poor justice blackmun would be turning in his grave right now.y because it looks like it will be overturned, but because of the shocking manner in which this dropped opinion does so. kristen: let's talk about that. there have been leaks. some people criticized the leak more and other people criticize the contents. regardless it shows chief justice roberts had been working behind the scenes to find a way to uphold mississippi's law without overturning the roe framework completely. explain to people how that can be done. >> so what chief justice roberts is trying to do is balance on a tight rope. it is an incredibly difficult task and i don't think it can be done, not in a principled fashion. what he wants to do is uphold the mississippi law which prohibits abortion completely after 15 weeks of pregnancy. the reason that is so difficult to be done under prevailing precedent is because roe draws the line at what fetal viability is. that means the point at which the fetus has the capacity to survive outside the womb, outside the. woman's. body prior

reporter: a professor was a supreme court clerk for justice harry blackmun.hed abortion rights for women. now an apparent draft a supreme court opinion obtained by politico shows the conservative majority of justices is ready to overturn nearly 50 years of rights, a president since roe v. wade. >> it really is insulting. i was thinking that justice blackmun, my old boss, must be turning in his grave. reporter: the document which politico said it obtained from a person familiar with the court proceedings as mark first draft and dated february 10, 20 22, 2 months after oral arguments were heard. uc hastings professor joel paul commented on this possible leak. >> obviously, someone on the court, a clerk or justice must have leaked this opinion in protest to the majority view. reporter: the arguments in the dobbs case, five justices hinted that they were ready to do away with the viability standard. justice samuel alito is the lead opinions apparent author. it would -- if it were to hold as written, it would upend abortion rights across america effectively allowi

reporter: a professor was a supreme court clerk for justice harry blackmun. the author of the roe v. wade opinion that established abortion rights for women. now an apparent draft a supreme court opinion obtained by politico shows the conservative majority of justices is ready to overturn nearly 50 years of rights, a president since roe v. wade. >> it really is insulting. i was thinking that justice blackmun, my old boss, must be turning in his grave. reporter: the document which politico said it obtained from a person familiar with the court proceedings as mark first draft and dated february 10, 20 22, 2 months after oral arguments were heard. uc hastings professor joel paul commented on this possible leak. >> obviously, someone on the court, a clerk or justice must have leaked this opinion in protest to the majority view. reporter: the arguments in the dobbs case, five justices hinted that they were ready to do away with the viability standard. justice samuel alito is the lead opinions apparent author. it would -- if it were to hold as written, it would upe

. >> the college professor was a supreme court clerk for justice harry blackmun, the author of the roe v. wade opinion that established abortion rights for women. an apparent draft supreme court opinion obtained by politico shows the panel's conservative majority of justices is ready to overturn nearly 50 years of rights, a precedent since roe v. wade. >> it's gratuitously insulting of the opinion. i was thinking that justice blackmun, my old boss must be turning in his grave. >> the document is marked first draft and dated february 10, february, 2022 after our dish after oral arguments were heard in dobbs versus jackson. hastings professor commented on his possible leak. >> someone on the court either a clerk or a justice must have lead to this opinion in protest to the majority's views. >> during arguments in the dobbs case, five of the justices hinted they were ready to do away with the viability standard established by roe in a subsequent planned parenthood decision. justice samuel alito is apparently the leaked opinions author. it would dramatically upend abortion rights across am

justice blackmun and justice thurgood marshall. this was a decision dominated by supreme court justices who had been nominated to the court by gop presidents. that is something that we need to think about. i hope, everything we talk about today will transcend the traditional party lines. board of education's versus pico, justice brennan found that the constitution protects not just his right to speak and write, but the right to receive information and ideas. the first amendment plays a central role in affording the public access to discussion, debate, and the dissemination of information and ideas. the court ruled that it extended to school libraries. the selective removal of books from school libraries. because someone considers the content of offensive. directly and sharply implicates students re-speech and thought. in school libraries the regime of voluntary inquiry holds sway. the content or viewpoint of a book that you depose are the floor, check out this powerful logic, to not read them, or write a negative review. or even sh

