot to handle there. and i think that one of the bigger problems is that even if you get althat together, you still have to show that you have buy-in from parents. you also have to have buy-in from teachers. in many large districts i think there is a lack of trust,

between teachers and their districts. and not having trust makes it that much more difficult because teachers do not trust their districts to pull off this kind of a plan. in a real safeway, that keeps them safe. because remember, if a child gets covid-19 in school and goes home, a symptomatically, they can still pass that to their family member and exacerbate the number of cases in a particular community. so teachers concerns are very real. i think that's one of the bigger hurdles right now. >> we have seen that issue play out not just here in california but across the country, new york city comes to mind. how were you able to get buy-in from teachers? >> our school board had the great foresight in june to pass a budget that allowed us to pay staff at a 13 to 1 student ratio. so we have even more stringent protocols than the guidelines of the california department of education put out. we have very small cohorts. we were able to maintain 6 feet

of social distance. in each classroom, we have a mask mandate for transitional kindergarten through eighth grade. we have a mask mandate for all staff. we have sanitation stations all over the school. we have dedicated bathrooms for each sanitary cohort. we have dedicated recess times for each cohort. we are essentially running 12 many schools, inside of the school. it really never has any contact with each other. we feel very confident operating in the safest manner possible. >> julia, is the mere discussion of going to in person classes agaiseen as disruptive, based on the reporting that you have done whether it's parents, or teachers? >> i think one thing for sure is it's heightening some tensions i think. we were talking about the san francisco surgical database. if you're a parent and going and seeing your neighbors, and

your school is not opening up and you're saying to yourself why not? why can't we get this done? i think teachers are concerned that parents don't quite grasp the complexities of trying to of running distance learning programs for thousands of students, and at the same time planning to marshal an army of new protocols to meet and in person plan. i think teachers also don't think parents quite get what it means to do a hybrid class. you've got in person in a couple days a week, and you've got distance learning the other, you're juggling two sets of students at the same time. so, i think there is a need for stability right now. a t of districts and administrators are seeing that. on the other hand, there is a need to get some groups of students in, and i think that districts are really, seriously planning how to do that.

we have seen san francisco due community learning hubs. where kids can go and who have special education needs. foster care, homeless students, those kids can try to get help in person. i think they will move in that direction. >> but you have to have the buy- in from the teachers. let me just throw out scale. you toca school is 120 kids. doing it at scale of a large district as a whole other ballgame. >> also, what are you saying since you brought up issues of equity, what are you seeing in terms of what private schools are doing, it seems like they are on a very different track in some cases in the public school systems. >> yes, i think in san francisco, 80 schools have applied, nearly all of them are private or charter. we know that our inequitable public education system already existed. the funding was already different. this just heightens that again. let's look at bentley as an example. it's a private school on the

border of lafayette in oakland. they have one campus in each of those cities. it's a total of 700 students. over the summer, that school was able to spend money to rehabilitate its building. they pulled up the carpet, they polished the floors, they converted their bathrooms to touchless bathrooms. they bought tents and set them up on the athletic field. all preparing to go to in person. they hired an amt to be on campus and they hired an emergency response planning company, that is guiding some 1800 schools across the country. so if you do have a case, what is your communications protocol with parents? those are things that money can buy that take some of the burden of planning logistics off of you. and helps you solve that problem. >> districts are struggling already with their budget problems that they are spending money on this ppe, and state aid and federal aid, there is

still a budget crunch issue there. the resource issue. >> you yourself are a parent with two kids in the oakland unified school district, are you pushing for in person learning there? >> yeah, i think it's really important to consider developmental age range and risk of transmission. i have a 17-year-old is actually doing better with distance learning that she was in person. we know there is high rates of transmission amongst high school students. my nine-year-old on the other hand is really struggling with distance learning. and i would very much like for her to have an in person option, five days a week. to go back to school. i think for her, that would be a much better option both academically, socially and emotionally. >> julia, i think everyone, every parent wants to know, when will this all be over? when will things return to normal? what is the conventional wisdom say on that? >> it's really up to the case level that we have. we are heading into what we are being told is the surge in the

winter months. so i don't see this coming back to normal anytime soon. i will say that the family that i am following in oakland right now, even if schools opened up tomorrow, they don't think it's safe. they don't think it's worth it. they just are very cautious right now. so, while someparents are hoping this can happen quickly, there are a lot of parents who have a lot of concerns right now. >> julia mcavoy, andy toco garcia, superintendent of the sausalito school district. thank you so much. >> you can find more of our coverage at kqed.org/ kqed newsroom. in queue for watching, before we go we want to say goodbye to our stage manager, randy braze who is retiring after 33 years at kqed. randy has been an integral part of our show and will be dearly missed. we wish him well on his next adventures. finally, this evening if you

have been walking or driving around the bear area recently you may have noticed honey bears looking out windows or painted on the sides of shuttered businesses. it is the work of an anonymous street artist by the name of finch who started painting them years ago, and now sees them as a way to put a smile on people's faces during the pandemic. this spring, he raised almost $130,000 for bay area charities through sales of his artwork. which reminds us of the power of art, to unite and uplift during a time of shared struggle.

captioningponsoredy wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, september 27: the partisan fight over the confirmation of supreme court nominee judge amy coney barrett; the next stop in our roads to election 2020: the state of georgia; and puerto rico's renewed push for statehood. next on "pbs newshour weeken" >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.