good morning. it is saturday, september 19, i'm ali velshi. ruth bader ginsburg died last night at the age of 87 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. she passed away surrounded by her family at home in washington, d.c. a private interment service will be held at afrlrlington nationa cemetery. last night dozens of mourners gathered on the steps and in front of the steps of the supreme court to pay tribute. ginsburg was first appointed to the federal judiciary by former president jiminy carter in 1980 for a seat on the u.s. court of appeals. in 1993, former president bill clinton elevated her to the job of a lifetime, an appointment to the united states supreme court.

ginsburg had a long and illustrious career on the high court over the course of 27 years, she became the most powerful liberal on the bench. ginsburg's popularity transcended law and politics. her prolific impassioned dissenting opinions gave her pop culture acclaim earning her the nickname the notorious rbg. as the country mourns, we have been wincing an outpouring of love and support for her. here's a live look at capitol hill. last night nancy pelosi ordered the flags atop the building to half staff to celebrate ginsburg's life. flags over the white house have been lowered in honor of the might justice. john roberts said our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. we at the supreme court have lost a cherished colleague. today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember ruth

bader ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and resolute champion of justice. 2016 democratic nominee and former secretary of state hillary clinton wrote justice ginsburg paved the way for so many women including me. there will never be another like her. thank you rbg. nancy pelosi tweeted every woman and girl and therefore every family in america has benefitted from her brilliance. as news broke of ginsburg's passing last night, president trump was busy speaking at a campaign rally in minnesota. a state where he's currently down 10 points in the polls. while he was unaware of her passing until after the event, he had this to say about the significance of the supreme court and how it will affect his base. >> the supreme court is so important. the next president will get one, two, three or four supreme court justices. many presidents have had none. they've had none because they're there for a long time.

but the next one will have anywhere between one to four. that will totally change when you talk about life, when you talk about second amendment, when you talk about things that are so important to you. so this is going to be the most important election in my opinion in the history of our country. because if you don't get it right, we will not have a country anymore. you're not going to have a country, not as we know it. you won't have a country anymore. >> right now we are exactly 45 days away from election day. all indications are that senate republican the and likely the white house as well will move swiftly to nominate a new justice in the coming weeks. it's unclear whether they will try to hold a vote in the senate because november 3rd. despite it being an election year, mitch mcconnell has made clear that the president's nominee will receive a vote on the senate floor once he or she is put forth.

now this is a far cry from the position, from his position after the death of justice scalia in 2016 when he blocked a simple floor vote for president obama's nominee, merrick garland. the hypocrisy is astounding but expected. here's what democratic presidential nominee joe biden had to say on the matter. >> her opinions and her dissent will continue to shape the basis for our lawy for a generation, but there's no doubt -- let me be clear -- that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the senate to consider. this was the position of the republican senate in 2016 when there were almost ten months to go before the election. that's the position the united states senate must take today.

and the election is only 46 days off. >> while things currently hang in the balance, we know exactly where justice ginsburg stood on this matter. just days before her death she reportedly dictated the following to her granddaughter. my most fervent wish is that i will not be replaced until a new president is installed. joining me now nbc news capitol hill correspondent casey hunt and nbc justice correspondent pete williams. both of them working through the night on this story. thank you for joining us. casey hunt, there's been a lot of activity and a lot of responses from members of congress on not just their memories and their condolences for the family of ruth bader ginsburg but on what happens next. >> well, there are a handful of them that will be critically important in the weeks and months to come. and the reality is i think we're

looking at a cataclysmic period for the u.s. senate where, you know, not that long ago these sorts of confirmations processes could result in a near overwhelming vote approving a justice. in fact, it usually used to happen if there was conflict, the justice or the nominee would be pulled from the process long before you ever faced a showdown like this one. that's all changed under mitch mcconnell. we saw the "washington post's" reporting overnight that mitch mock c mcconnell sent a letter to colleagues basically telling them not to say anything about where they stand. they know a trio of moderate republicans, susan collins who is up for re-election, lisa m murkowski of alaska and mitt romney will be in a crucible as to how they will handle this and what they will do.

