captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> cooper: in order to pull out of afghanistan, the u.s. needs to build a strong afghan police force. but as this video shows, getting the police to do basic exercises, let alone turning them into professional officers, has been difficult. you must have known you were taking on a huge challenge when you got this assignment. were you surprised, though, at what you found with the police? >> um... ( sighs )

that's a great question. >> stahl: the curtain goes up for previews tonight on "spiderman: turn off the dark"... ♪ ♪ the broadway show with music by bono and the edge of u2. >> ♪ hear a voice inside your head... ♪ >> stahl: with high-velocity flying and special effects, it's the most daring and most expensive broadway show ever. >> yeah! >> it has been one of the funnest, more joyful rides of our artistic life, for sure. >> pelley: justice john paul stevens has shaped more american history than any supreme court justice alive. and for most of his 35 years on the court, he hasn't talked about those cases.

but tonight, he will, including the controversial ruling that decided the presidential election of 2000, a ruling that stevens tried to stop. >> i think they were profoundly wrong. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and andy rooney tonight on "60 minutes." ♪ ♪ ♪ [ crowd groans ] ♪ [ crowd cheering ] [ male announcer ] at&t, the nation's fastest mobile broadband network. period.

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>> pelley: tonight, cnn's anderson cooper on assignment for "60 minutes."

>> cooper: president obama wants to begin withdrawing american forces from afghanistan next summer, but his ability to do that will largely depend on how quickly afghan security forces can be trained to takeover the fight. while the afghan army has made some strides in recent years, the national police force has developed a reputation for drug abuse, illiteracy, and desertion. earlier this month, "the new york times" reported that 19 afghan police officers from southwest of kabul defected to the taliban en masse, taking their guns with them, and burning down their own station house. on paper, the afghan police are supposed to be about 120,000 strong, but no one knows for sure the actual number of policemen on duty, nor how many of them are good cops and how many are bad. what is certain is that the u.s. has spent nine years and more than $7 billion building and training the afghan police force. we wanted to find out what's become of that investment. we began with the three-star american general now in charge

of their training. >> lt. general william caldwell: the police have to succeed. >> cooper: if the afghan police fail, we fail? >> caldwell: we do. >> cooper: lieutenant general william caldwell began overseeing training of the afghan security forces last november. he's the highest-ranking officer ever assigned to the mission, a sign of how important it is, and how badly it's been going. >> caldwell: the sooner we can develop an effective police force, the sooner u.s. forces will be able to have less of an active combat role. >> cooper: if we had a better trained afghan police, at this point, that would save american lives? >> caldwell: there's no question that'd be true. >> cooper: when general caldwell took over, he found more than half of the afghan police had not received any formal training whatsoever. most of them couldn't even read or write. some estimates say 90% of the police force is illiterate. >> caldwell: i would say at least 80% is illiterate. >> cooper: we visited the national police academy in kabul, and were shown well drilled officer candidates

marching in unison. but this video tells a different story. it was shot by an american instructor in 2008 at a basic training course in southern afghanistan. it shows that, while afghans may be known as fierce fighters, teaching them to become professional police officers or even do basic exercises is a massive challenge. not only are most of the police illiterate, it turns out many of them also have a drug problem. i saw... there's one study that said 10% to 20% use... smoke hash or other forms of drugs. >> caldwell: and that's probably an accurate statistic, too, based on what we've seen. >> cooper: this video, taken by a member of the 82nd airborne, shows an afghan policeman smoking marijuana before going on patrol, evidently not an uncommon ritual. you must have known you were taking on a huge challenge when you got this assignment. were you surprised, though, at... at what you found with the police?

