inwanted to appoint justices the antonin scalia a model. that resonated -- antonin scalia model. they were willing to put up with soiled resume, the controversial resume of donald trump to give her they wanted out of the court. you see what has happened now. three justices he has been able to put on the court and his model image of the scalia justices. where he got the surprise was chief justice roberts and the other conservative appointees he made did not back him up in his bid to overturn the election. all.pressed betrayal and the rest of us, a lot of us expressed rate delight our institutions held together. the fact you appoint somebody to be a justice does not mean they are going to always give decisions in your favor. chicago-style hardball politics. i grew up in this profession with that. it has not happened in washington. that is the one thing that keeps us from becoming a dictatorship. caller: good morning. i have family that graduated from athens, ohio. i had this conversation with you on c-span several years ago. donald trump was nothing. he was just a guy he would make

. >> justice neil gorsuch holds the seat that belonged to conservative legal giant antonin scalia, a man he deeply admired. >> justice scalia was a lion of the law. >> gorsuch, om denver, colorado, was the first of president trump's three supreme court nominees to be confirmed. [ applause ] i visited justice gorsuch at the supreme court... >> the breakdown, when it came up here, was five to four. >> ...just two weeks after justicruth bader ginsburg's passing, a few weeks before the election. gorsuch was clear, he wouldn't talk politics or comment on recent cases or those that might come before the court. but he did reflect on what it was like to work alongside liberal icon justice ginsburg and what he fears poses a threat to our republic. in a rare interview, justice neil gorsuch. >> "firing line with margaret hoover" is made possible in part by... corporate funding is provided by... ♪ >> justice gorsuch, welcome to "firing line." >> it's my pleasure to be here. the nation is still mourning the passing of ruth bader ginsburg. how do you remember her legacy? >> well, as a father of tw

judge for the sixth circuit jeffrey sutton discussed the life and career of supreme court justice antonin scalia. here he talks about the late justice's writing and influence. >> i said i wanted to work with justice kolea which if you know my past, my background and family that would not have been your best guest. why is it in 1991 i want to work for justice scalia? this is something most law students can understand. reading judicial opinions i have to admit as a judge myself, not a lot of fun. this is where lawyers acquire the habit of drinking the coffee that is good for them. these are not charles dickens knowledge and caffeine is what gets you through, how refreshing when you are doing this to come across a justice scalia majority opinion dissent or defense. they stood out for their liveliness, honesty, quest for truth. i could have cared less whether justice scalia was a textual list, living constitutionalist, originalist, all i wanted to do was get to know him. he seemed like a lot of fun but then i wanted to learn to write like him which is unrealistic but so be it. tried to learn to writ

and "american original: the life and constitution of supreme court justice antonin scalia." she's also the author of "sandra day o'connor: how the first woman on the supreme court became the most influential justice." and before joining reuters in 2012, joan was the supreme court reporter for t"the washington post" and for "usa today." she's been a regular panelist on pbs's "washington week" with gwen ifill, graduate of georgetown law school and finalist for the pulitzer prize in 2015. so, please, join me in welcoming joan in our esteemed panel for today's conversation. [ applause ] >> thank you, caroline, and thank all of you for coming here today on this unusually warm december 15th date, and to commemorate in several ways the -- oop. there it is. okay. to commemorate the 15th anniversary of what some of us feel like was just yesterday. you know, i remember where i was, obviously, i was in the press room, but i even remember where i was on december 9th exactly when i heard on the radio that the supreme court had stopped the recount. i was driving down north capitol towards

about justice ginsburg's contributions and so forth and a personal friend of mine of course was antonin scalia and we knew each other well we use to hunt and fish together but i was always struck by the relationship between scalia and ginsburg because they were such opposites in terms of their positions they represented with scalia being conservative and ginsburg being liberal. but they were very close personally in terms of families and times spent together and so forth and i can remember justice scalia talking about ruth bader ginsburg in glowing terms how much he enjoyed the relationship. >> it is interesting and that was apparent to me and you are much closer to it than i that it was based on opera and their love for classical music and justice ginsburg said at one point when i go and listen to the opera the voices inside my head stop and i'm relieved of the feeling of conflict and uplifted by it. i have never heard talk about why he loved opera so much but i suspect it was probably the same with him. >> one of the things that you touch on in your book is the extent to which there was conf

judge for the sixth circuit, jeffrey sent to discuss the life and career supreme court justice antonin scalia. he talks about the late justice is writing an influence. so back i decided i wanted to work for justice scalia. if you know my pass and background my family that would not have been your first guests. so why is it that in 1991, i wanted to work for justice scalia? this is a thing most law students understand. breeding judicial opinions i have to admit as a judge myself and author of them usually is not a lot of fun. i think it's where a lot of lawyers acquire the habit of drinking more coffee i drink coffee that is good for them. these are not charles dickens novels. caffeine is what gets you through, how refreshing when you're doing this to come across a justice glia majority opinion. they stood out for the liveliness of the writing, the quest for truth. i could have cared less if justice glia was a textual's, a living constitutionalist, and originalist, only want to do is one get to know him. he seemed like a lot of fun. but then i really wanted to learn to write like him. which of