this goes back to the merrick garland issue where mitch mcconnell refused to give garland a vote back in 2016. it angered democrats. you combine that dynamic with just how tense things are across the country. the tensions between senate republicans and the president of the united states, the racial unrest we've seen in the streets. it's all leading to a feeling that everything is teetering right on the very edge. there are some other down in the weeds kind of calculations, for example, martha mcsally's reelection is technically a special election, so they could seat mark kelly if he wins thax would take the number down from four to three republicans needed to thwart mitch mcconnell. all of these things are swirling. the fundamental broad picture here is that president trump is currently losing the election. in no small part because so many

americans died due to the mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. republican senators have control of the senate on the line for a similar set of reasons. this gives president trump an opportunity to try and make the election about something other than coronavirus. it's clear that they're going to try to take that opportunity. of course this is also going to activate democrats who care very much particularly about ruth bader ginsburg's seat. i know pete has more context on all of that. this just turned up the temperature on a campaign season where i don't think any of us thought it could go that much higher. >> i want to ask you about something you just mentioned in arizona. not a lot of people register the fact that it's a special election, even though it's taking place concurrent to the general election. that means if mark kelly, who is currently leading in the polls in arizona over martha mcsally who was appointed to that position, if mark kelly were to

win, he doesn't wait until the rest of the senators are seated in the new congress, he can be seated early? this seems to be what experts are saying. i need to make some calls myself, but some arizona reports late last night in local media there suggested according to experts on the ground this could be how this plays out. he could be seated perhaps by november 30th. typically we have our elections in november and they would swear in the new congress january 2nd or january 3rd depending on the day of the which in which the calendar falls. that would make that a deadline for mitch mcconnell to potentially make sure that he got this through if that's what he's going to do. this was a special election because we had the death of senator john mccain, martha mcsally was appointed to fill that seat and had to run for the seat in a re-election.

so the rules are different under those circumstances. that again could be critical because it could take the number of republicans that could stop mcconnell from four to three. >> all right. there's a few key republican senators to whom we are looking. pete williams, let's talk about the court. this is something you have been a part of for a very long time. you understand both the implications that ruth bader ginsburg had on this court and now the implications that this court can have on the rest of american politics because there are some americans who are ready for the idea that this upcoming election may present itself before the court for a resolution if things don't go as clearly as some would hope. >> let's start with that. so as you noted, 45 days until the election. on average the time between the president's announcing a nominee

and the final confirmation vote is 70 days. now, undoubtedly the republicans will try to compress that. this does seem extremely unlikely they could get a vote on the floor before the election. it's most likely the senate would be voting on a trump nominee until after the election. you can figure out how that vote might be affected depending on who wins the election. that's the first point. the second point is it's possible that both the confirmation vote could happen just as some case about the election itself comes to the supreme court. the other possibility is that there's a senate vote after the election, but we don't know who won the election. that may seem farfetched, but remember in the election of george w. bush, we didn't know who the president would be until late or mid-december when the

final florida case reached the supreme court. it's possible that the senate could be voting without knowing who won the election and at the same time some case about the election is before the court. the second point is the justice's death leaves the court with eight justices. when you have an even number that presents the possibility of a 4-4 tie, in which case nothing is decided and the lower court d determination in effect. so when scalia died, there was a punt on the major issues. now with justice ginsburg's death, we have five liberals, so will the court plunge ahead? the week after the election the supreme court will hear arguments on the future of obamacare. an important case. will it punt -- they're certainly going to hear the case

but will they vote on it, try to make it a technical ruling? these are the sorts of things that now face the court. >> pete, we'll rely on your analysis and your reporting a lot over the course of the next few days. thank you for that. thank you, casey. we'll be talking later in the show. joining me now, melissa murray law professor at nyu and former cla law clerk, nicole jones, and elizabeth holtzman. liz, your career, you are also a woman who broke some ceilings and sort of advanced at a time that when for women lawyers it was particularly difficult. ruth bader ginsburg had great influence on your decisions and your career as well. >> absolutely. let's start first, i'm a