you know, i was a law clerk to justice blackmun, the author of roe v. wade shortly after the united states supreme court decided 7-2, not even close, 7-2 to make roe v. wade establish precedent as it has been for the last 50 years, and we asked every one of the last three appointees on row, do you respect established precedent. in every one of them said, we respect established precedent. my question for those men behind those walls and pillars is, did you lie to us? and how do you expect the american people to respect you if you lied to them? now, this draft language is absolutely abhorrent, the thought of leaking any document from the supreme court would have been unimaginable to me as a law clerk, but even more unimaginable would have been the language of this draft opinion, which is contemptuous of the american people and of congress. they could change the language, they could dress it up, they could smooth the edges, but the fact is, overturning roe v. wade would leave american women abandoned and alone. and it's not just american women. one in four

personally, because the justice who was a republican president appointed justice, that would be justice blackmun, and he is the one that maybe surprised those, by writing "roe v. wade." that kind of independence is not what you're seeing with these conservative justices. you have seen it from time to time with justice roberts who voted to uphold the affordable care act. who has taken a number of votes-- as if he was a radical liberal, not really-- but has gone so extreme he's deciding with some of the liberal justices. sadly, if this leaked opinion and what we're hearing is true that won't matter if he did that, because it was 5-4. as i look to the future, what do we need to do? i think the first thing we need to do is make sure that we're putting judges in place. and i will tell you with the wonderful new appointment of justice jackson to that supreme court. she will be starting soon. they say good beginning. ( applause ) and what a moment that was when she got out of the dark and musky senate judiciary cave that it was, and got out in that beautiful sunshine on the white house lawn. there was

. >> a supreme court clerk for harry blackmun, the author of the roe v. for women. now the apparent draft opinion obtained by politico shows their conservative majority of justices is ready to overturn nearly 50 years of rights, unprecedented -- a precedent since roe v. wade. >> it's gratuitously insulted of the opinion originally authored. i was thinking that my own boss must be overturning in his grave. >> the document, which politico says they obtained from a person familiar with court proceedings, marked first draft, deb -- dated february 10, 2022. uc hastings professor joel paul commented on the possible leak. >> obviously someone on the court, a clerk or a justice, must have leaked this opinion in protest. >> during the arguments, five of the justices hinted that they were ready to do away with the viability standard established by roe v. wade and subsequent 1992 decision planned parenthood versus casey. samuel alito is the apparent author of the leaked opinion and if it were to go as written it would dramatically upend abortion rights across americ

systematically targeting writings of civil-rights leaders in response to parental and -- justice harry blackmun written school officials may not move books for the purpose of restricting access for political ideas of social perspectives. that is not as was happening a majority of cases. they are being challenged gently because they are being containing age inappropriate or sexual content that is not necessary for a inclusive learning environment that is uniquely well-suited to pervert -- promote diversity of thought. it is occurring in higher education today, not k-12. viewpoint cremation is the norm and its and faculty are routinely targeted. thank you. >> thank you very much for your thoughtful testimony. ms. berg you are now to -- recognize for your your five minutes. >> thank you for inviting me here today and speak on this very important issue. my name is jessica berg. i high school english teacher in am a loudoun county, virginia where i live with my husband and two extraordinary daughters. teaching is not the profession i originally planned on, but there is not a day that goes by that i

it wasn't even close and five of those justices where republican appointed justice blackmun, who wrote the opinion in roe v. wade. was nominated to the court by richard nixon. no one would say that richard nixon was a radical lefty and prescott bush, the father of george h. w bush was the treasurer for planned parenthood. and i think that what they're trying to do is to show that they are listening to americans, and they're actually thinking about this beyond the space of politics and really about matters of health. and also constitutional protections to one's own privacy. and those are the matters that are really important. this really is a healthcare matter and shouldn't be one that's reduced to politics. one of the r governor governor. newsom has pledged to protect abortion rights in california. what are what other options are out there when it comes to protecting the right well, that's a very good question. because again if you think about this this healthcare the united states leads the developed world and maternal mortality and that as we ranked 56 in the world were not here and