>> caldwell: umm.. that's a great question. i felt very comfortable coming in, working with the army piece. i knew the police portion would be a challenge. fortunately... >> cooper: you're being diplomatic. >> caldwell: yeah, i've got a great team that's working with me that's really helped me work through these challenges of the police. >> cooper: one of caldwell's biggest challenges is he still doesn't have enough manpower for the mission. nine nations have sent 500 police trainers, but hundreds more are still needed. these italian police officers are teaching marksmanship and crowd control. as of now, most afghan police recruits only get six weeks of training. >> see, look it, let me show you. >> cooper: in past years, many afghan police received no follow-up training in the field. the goal today is for american and international forces to regularly supervise them. >> why does that guy have your

i.d.? you need to keep it with you. >> cooper: these national guard troops from the boston area are with the 101st field artillery regiment, and are spending their year-long tour mentoring afghan police north of kabul. >> pretty much, if he opened up on all of us right now, he might not hit anybody. >> cooper: to try and keep the afghans on target and turn them into a professionalized force that can win the support of the country's rural population, the americans spend up to four days in a row living and working with them, keeping a constant lookout for corruption. >> any time that you see myself or any of my guys and there's any issues, please stop us and we'll do our best to help with the police. >> caldwell: the army's there to protect the nation; the police are there to protect the people. >> cooper: how important are the police to the counterinsurgency effort for the u.s.? >> caldwell: perhaps one of the most critical pieces. >> cooper: most critical? >> caldwell: yeah, i would say so. >> cooper: more than the afghan national army? >> caldwell: even more so than the army. and the reason why is because the police are the face of the u... of the afghan government.

>> ambassador peter galbraith: the police are exactly what general caldwell says they are-- they are the face of the government. if the government is corrupt, the police are inevitably corrupt. and that is how the population sees them. >> cooper: in 2009, peter galbraith was the united nations' number two man in afghanistan. part of your portfolio when you were with the u.n. in afghanistan was the police. >> galbraith: yes. >> cooper: have you had interactions with the police? >> galbraith: well, i had one particular incident with the police, actually, just near the american embassy. as i passed a roundabout, my bodyguard had to pay off the police in order for us to proceed. >> cooper: so, wait-- you... you got hit up by the afghan national police in kabul... >> galbraith: hit up by the afghan national... >> cooper: ...for a bribe? >> galbraith: ...police, a stone's throw from the american embassy, for a bribe. >> cooper: what does it tell you that the afghan national police would try to hit you up for money? >> galbraith: if they would do that, for someone in my position, just imagine what it was for ordinary afghans. >> cooper: galbraith was fired

by the u.n. after protesting the fraud associated with afghanistan's presidential elections. he says the police are the most corrupt institution in the country. >> galbraith: who are the police? they are illiterate villagers, many of them users of drugs, who come in, they have a six-week training course. now, how can you treat some... teach somebody to... to read and write, to be a policeman, to defend themselves in six weeks? it just isn't possible. so what emerges is not a policeman, but someone who is marginally more effective at extorting money from his fellow citizens. >> cooper: do you believe the police are making the insurgency worse? >> galbraith: without a doubt. >> cooper: they certainly made it worse in a place called marjah. when u.s. marines went on the offensive there last spring, they weren't just trying to root out the taliban, they were also there to help replace corrupt afghan police who had been harassing and extorting local residents. >> caldwell: when somebody says there's corruption in the police

force, my answer is, okay, first of all, we... we haven't formally trained them, and then we didn't pay them right. in other words, the amount of money they were getting paid each month was insufficient for them to provide for themselves to live with a family in afghanistan. so we, in fact, had set the conditions that made that policeman have to look for other ways to make money. >> cooper: i remember being in kabul in 2002, going out with special forces. everyone then said, "look, this is a key element. this is crucial to helping afghanistan stand up for... for itself." did people just forget about the police? >> caldwell: there just hasn't been the focus on the police. >> cooper: before general caldwell arrived, much of the actual police training was overseen by civilian contractors working for the u.s. state department. but according to this government audit, there was no "measurement of contractor performance," nor was any "specific type of training required." nevertheless, of the $7 billion the u.s. has spent on the police, more than $1 billion