brooklyn girl, i grew up, you know, just a couple miles away from ruth bader ginsburg. she went to madison lie school. i went to madison's rival, stinkin' lincoln high school. so we sort of came from the same background. middle class background. who would have thought she could become a young woman growing up in brooklyn, modest background, economic background. could then rise to the heights of not just celebrity but of admiration in the united states, rise to one of the most important positions in the country and with worldwide recognition and respect. and our careers kind of were -- i was thinking about it, kind of parallel. in 1972, when she started the project at the aclu for women's rights, that was unherard of at that time. i was just beginning my run for

congress. and there were just a handful of women in congress at that time. many of the issues we take for granted today were not understood at that time. she was a fighter. she was not an arrogant person. she listened. she was intent on fighting and achieving justice. she never gave up on that. nicole, i was following you on twitter last night when this news broke. your first reaction was remarkable sadness, disappoi disappointment and loss of momentum of a movement you're a big part of now, a momentum for change and rights for people who have been denied those rights in america. to you, you saw ruth bader ginsburg as a -- at the vanguard of that effort. >> she was a remarkable pioneer for gender equality, certainly

spent the last few years on the dissenting side of a rightward leaning court when it came to advancing civil rights, using the constitution to protect the rights and expand the rights of citizens. her dissent in shelby v. holder was powerful. a lot of people are sad right now by this loss. what this means, of course, the personal loss for their family and what this means for the nation. i don't remember a time when she was not serving on this court. she was, as we all know, just the second woman to be in this role. she was a small in stature person who had an outsized role in shaping legal doctrine for gender and racial equality.

>> melissa, as nicole said, there are implications for the nation, there are implications for social justice movements because she was an original crusader for social justice. there are implications for the supreme court that pete started to talk about. give me your analysis on what we need to be thinking about with respect to the supreme court, nomination to the supreme court, how this is all going to play out. it's not going to take as long as it has take for other supreme court justices. we know, we've been told, donald trump will nominate someone very soon. >> the president has been lying in wait for this seat for some time. he said as much over the past couple of years. he will move swiftly to nominate someone to fill the seat. that's a huge issue for the court. right now the court is sort of precariously poised with a 5-4 liberal, conservative way, and

the chief justice is in the middle casting the deciding vote to go either way on these critical issues. if you think back on this last term, there are so many cases in which there was a narrow liberal victory that the chief justice provided. those kinds of narrow victories will not even be possible without a liberal in justice ginsburg's seat. this is a huge issue for the court. anyone w.h.o. replaces her will chan change the direction of the court and it will cement a conservative majority on this court and one that will be difficult to come back from for a generation. >> liz, what's your sense of what you remember of what congress, particularly the senate and what congress needs to do in this moment? a comment that somebody made earlier before the show started is that supreme court justices have played a more important role for republicans in politics than they traditionally have for

democrats. but that may have to change. >> well, i think if we just take ruth bader ginsburg as an example, she broke new ground. she thought outside the box. she developed new strategies. she broke barriers when nobody else had done that. well f we're going to have a court that stands for justice, that stands for women's rights, and racial equality and human rights, and economic rights, not for corporations but for people, we have to take her leadership as an example. democrats and americans who want to preserve the values of our country are going to have to figure out how to stop donald trump from destroying our constitution's values and its direction. that's going to require a lot of very clever and thoughtful

strategizing so that this juggernaut can be stopped. and so that the american people through the new election will have a chance to shape the future, not just of the court, but of the country. it is something that will effect every american and actually the world. >> thank you to the three of you for joining us this morning. melissa murray, nicole hannah jones, and elizabeth holzeman. ruth bader ginsburg lived a legendary life. we'll continue to look at her legacy and look forward to what her death means for the future of the supreme court and the 2020 election. as we go to break, i leave you with a tribute. dozens of mourners singing "amazing grace" last night outside of the supreme court.