among the republican appointees, in addition to antonin scalia clarence thomas, were there any other of the ideology would sorry familiar with now, textualists and realists? >> no. justice o'connor and justice kennedy were moderate conservatives but originalism was pretty much the province of justice scalia and justice thomas. i remember just o'connell and kennedy basically thought, you know, that we had 200 years of precedent on a lot of questions. things like equal protection of the law or do you process of the law are -- were not defined in 1787. they didn't have a lot of regard for trying to figure out what the understanding was of all those questions. no, it was not a court that was dominated by notions of originalism now as the way it is now. >> these questions become important in understanding the decisions the court ended up making. we'll come back to them as the events play out. just as this week, the morning after the election in 2000, neither candidate al gore nor george w. bush had achieved 270 electoral college votes. president bush, then governor bush won 246 electoral

inwanted to appoint justices the antonin scalia a model. that resonated -- antonin scalia model.y were willing to put up with soiled resume, the controversial resume of donald trump to give her they wanted out of the court. you see what has happened now. three justices he has been able to put on the court and his model image of the scalia justices. where he got the surprise was chief justice roberts and the other conservative appointees he made did not back him up in his bid to overturn the election. all.pressed betrayal and the rest of us, a lot of us expressed rate delight our institutions held together. the fact you appoint somebody to be a justice does not mean they are going to always give decisions in your favor. chicago-style hardball politics. i grew up in this profession with that. it has not happened in washington. that is the one thing that keeps us from becoming a dictatorship. caller: good morning. i have family that graduated from athens, ohio. i had this conversation with you on c-span several years ago. donald trump was nothing. he was just a guy he would make the

legacy of the justices involved in that case. 2008 with april of 60 minutes interview as justice antonin scalia saying get over it about bush v gore saying it's nonsense to say the decision was politically motivated. and then justice sandra day 2013, an interview with the chicago tribune, looking back she said she wasn't sure the high court should have taken up the case. she said it took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue. she said maybe the court should have said we will not take it, goodbye. your thoughts on how the justices viewed that case in the years afterwards. guest: i wish justice o'connor, had made thatoul, decision back in 2000. we would have been saved and off a lot of controversy. we could've had a recount. while iw close it was, think the past count showed gore winning by 100 votes, may be by the time the litigation was over, it would've been for bush by a similar margin but we really would have known who one and that would have been better. i had a great opportunity at an event on a different subject at the university of chicago to ask justic

inwanted to appoint justices the antonin scalia a model. that resonated -- antonin scalia model.re willing to put up with soiled resume, the controversial resume of donald trump to give her they wanted out of the court. you see what has happened now. three justices he has been able to put on the court and his model image of the scalia justices. where he got the surprise was chief justice roberts and the other conservative appointees he made did not back him up in his bid to overturn the election. all.pressed betrayal and the rest of us, a lot of us expressed rate delight our institutions held together. the fact you appoint somebody to be a justice does not mean they are going to always give decisions in your favor. chicago-style hardball politics. i grew up in this profession with that. it has not happened in washington. that is the one thing that keeps us from becoming a dictatorship. caller: good morning. i have family that graduated from athens, ohio. i had this conversation with you on c-span several years ago. donald trump was nothing. he was just a guy he would make these b

i point to the 60 minutes interview of justice antonin scalia saying, get over it about bush v.gore, saying it's nonsense to say that decision was politically motivated. and the justice sandra day o'connor in 2013, an interview with the "chicago tribune," looking back she said she wasn't sure the high court should have taken up the case. she said, "it took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue." she said, "maybe the court should have set, we will not take it, goodbye. " your thoughts on how the justices viewed that case in the years afterward? >> i wish justice o'connor, god rest her sole, had made that decision back in 2000. we would have been saved an awful lot of controversy. we could have had a recount. given how close it was, but i think the best count showed gore winning by 100 votes, to be by the time the litigation was over, it would have been for bush by a similar margin. but we would have really known who won. that would have been a better -- i actually had the great opportunity at an event on a different subject at the university of

i point to april of 2008, a "60 minutes" interview, justice antonin scalia saying in that interview saying, get over it. it's nonsense to say the decision was politically motivated, and then justice sandra day o'conner. it was in 2013 in an interview with the chicago tribune. looking back she said she wasn't sure the high court should have taken up the case. they took the case and it was decided at a time when it was a big election issue. maybe the court should have said, we're not going to take it, goodbye. your view on how it was decided. >> i wish justice coe co'connerd have made that decision back in 2000. given how close it was, i think the best count showed gore winning by 100 votes. maybe by the time the litigation was over, it would have been for bush by a similar margin and we really would have known who won, and that would have been better. i actually had a great opportunity in an event on a completely different subject at the university of chicago to ask justice scalia, whom i disagreed with passionately, about bush v. gore. i am one of those who has not gotten over it, obviousl