went to pay those contractors. has the money that's been spent training the afghan police over the last eight years, has that been wasted? >> caldwell: what i would tell you, it has not gotten us to where we need to be today. >> cooper: since taking command, general caldwell has reorganized the entire training program. he's replaced nearly 400 private contractors, who he says lacked initiative and flexibility, and saved $150 million in the process. this video was given to us by nato. >> caldwell: when i had the opportunity to watch what you just did, it gives me real hope for what your country's going to do one day. >> cooper: there is now a plan to teach tens of thousands of afghan police how to read at a basic level. drug testing is mandatory, and to combat corruption, police wages have been doubled. to make sure afghan officers actually get paid, american military teams monitor the police bureaucracy. >> hundreds of people still here in kabul are not getting paid, so someone needs to let him know that. >> cooper: police working in volatile areas are now paid $240 a month, about three times what

most afghans make, but not a lot of money for what may be the most dangerous job in the country. isolated at checkpoints and travelling in unarmored vehicles, the police are three times more likely to be killed in battle than afghan army soldiers, and every month, thousands just up and quit. >> how you doing, sir? >> cooper: we found u.s. soldiers handing out leaflets, trying to recruit replacements. caldwell wants to increase the police force by 15,000 over the next year, but to do that, 50,000 new recruits will have to be found and trained. >> have him right here. >> cooper: it'll then be up to american troops in the field... >> anyone that drives this way to pass, got to slow them down, okay? >> cooper: ...to make sure they remain on the job and not on the take. former u.n. deputy envoy to afghanistan peter galbraith believes even american forces' best efforts will have a limited effect. general caldwell is now not just focused on... on training, but also on mentoring afghan police in the field.

does that make a difference? >> galbraith: for the time that there are u.s. troops with the police? yes. probably, when there are american troops there, the police are not openly extorting bribes at checkpoints. but the american troops are not there 24/7. >> cooper: what kind of a task did general caldwell have ahead of him in terms of trying to reform the police, rebuild or create them? >> galbraith: the police are incapable of being reformed. >> cooper: incapable? >> galbraith: it cannot be done. >> cooper: you mean it's just going to take a long time? >> galbraith: well, it cannot be done within a time horizon that you or i or the american people would find acceptable. we're talking about something that will take 100 years, generations. >> cooper: wait-- you think it would take 100 years to really equip, train, create an afghan national police force? >> galbraith: oh, you can equip them, you can provide some training. but you can't make them honest, you can't make them literate. you can't make them committed to the notions of policing that we have in the west.

>> cooper: general caldwell told us building the police force will take several years, but says they are currently ahead of their recruiting goals. he sees recent improved public opinion polls about police performance as proof they are marching in the right direction. rating their progress will be a crucial part of a comprehensive white house review of the war in afghanistan scheduled for next month. >> caldwell: we have some enormous challenges still ahead of us. but i feel very optimistic about where we're going with the future now, and i feel like we've put it on the right path. we've got the resources. we... we've got the leadership of our country behind us. and we... we can make a change here. >> cooper: but the clock is ticking. >> caldwell: it is. >> cbs money watch update sponsored by: >> mitchell: good evening. a new survey showing holiday

sales totaled $45 billion for the black friday weekend. traffic in stores was up nearly 9%. 107 million people are expected to shop online tomorrow on what is known as cyber monday. and harry potter is tops again at the box office. and harry potter is tops again at the box office. i'm russ mitchell, cbs news. o v.

>> stahl: the curtain goes up for previews tonight on "spider- man: turn off the dark," a broadway show with music by bono and the edge of u2. the buzz is louder than a swarm of green hornets. we actually thought we'd be broadcasting this story about a year ago. we'd been invited to go behind the scenes with bono, the edge, and director julie taymor. but one day last year, the show ran out of money. the opening had to be cancelled, and critics predicted it would never reach the stage. then, like the comic book itself, there was a cliff-

hanging rescue from near death. talk about drama. the show follows the comic book story of young peter parker and his alter ego, spider-man, with some new twists and new villains. with high-velocity flying and special effects, it's the most daring and most expensive broadway show ever. we were on the inside through much of the ordeal, as spider- man was created, collapsed, and sprang back into action. they're calling it a comic-book rock opera circus. ♪ ♪ no question, it's a high wire act, with all the heart-stopping damsel-in-distress rescuing and leaping around you expect from a superhero like spider-man. what you are seeing is a first look at scenes from the show's final dress rehearsals.