♪ ♪ ♪ i'm a performer. -always have been. -and always will be. never letting anything get in my way.

not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis. new voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. and it can help you too. feel the joy of movement with voltaren. feel the joy of movement when you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. but when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. so, when you get a check... you can deposit it from here. and you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. you can detect suspicious activity on your account from here. and you can pay your friends back from here. so when someone asks you, "where's your bank?" you can tell them: here's my bank. or here's my bank. or, here's my bank. because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. so visit chase.com/mobile. i'm a verizon engineer. and i'm part of the team building... ...a powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities.

like los angeles. and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity. it's like an eight-lane highway compared to a two-lane dirt road. 25x faster than today's 4g networks. in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world. from the network more people rely on. this is 5g built right. only on verizon. ♪ ♪ ♪ the big events are back. xfinity is your home for the return of live sports.

. it has been 80 years since a supreme court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. there's a long tradition that you don't do this in an election year. >> i think the court we're one vote away from losing our fundamental constitutional liberties. and i believe that the president should next week nominate a successor to the court and i think it's critical that the senate takes up and confirms that successor before election day. >> what an interesting reversal of position there by senator ted cruz. we continue our special coverage of the passing of justice ruth bader ginsburg. joining me now is deval patrick, he's a former united states assistant attorney general for civil rights under bill clinton. and daniel mclaughlin, attorney and author of "the federalist society." good morning to both of you.

danielle, let me start with you, we heard from ted cruz, we know that in 2016 lindsey graham said the same thing. he said you can hold this against me, but we shouldn't be nominating a candidate this close to an election. what's your take on how conservatives are going to interpret and move forward on this. >> it's lining up that we're going to see some hypocrisy of the highest order. it seems to me looking at the mcconnell letter from last night that they will push forward, they'll have a vote on the senate floor to replace justice ruth bader ginsburg. this becomes, i guess a political calculus game. will the blow back against republicans for going against exactly what they said they wouldn't do back in 2016, is that more or less important than getting the sixth conservative seat on the supreme court. and my view, they're going to

press forward because they have been working on this now for more than 40 years. this would be for many conservatives one of the crown jewels of the trump administration. >> and governor, i think i agree with danielle there, that principles and morals can be put aside for the idea of getting six supreme court justices. what do democrats have to do right now? >> first of all, i have to agree too. principles, morals, hypocrisy mean nothing to mitch mcconnell and to donald trump. the other thing to be clear about is that they will select whoever it is, someone who commits to overturn roe v. wade, to declare obamacare unconstitutional. in fact, every one of their nominees i believe has been unwilling to commit to uphold

brown versus board of education, to agree it was rightly decided. so this is very much about driving an agenda. it has been all along. and not about justice. and that is another choice that the american people are going to have to make in november. >> danielle, i want to bring up those two points. you and i talked about this whole thing about judges, not just supreme court justices but judges to federal office being asked about brown versus board of education, and putting forward this idea that that's not settled law that remains up for interpretation. the president released a list of people who he would submit for nomination to the supreme court a couple weeks ago, a number of senators were on that, senator tom cotton immediately tweeted that he felt that roe v. wade needs to be eliminated. so things that a number of americans have taken and grown up with and taken to be settled law under a trump dominated

supreme court simply may not be. >> you're exactly right. to your point, ali, i think the new list has 44 people on it. rising high towards the top of that list are a handful of women. amy conner barrett from the 7th circuit court of appeals. john larsen from the 6th court of appeals. one of the other things is abortion rights. amy conner barrett is on record saying she doesn't agree with it. she has hedged the position to some extent in an article she stated she believed ultimately the right to choose would remain, but what we're seeing in the lower courts and the appellate courts and certainly in the supreme court is an idea of incrementalism where the right may still exist under the constitution, but it will be basically impossible to exercise. and that might be where we get to if we have a 6-3 conservative majority on the united states