. >> if i remember correctly, it is an unfortunate source but it is there, justice blackmun said the viability line was -- and presumably had some insight. >> casey said that was the central case after throwing out the trimester which many thought was the core principle. wes it the viability in casey? >> it is a little hard not to take the core at its word when it emphasized that viability is the central part of roe's holding and saying it reaffirms that. it did not face a law like this. >> i don't think a response by a fetus necessarily means it can feel or has consciousness. so my question is -- what has changed in science to show that the viability line is not a real line? that a fetus cannot survive? that is what both courts said, that you had no experts say that there is any viability before 23 to 24 weeks. >> the fundamental problem with viability, it is not something that rests on science, the viability is not tethered to anything in the constitution in history or tradition. it is a legislative line. it is quite reasonable for the legislature to draw that. justice sotomayor th

justice blackmun was appointed by a republican president -- that this right is fundamental. and whether you criticize the decision -- and there have been plenty of people who criticized that opinion -- it has been established law, relied on, incorporated in precedent after precedent. and now in the women's health protection act we ask that it be incorporated in statute. the roe v. wade standard be enshrined and embodied in a statute much as connecticut did in its state statute in 1990, a law that i championed when i was in our connecticut state senate. in lieu of well-established supreme court precedent, justice alito relies on a 17th century english jurist who advocated for marital rape and who tried women for witchcraft. this isn't just judicial activism. this is extremism. this is fringe. history cloaked in a judge's robe. and you know what is conspicuously absent from justice alito's radical draft opinion? what's absent is women. justice alito gives absolutely no credence to the beeral evidence before the court -- empirical evidence before the court. the ways in which wo

however and this is from justice blackmun writing in pico, first amendment principles would allow schoolboardto refuse to make a book available to students because it contains offensive language or because it is psychologically or intellectually inappropriate or even perhaps because the ideas and advances are manifestly against the public welfare. >> that's a different animal. on the college campus can a safe space and a free-speech zone. the samelocation ? >> they have different objectives so i would say number but free-speech is not in itself automatic because it suggests there's only one part. >> it seems to be where is the free-speech zone supposed to be ? >> heis in the quad somewhere. >> it seems to me the first amendment is the first amendment and a free-speech zone should be just about everywhere . >> aforetime place restrictions. >> and tell me about these, i remember we had some hearings a few years ago. we had been shapiro and other people come in and college professors. tell me about these bias response teams, i remember that. >> i think one of the most insidious things. there are

he privately convinced justice blackmun to adopt the viability standard that has been the heart of roe casey. hammond confided in an acquaintance that the robed ruling was forthcoming. a times staff reporter was given the information "on background" and was supposed to write about it only wants the opinion came down from the court. a slight delay resulted in the article that appeared and hit newsstands a few hours before the opinion was red. on january 22, 1973 -- 1973. if you want to read more of that, go to the washington post this morning. alexandria on our support line. go ahead. caller: hi. i absolutely think roe v. wade should be left alone. the supreme court, if something has stood for 50 years you need to leave it alone and let it continue to work. those who oppose abortion, what do they value the life of the child, but what about the life of the mother? what happens when that child grows up and was never wanted by that mother? who is that child going to be? there are so many children waiting in orphanages to be adopted, it is such a problem. and what do you think having more u

if you go back to the planned parenthood versus casey decision, justice blackmun wrote a concurrence he said something to the effect of because of this contentious issue, my replacement will be scrutinized over his or her view on abortion and what he said was every confirmation from here on out will be about abortion. that was true. it was true of roberts, alito, gorsuch, cavanaugh, barrett. perhaps one of the consequences of this decision if it holds is that confirmation hearings will be less about abortion. in theory it could be reversed again and we could make a different court, but i think if nothing else, this decision will make future confirmation hearings less about abortion and more about other things that are more insightful. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to mike, calling from indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. i am pro-life, but i think the guy should be punished just as much as any woman. they need to take and sterilize some of these guys, along with the women. in rape, they should just do away with the guy. that is just not right. host: all rig

if you go back to the planned parenthood versus casey decision, justice blackmun wrote a concurrencend he said something to the effect of because of this contentious issue, my replacement will be scrutinized over his or her view on abortion and what he said was every confirmation from here on out will be about abortion. that was true. it was true of roberts, alito, gorsuch, cavanaugh, barrett. perhaps one of the consequences of this decision if it holds is that confirmation hearings will be less about abortion. in theory it could be reversed again and we could make a different court, but i think if nothing else, this decision will make future confirmation hearings less about abortion and more about other things that are more insightful. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to mike, calling from indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. i am pro-life, but i think the guy should be punished just as much as any woman. they need to take and sterilize some of these guys, along with the women. in rape, they should just do away with the guy. that is just not right. host: all r