"it's a spectacle of extraordinary dizziness"-- that's how bono described it when we sat down with him and his u2 band mate, the edge. >> bono: we've moved out of the rock and roll idiom in places into some very new territory for us. there's big show tunes and dance songs. >> stahl: who were you... were you thinking of rogers and hammerstein? >> the edge: more dark. more sort of dark and twisted. ♪ ♪ >> stahl: the three of them-- bono, edge, and broadway veteran julie taymor-- took us to the theater to see the set. >> julie taymor: we're where spider-man would be. >> stahl: okay. >> taymor: he comes running up the bridge in slow motion. he's tethered. he gets to the end, and he makes a leap. >> stahl: the big stars of "spider-man" are not the actors

playing peter parker, mary jane, or the green goblin. here's the real box office draw: the three talents behind the scenes. so tell us about the collaboration. >> edge: it was like being, like, a student in a master class of musical theater and opera. and it was just... i went along... ( laughter ) >> bono: i mean, you know, really, she played a small role, but it was significant. >> stahl: actually, her role was all-encompassing. julie taymor was the creative force in every nook and cranny of the show. you said something along these lines-- "i really love to go into something when i don't know whether i'll be able to pull it off." >> taymor: absolutely. i love it when people say, "what a horrible, lousy idea." i think that's great. i hate the comfort zone, let's put it that way. i don't think anything that's really creative can be done without danger and risk.

>> stahl: the danger and risk with "spider-man," the musical, is that to stay afloat-- to keep running-- it has to be as big a hit as broadway has ever seen. julie knew she had to create a theater experience that would be just as thrilling, if not more so, than the spider-man movies. the razzle dazzle she came up with runs about $1 million a week in operating costs. >> taymor: so, basically, this is our first pass. ♪ ♪ >> stahl: we started following the making of "spider-man" over a year and half ago, when they let us sit in on one of those early master classes where actors performed the songs so the three of them could tweak the music. bono and the edge had already written most of the music back home in dublin. here they're critiquing a song for a new villain they created, a spider-woman.

>> taymor: ♪ you'll be sorry. you'll be sorry... ♪ >> bono: it needs another color, another musical color. >> taymor: yeah. it's short. i feel like you could expand on it. >> bono: or just make it better. >> edge: we could do something like sort of ♪ do, do, do, do. like, something climbing up throughout the entire section. >> bono: there you go. >> stahl: we got to stay and watch the way bono and edge meticulously reshaped their songs. >> bono: i think you have to be more playful, a little more internal, i think is the word. >> stahl: bono got up to work with the orchestator on coordinating the horns and strings with the rock band. and then, the ultimate show and tell-- bono showing how to do it right. ♪ every day is like a war and i'm losing it. ♪ i'm taking hits from every side. ♪ every side that there is

>> stahl: the song is a duet for peter parker, the geek who turns into a superhero, and mary jane, the girl of his dreams. ♪ i go to sleep in my clothes. it's not what i've been told ♪ >> stahl: then, more instructions. >> bono: i like... the acoustics is really helping, but for that note to kind of connect more, i might need some piano, just real simple, real spare-- ♪ i am... dum, dum... real lonely. more like john lennon. you know, real spare, like bells tolling. okay, let's try that again from the acoustic section. >> stahl: the long, hard journey of "spider-man," the musical, started eight years ago in 2002. i was told that the two of you wanted to do this with one