supreme court. and the last thing i'll say on that, for the longest 250itime have not understood why democrats are not voting on the basis of the supreme court. this is the court that defends the liberties that we have earned over decades of blood, sweat and tears. the idea those could be basically eliminated is something that people need to think about very clearly when they go to the polls. if, of course, we get that opportunity if trump doesn't find a way with mcconnell to slip a nominee in and confirm a nominee prior to november 3rd. >> which would be an historic amount of time if they were able to do that. but with 45 days to an election, this has now shot up to the top of many voters priorities and the decision they have to make on november 3rd. thank you to both of you. deval patrick and danielle mclaughlin is an attorney and author of "the federalist society." we are just 45 days away

from the election. and the death of ruth bader ginsburg is now turning this presidential race on its head. president trump has already successfully appointed two supreme court justices and with senate republicans in his corner, he will look to nominate another in the coming days. democratic nominee joe biden believes no nominations should be made in an election year citing senate republicans previous position on the matter in 2016 when barack obama's nomination, merrick garland, was blocked from even having an up and down vote in the senate. joining me now is mike memoli. we heard from joe biden on this, but is there a strategy as opposed to a view that the senate should not nominate or vote on a nominee before the election? >> just when you think the political environment has been stressed to a near breaking point, when you think the stakes of this election could not be higher, we have the death of

ruth bader ginsburg and an opening on the supreme court. the potential future of the judiciary for the next generation now on the ballot. it's really an important moment for the biden campaign. i've been impressed over the last few months, he's been so laser focused on the pandemic, on the president's handling of the pandemic, even when he gives speeches on other issues, on the economy, on manufacturing, on social justice , he always ties the issue back to the pandemic. clearly as we head into the final few weeks of this election campaign, the supreme court will be front and center. and this is familiar territory for joe biden. he presided as the chairman over the confirmation of ruth bader ginsburg. he was the chairman of one of the most controversial nominations before the supreme court, the bourque nomination. for joe biden, this is an area he's comfortable with, but as you were already playing just in the segment before this, we're going to see a lot of quotes from republicans and from

democrats four years ago compared to their comments today that will be hypocritical and don't be surprised if joe biden's own words are among them. when he was chairman of the judiciary committee as senator in 1992, he went to the senate floor, there was no vacancy at the time but there was speculation there could be. he laid down a marker and said senate democrats who were then in the majority would consider not holding any hearings or voting on any nominee that then president george h.w. bush put forth. when there was an opening in 2016, when republicans were in the majority, they called that the biden rule. they used that as the justification for not holding a nomination, a vote or a hearing for merrick garland. the biden campaign believes this issue will motivate democrats who are already motivated to head to the polls. they know what's at stake and they're confident it will help them at the polling places.

good to see you as always. mike memoli for us in washington, d.c. i want to go now to jeff rosen. jeff is the president and the ceo of the national constitution center which just awarded ruth bader ginsburg its 2020 liberty medal on thursday night. it is the most important medal that the constitution center awards. jeff is also the author of "conversations with rbg on life, love, libedy an edy anerty and " last night i texted you to be on the show and you agreed. what we weren't able to discuss is the degree to which this is deeply personal for you. you met ruth bader ginsburg in an elevator 30 years ago. you bonded over opera. you had conversations with her over the years. she presided over your wedding. she was your friend. >> i was honored to be close to her and the relationship was one

of the great blessings of my life. it's hard to overstate the emotional impact, of course, not just for me but for the country. that liberty medal ceremony that we a1essembled for the justice. i hope viewers will check it out online. it's the most definitive memorial to this american hero imaginable. we assembled the justices favorite opera singers, and also special friends, gloria steinem, her granddaughter, jennifer lopez to talk about what she meant to them. watching the video, the shining spirit of this greatest of americans, her devotion to serving others and to using every moment of the day productively to help others and to shape the constitution just shines through. so it was an extraordinary -- it is amazing that the video was broadcast the night before she passed. and i'm so happy that it will serve forever as a beautiful

tribute to her shining and bl s blessed memory. >> she wrote you a letter to the board and you, the president of the constitution center accepting this award. it may be the last official letter that she's written. but she really -- she made social justice, outside of being an associate justice at the supreme court, she made the concept of social justice so central to her life and her work. >> she did. and in her letter accepting the liberty medal which we ran in the video, she summed up how she wanted to be remembered in a way that we should take seriously. as you said, i think that was perhaps your last public statement. and she said among other things it was my great good fortune to have the opportunity to participate in a lock effort k place equal statureship for

women on basic human rights agenda. she went on to say helping to explain was was wrong about the closed door era was enormously satisfying. the whole thing is very, very powerful. ali, how -- as chief justice roberts said in his statement, this was one of the most significant americans, historical figures our time. very few justices of the supreme court who can be considered historical advocates for constitutional change and thurgood marshall was the greatest advocate for racial equality of his time. justice ginsburg was the greatest advocate for gender equality of our time. >> i have posted that video on my timeline. it's about 45 minutes long and fantastic. i have to ask you this, opera. how did it even come up? is that your opening line with people when you meet them? >> the thing about her is she

was coming down from a workout class. she was always doing her workouts even then. but she's extremely contained. we were in the elevator, she was just silent. so i had to break the ice somehow. i couldn't think of anything else to say. it's not a normal opening line, but i can't really talk sports very well, i love opera. so i blurted out what operas have you seen recently. i didn't even know she was an opera fan. she is, indeed. we bonded over opera. i was a 28-year-old law clerk for another judge. she was a formidable judge on the circuit. but we shared this love of music. we talked about it throughout our lives. i was struck to hear her say in our interviews and elsewhere that opera helped her take her outside of herself. her daughter said they were at a dinner table and then the justice blurts out saying it's striking that european countries

have not restricted borings as mu abortions as much as the u.s. has. when she listened to opera, she could connect to the beautiful music and lose herself in universal emotions that resonated with her. for her it was a form of great connection and it meant a tremendous amount to her. ali, you may not be an opera fan, not all your viewers may be, but to listen to the four singers in this video, renee fleming, denise graves, solomon howard, they are the greatest opera singers in the world. they're just singing from their hearts to this woman they love about songs that are especially meaningful to them. it's overwhelmingly powerful. >> it is reremarkable. people can watch documentaries did ruth bader ginsburg, but the one you posted yesterday has these interludes in them. it just tells of the richness of her life. don't go far, please.

you and i need to talk about the supreme court and the constitution as well. the last time a vacant say came up during an election year was four years ago, 2016 following thescalia. back then mitch mcconnell argued that he would not even hold a vote for president obama's nominee, merrick garland because he was a lame duck president. the block by mcconnell created an opening allowing donald trump to appoint neil gorsuch. that was the longest period of time that the court has gone without a full nine members. last night mcconnell changed his position saying president trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the united states senate. in response, chuck schumer posted this message using mcconnell's exact words from 2016 against him. the american people should have

a voice in the selection of their next supreme court justice. a fight on capitol hill to determine the direction of the high court is sure to ensue, but according to nina totenberg in the last days justice ginsberg dictated this statement to her guar, my most fervent wish is that i will not be replaced until a new president is installed. i want to bring into the conversation, cynthia alksne and jeff rosen remains with us. cynthia i want to play with you something that neil kattial said last night about the way the supreme court nominations have gone down in the past and what democrats, if they take the senate, should do about this one. let's listen. >> this is not about the very few cases that are going to come before the court in the next couple of months. this is because they want a lifetime appointment and the

problem with that for the republicans is that's exactly what they said in 2016 was inappropriate and unfair. look, if they do this, if they do this, the democrats will be well within their rights to expand the supreme court because the constitution doesn't have a fixed number. we had ten justices in the past. they would be well within their rights to expand it to 13, 15 orb or 17 to nullify these games. >> cynthia, what's your take on that? >> well, i'm kind of a traditionalist. i would rather win the battle and have senator -- or vice president biden elected and keep the court the way it is. i'm afraid of big constitutional change quite frankly but there's a lot at stake here. the aca is before the court in november, and it's very dangerous situation where millions of people could lose their health care because of the appointment or lack thereof.