condition in the beginning. >> bono: julie taymor was the only condition. >> edge: that's right. >> stahl: why? >> bono: julie taymor's definitely a magician. and i think that's what you call a person who, even though they put the rabbit in the hat, is really surprised when it comes out-- that's her. >> bono: ♪ i am the walrus ♪ koo-koo-ka-choo... >> stahl: bono had worked with julie when she cast him in her beatles movie, "across the universe." her magician's tricks for "spider-man" involved the sculpting of fabulous masks, as she did when she created "the lion king." she then shot the spider-man villains for pictures that are projected on giant l.e.d. screens built into the set. >> taymor: oh, my god, this is the first time that i'm actually seeing pieces of the set. >> stahl: this was six months ago, as the sets were just arriving at the theater. living up to her reputation that

no expense is spared, julie spent around $10 million to give the set a look of the comics and pop-up art, with mechanized skyscraper backdrops and spider webs. millions more were spent on special effects, and the flying. >> taymor: i'm trying to make the theatrical experience an environmental experience. we want to have the theater of it right in the laps of the audience. >> stahl: oh, my god. oh. >> taymor: that's what i meant. you don't know until the last half-second that he's going to be that close. >> stahl: the actors and dancers were taught to fly by coaches julie brought in from the spider-man movies and cirque du soliel. >> taymor: we actually have a battle that will be over the audience's head. and they can leap through each other's wires. >> stahl: but will they fly like they do in the movie, where they soar quickly... >> taymor: yes >> stahl: ...and swoop down? >> taymor: yes. >> stahl: all the aerial acrobatics are computerized. nothing this technologically

intricate or dangerous has ever been tried before on a broadway stage. the technology invented for the show was modeled on the flying camera they use in football games. >> taymor: you have a four-point system, which means that the human being is attached to four wires. and that means you can move them with a lot of control anywhere. they're not... >> stahl: so, the people are like the cameras at a football game. >> taymor: yeah, uh-huh. >> stahl: they're flying... >> taymor: and you can go... >> stahl: ...on those ropes. >> taymor: ...50 miles an hour. you can fly fast. >> stahl: if you're thinking they could get hurt doing that, you're right. two of the flying actors were injured in rehearsals, one breaking his wrists. >> taymor: yeah. >> stahl: making it safe, getting this right was one the reasons the show had to be postponed earlier this month, and why the budget soared to more than $60 million. it's costing a fortune. >> taymor: if you try and do a $30 million in this day and age, in this time, "spider-man," you couldn't do any of the flying. you just couldn't do it that

way. so as soon as you decide to give people the level that they're expecting, you have to be willing to pay the price. >> stahl: the show itself has had its own near-death swoons, going back to the day in 2005 when the original producer, tony adams, arrived at edge's apartment with the contracts. >> bono: he had a seizure and died on the spot. >> stahl: at the signing? >> bono: yeah. >> edge: i left the room to... to literally go and get a pen to sign the contract. and i came back in the room, and he had gone into some kind of seizure. it was a very difficult moment for us. and we really weren't sure whether the show was going to go ahead. >> stahl: the show was handed over to adams' business partner and survived, only to swoon again last year. that's when they woke up one day without any money. how did you find out that things were in such bad condition? >> bono: read about it in "the new york post."

>> stahl: you did not know how bad things were till you opened the newspaper? >> bono: that is the truth. >> stahl: so everything goes dark, and the rest of the world thinks it's over. and you start picking up the phone, calling people for money, right? >> bono: yeah. >> stahl: yeah. and they're saying no? >> bono: no, they're saying "maybe." >> michael cohl: everything was messed up. >> stahl: the man bono finally turned to was michael cohl, longtime rock concert impresario who used to promote u2. >> cohl: all the deals were bad. the budgets were bad. there was no money. there was, like, no money. >> stahl: but bono leaned on him, and he agreed to become the new producer, and raised more than $30 million to get the show back on track. when you think of putting on the most expensive broadway show in a recession, why didn't you say, "bono, it's time to pull the plug. this is insane." >> cohl: i think you have to build the show that you have to build.