also roe v. wade is at stake. m t the republicans have four votes and roberts could go either way. a woman's control over her body is on the ballot this time. while i am nervous about big constitutional change, i do see the -- the draw to trying to make it even since the republicans, if they get this appointment will have essentially stolen two supreme court appointments. >> jeff, i think it's fair to say most americans unless they've been reading your various books, they don't know the ins and outs of why the supreme court is the size it is and how it works the way it does. give us some context here about changing the composition or the process of nominating and appointing supreme court justices. it's true as neil said, the size of the court has changed in the

19th century. it was a political football. the jeffersonians, when they won the election, were denied a supreme court seat because the federalist changed the size of the court to prevent jefferson from making appointments. in the civil war it went up and down because of politics and then franklin roosevelt threatened to pack the court but the democrats refused to go along because they thought it would threaten the institutional legitimacy of the court. that's what is so extraordinarily significant about this battle. if the democrats pack the court in response to a republican replacement for justice ginsburg this will threaten the nonpartisan legitimacy of the court in ways that it will harm its statue in precisely the way justice ginsburg would have most feared. that's why her statement to her granddaughter as reported by npr, it was her most fervent wish she not be replaced until the next president was elected is a reflection not only of her

desire to have her legacy continued, but also of her concern that the court not become a political football and not change composition with every new president and the senate. the stakes could not possibly be higher. regardless of what side you're on on the political spectrum we can agree as a nation it would be a catastrophe if the nonpartisan legitimacy of the one branch of government that still maintains some legitimacy in this extraordinary polarized time were to be threatened by this kind of battle. >> jeff rosen will be joining us again in the next hour. cynthia alksne, thank you for joining us. before ruth bader ginsburg was the second woman appointed to the supreme court, she was a leading litigator for women's rights. more on rbg's contributions to the advancement of women when "velshi" continues.

when you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. but when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. so, when you get a check... you can deposit it from here. and you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. you can save for an emergency from here. or pay bills from here. so when someone asks you, "where's your bank?" you can tell them: here's my bank. or here's my bank. or, here's my bank. because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. visit chase.com/mobile. (burke)) this? eh, nothing happened.

(driver) nothing happened? (burke) nothing happened. (driver) sure looks like something happened. (burke) well, you've been with farmers for three years with zero auto claims. (driver) yeah? (burke) so you earned your policy perk: accident forgiveness. now instead of this being something, it' s- (driver) it's nothing! (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. they should really turn this ride off. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ look at that embarrassing you. that wall is your everest. but not any more. today let's paint. behr. exclusively at the home depot. find a stock basedtech. on your interests or what's trending.

get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. i'm a verizon engineer. and i'm part of the team building... ...a powerful 5g experience for america.

it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles. and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity. it's like an eight-lane highway compared to a two-lane dirt road. 25x faster than today's 4g networks. in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world. from the network more people rely on. this is 5g built right. only on verizon. i often told, repeated sanders, she said suppose you and i had gone to law school in days when there was no barrier to women. where would we be now?

now we would be retired partners from some large law firm. but because we didn't have that path available to us, we had to find a different one and we both ended up on the u.s. supreme court. on the u.s. supreme court. [ applause ] >> what an amazing story that ruth bader ginsberg ended up in the supreme court because private sector opportunities were not open to them. joining me now, fatemah, president and ceo of the national women's law center and cofounder of the time's up legal defense fund. and joyce vance, former u.s. attorney in alabama and a key msnbc contributor. thanks to both of you for being with us. fatemah, because ruth bader ginsberg made it look easy, it can escape some people that this

woman's life was a remarkable struggle. she had great support from her husband. she had the mental akwqueuety tt she needed to achieve what she needed to do. but it was never easy for her and she has been a role model to so many women, girls, children, civil rights workers, and men. >> that's right. you know, women in this country, and people in this country are grieving this morning. she was a giant in american history. she was the architect so many of our foundational rights. and as she joked, she did it at a time where she had to create things that were not there. she came up with the strategy and executed the idea that women would be equal under the law. when she was at harvard, you know, one of the nine who were challenged for even being there in the first place. and she took those memories with