nobody wants to see the $25 million "spider-man." they may think they do, but they don't. nobody wants to see that. they want to see the one that julie and bono and edge are creating. that's the one they want to see. and if it costs $60 million, it costs $60 million. ♪ ♪ >> stahl: the cast and dancers worked round the clock for months to master the complex choreography, and synchronize the music with the moving scenery and, of course, the two dozen flying sequences. julie taymor says that, even as the curtain goes up for previews, they'll still be working out the kinks. let me ask you, how scared are you? >> taymor: oh, yeah, i'm scared. if you don't have fear, then you are not taking a chance. but what i do have is a team. if your collaborators are there, which is what answers the fear question, and they all are as impassioned as you are and believe in it, your fear is mitigated. ( bono and the edge singing ) >> bono: it has been one of the funnest, more joyful rides of

our artistic life, for sure. ♪ ♪ if it is the success that we think it is, if people agree with us and come through the doors, after all the melodrama we've been through, it'll be a very, very sweet success. ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause )

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it was up to me to support our family. [ male announcer ] karri danner went back to school, to become a nurse. my education made all the difference... [ male announcer ] but now some in washington want regulations

restricting access to career colleges and universities, denying opportunity to millions of people like karri, letting government decide who can go to college. it's my education, and my job, it should be my choice. [ male announcer ] don't let washington get in the way. >> pelley: justice john paul stevens has shaped more american history than any supreme court justice alive. and for most of his 35 years on the court, he followed the usual tradition, declining to talk about his cases in interviews. as he prepared to retire, we hoped that he'd overrule that custom and talk with us about the decisions that have changed our times. it was stevens who forced a showdown with president bush

over the prisoners at guantanamo bay, and stevens who tried to stop the court from deciding the presidential election of 2000. at the end of his last term, justice stevens ruled on our request and, in a series of interviews, he opened a rare window into the nation's highest court. we met john stevens at the supreme court this past summer as he prepared to retire at the age of 90. he was appointed by president ford, but as a moderate republican, he ultimately became the leader of the court's liberal wing. with nearly 35 years here, he is the third-longest serving justice ever, and with history like that, it's hard to know where to start. but we picked the landmark case of 2000, which he thinks is one of the court's greatest blunders. what should the court have done in "bush v. gore"? >> justice john paul stevens: it should've denied the stay, period. >> pelley: and therefore, let the recount go on in florida? >> stevens: that's right.

>> pelley: "bush versus gore"-- a month after election day, florida was recounting ballots. bush was ahead, but the recount might go either way. so the bush campaign asked the court for a stay to stop the recount, on the grounds that the recount would cause irreparable harm to the nation. the night before the court heard the request, stevens ran into another justice at a party. >> stevens: and i remember both of us saying to one another, "well, i guess we're going to have to meet tomorrow on this, but that'll take us about ten minutes," because it had, obviously, no merit to it. because in order to get a stay of... in any situation, the applicant has to prove irreparable injury, and there just obviously wasn't any irreparable injury to allowing a recount to go through, because the worst that happens is you get a more accurate count of the votes. but much to our surprise, on the next day, the majority did decide to grant a stay.

>> pelley: ultimately, the majority ruled that the recount wouldn't be fair because recount procedures were inconsistent across the state and couldn't be fixed before florida's deadline. there were many people in this country who felt that the supreme court stole that election for president bush. that was the accusation that was made. >> stevens: it's unfortunate that that kind of accusation was made, and that's one of the consequences of the decision that i think made it an unwise decision for the court to get involved in that particular issue. >> pelley: was the decision of the court a partisan decision? >> stevens: i wouldn't really say that. i don't question the good faith of the people on the... the justices with whom i disagreed. but i think they were profoundly wrong. >> pelley: between interviews, justice stevens slipped us into places the public never sees. in his chambers, we saw a shrine to the legends of chicago sports, and a picture of him

swearing in the vice president. >> stevens: in fact, i didn't plan to bring this with me. >> pelley: turned out he was wearing the same suit and he still had the oath in his pocket. that is remarkable. in a sense, john paul stevens was born into a world of crime and justice, the chicago of the 1920s. he was a rich kid-- his father built the largest hotel in the world. but it was the time of al capone, and when stevens was living here at the age of 12, gangsters came in and robbed the family at gunpoint. >> stevens: and we were all lined up and they threatened to kill... to shoot everybody with a sub-machine gun. >> pelley: as they faced a machine gun, a neighbor just happened to come to the door and the men fled. the age of 12 was eventful. his father lost his wealth in the depression, and then the cops came for him. your father was arrested for

allegedly embezzling money from the family insurance business and using it to support the hotel. what was it like for you as a boy 12 years old when your father was convicted? >> stevens: i never really thought he'd spend any time in jail, because i knew the kind of man he was. >> pelley: that's when stevens, at an early age, saw how a judge could change the world. on appeal, the illinois supreme court ruled that there was no credible evidence against his father. did seeing your father wrongly convicted and then exonerated influence you as a judge at all? >> stevens: it may well have, because it was an example of the system not... not working properly. and so i think every judge has to keep in mind the possibility that the system has not worked correctly in a particular case. >> pelley: he drew on that lesson, 70 years later, in the war on terror, in a series of cases that are seen as among the most important of his career.

the bush administration said prisoners at guantanamo bay, cuba, had no right to lawyers or courts because they were held outside the u.s. but stevens led a court majority that ruled that the u.s. naval base there was essentially american territory, so the prisoners did have legal rights. there is one inscription and one inscription only above the door to this building. >> stevens: "equal justice under law." >> pelley: and that applies to foreign nationals who may wish to do this country harm? >> stevens: if they're to be prosecuted for crimes, they're entitled to a fair trial or fair procedures. >> pelley: in another terror case, the stakes were much higher, because the suspect, jose padilla, was an american citizen. he was arrested in the u.s. on suspicion of terrorist ties, and put into a military brig for nearly four years without

charges. he was held incommunicado, on nothing but the order of the president. >> stevens: i thought that very possibility is a potential threat to every citizen in the united states. if you can be subjected to that kind of detention without access to courts or lawyers or the rest, it is a matter to be very concerned about. >> pelley: the court majority dismissed padilla's appeal on a technicality, but stevens and three other justices had wanted to rule on padilla's detention. stevens aimed his dissent at the bush administration, writing "if this nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants." >> justice david souter: john stevens plays by the rules, but he knows how to throw a punch. >> pelley: justice david souter retired from the court in 2009. he was often an ally of stevens on the liberal wing, and he sided with stevens in the

guantanamo and padilla cases. >> souter: justice stevens, who was dissenting, said you may not, by this kind of secret transfer of an american citizen, defeat an american citizen's access to the civil courts to try the legality of his detention. >> pelley: and how important was that? >> souter: it's as fundamental as any decision that's been made that i can think of on a citizen's liberty in my lifetime. >> pelley: and it was justice stevens who stood up and said, "wait a minute. this has gone too far." >> souter: that's what you got courts for. he was earning his salary. >> pelley: he rendered a service to the country in those opinions? >> souter: yeah. that made him one of the great judges. >> pelley: i would imagine that the majority of the american people would probably disagree with you on these opinions. >> stevens: that may very well be true.

you know, it's a part of our job to write opinions, from time to time, that are not popular, and you know at the time they're not going to be popular. >> pelley: stevens took us on a tour of the hidden supreme court. this is the library that's usually open only to lawyers. its not used much now that there's an internet. and this was extremely rare-- network television has never been in the justices' robing room. it looks like a locker room. >> stevens: well, it is. it is a locker room. >> pelley: it's here that all nine justices slip into their gear and, by tradition, shake hands at the start of the new term. we were with stevens in june as he was preparing to hang up his robe for the last time, and it was then that stevens told us he was worried about the direction of the court. the supreme court is supposed to uphold the constitution, but throughout its history, there has always been tension when justices appear to rewrite laws that congress was elected to write.