her. they showed up in her decisions, per ability to understand the rereality of people's lives. that's with the thing she did in the court again and again. >> joyce, there's a political calculation as the president prepares to name someone to the supreme court. but, in fact, ruth bader ginsburg played a role that was different than just her judicial role, that was different than just her political positions and the way in which she arrived at decisions and dissents. it was symbolic. she represented where women should be in this country. >> i think she did exactly that. and she did something else that's more subtle that i don't think we've talked about very much. but she allowed us to begin to expand the civil rights agenda and to think more thoughtfully about how we would protect

rights for religious minorities, for muslims, how we would work for the lgbtq community. how we would begin to take on issues with the disability community because she had advanced women's issues in such a forthright way. i remember, and fatemah may have been in this meet agent doj during the obama administration some of the doj leaders who carried the civil rights agenda would meet with representatives of close to 100 civil rights groups and we would talk about what were the most important issues that needed to move forward. and typically there were not women's issues on that agenda as the top one or two issues. and although in some ways that always bothered me a little bit, i also thought it was a nod to the wonderful work that ruth bader ginsberg had made possible advancing issues, even with her dissents, like the dissent in the equal pay case which made it possible for president obama to sign the lily ledbetter equal pay act. in so many ways she advanced the rights of women to the point

where we've almost taken them for granted. i think we're going to need more deliberate about preserving them going forward. >> and in about 20 minutes i will be speaking with lily ledbetter. fatemah, so much has happened in the last few decades in terms of position that women have enjoyed in society. but so much has not happened. and, in fact, you are at the forefront as part of time's up of things that have just been developing and coming to the floor in the last couple of years. the work that ruth bader ginsburg did and started and promoted isn't close to being done. >> we nor where near close. and actually many of the issues that are before the court in coming years will clearly affect women's lives. whether it's the dismantling of the entire affordable care act and where women have benefitted from the affordable care act in terms of access of

contraception, in terms of being a woman, not being a preexisting condition, that was a foundational law, or whether it is the many antiabortion legislators who are looking to enact unconstitutional abortion restrictions and raise them to the supreme court. or the many, many questions around sexual violence and harassment in schools and at work. one of the things, again, that justice ginsberg did was understand and name the reality of the experiences that women were facing in this country that girls were facing in this country. she did that in her dissent around a strip search case where she reminded the court, i don't think any of you have been a 13-year-old girl and understand what it would be like to have that experience. her dissents, but also her majority decisions have spoken to so many of us. and just this last term in the contraception case that was before the supreme court, the

majority opinion basically said nothing about women. and justice ginsburg's reminded it would be mostly low income women in these jobs where they are now going to have to pay a lot more for their health care. >> thank you to both of you. fatemah is the president and the ceo of the national women's law center and she's the cofounder of the time's up legal defense fund. joyce vance, of course, a former united states attorney and an msnbc contributor. our coverage of the death of ruth bader ginsburg continues next. i'll speak to reverend al sharpton, lily ledbetter, the. in one of her most fax mumous consents. and now the director of rbg. velshi continues after this. f . velshi continues after this. come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card.

it's made for this guy a veteran who honorably served and it's made for her she's serving now we made it for all branches and all ranks whether they served one tour or made a career of it. we also made usaa for military spouses and their kids usaa is easy to work with and can save you money on auto, home and renters insurance. become a member today. get an insurance quote at usaa.com/quote usaa. what you're made of we're made for

can it one up spaghetti night? cleaning power of liquid. it sure can. really? can it one up breakfast in bed? yeah, for sure. thanks, boys. what about that? uhh, yep! it can? yeah, even that! i would very much like to see that. me too. introducing tide power pods. one up the toughest stains with 50% more cleaning power than liquid detergent. any further questions? uh uh! nope! one up the power of liquid with tide power pods.

♪ good morning. it's saturday, september 19th. i'm ali velshi. sad news out of washington today. the country has lost a national treasure with the death of supreme court justice ruth. she pass she passed away last night with an ongoing battle with pancreatic cancer. she was surrounded by those that she loved in the capital. a private service will be held at arlington national cemetery at a later date. her fearles