"legislating from the bench," it's called. stevens says one of the worst examples came this year in a case called "citizens united." the court majority overturned 100 years of law that limited corporate money in politics. you believe the court legislated from the bench? >> stevens: yes. >> pelley: in "citizens united," the majority gave corporations the right to spend as much as they want on political campaigns. the majority said that limiting money in politics is the same as limiting free speech. where does the court make a mistake, in your view? >> stevens: well, which mistake do i want to emphasize? >> pelley: you decide. >> stevens: well, you know, basically, an election is a debate. and most debates, you have rules. and i think congress is the one that ought to make those rules. and if the debate is distorted by having one side have so much greater resources than the other, that, sometimes, may distort the ability to decide the debate on the merits.

you want to be sure that it's a fair fight. >> pelley: in "citizens united," stevens' opinion was a warning to the court. "the decision," he wrote, "will, i fear, do damage to this institution." this is a nice... in our time with justice stevens, we expected to cover momentous events... october 1932. ...but in his chambers, we didn't imagine we would get a ruling on one of the greatest controversies in baseball. we noticed a box score from game three of the 1932 world series. legend has it that the yankees' babe ruth pointed to a spot in the cubs' wrigley field, and nailed a home run right there. it's the famous "called shot," but whether it actually happened is ferociously debated. remember the fateful year when stevens was 12? well, he was here when ruth came to bat.

and we figured it was a question of suitable national importance on which to render this justice's final ruling. >> stevens: he took the bat in his right hand and pointed it right at the center field stands. and then, of course, the next pitch, he hit a home run in center field, and there's no doubt about the fact that he did point before he hit the ball. >> pelley: so the "called shot" actually happened? >> stevens: oh, there's no doubt about it. >> pelley: that's your ruling? >> stevens: that's my ruling. >> pelley: case closed. >> stevens: that's the one ruling i will not be reversed on. i'm sure of that. i'm james brown in new york. atlanta beats green bay to take a 1-0 lead in the n.f.c. south. atlanta opens up a one-game lead in the n.f.c. north. baltimore and pittsburgh, the n.f.c. co-leaders were both winners. st. louis with a victory ties

them with seattle atop the n.f.c. west while kansas city leads the a.f.c. northwest. for more news and sports, log on to cbssports.com. about the world. and yourself.

>> safer: now, andy rooney. >> rooney: i've been thinking of moving to new jersey, because last week, i read an article in "the wall street journal" that said that asian americans "lived well in the garden state." the garden state is new jersey. the article said that asian americans have a life expectancy of 91.8 years, compared to 79.7 for the rest of the population of new jersey.

i know new jersey, and if you ask me, living there, it just seemed that long. the article reminded me of my friend, ozzie segerberg, who wrote a book in 1982 called "living to be 100." i think until you get close to 100, living that long doesn't seem like that attractive a goal. i found out that there are more than 70,000 people in the united states over 100 years old. research has shown that having a sense of humor and laughing a lot helps people live a long time. to tell you the truth, i doubt it, but that's what they say. they also claim that laughing and having a sense of humor reduces stress. i don't know about that, either. sometimes, i think people who laugh a lot just don't understand. you can change your eating habits, get more exercise and stop smoking, but few people can acquire a sense of humor if they don't already have one. i've been lucky-- i don't eat right, i don't exercise much, and i'm an irish american, not

an asian american. but i'm pretty old already, and i don't feel as if i'm about to die tomorrow, either. if i'm not here next week, you'll know i was wrong. >> safer: i'm morley safer. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." captioning funded by cbs, and ford-- built for the road ahead. ♪ ♪ i'm gonna get my hair cut ♪ even if i have to cut it myself ♪ ♪ i'm gonna get my hair cut ♪ even if i have to cut it myself ♪ ♪ but it makes me out of breath ♪ ♪ when you say ♪ ♪ love is a game -♪ a game for two -[ ring ] ♪ love is a game i want to play with you ♪ [ female announcer ] introducing the dell streak 5 pocket tablet exclusively at dell.com and best buy. ♪

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