but do challenge those doma baez as i was watching those mouflon simultaneously but it did not turn out that way >> host: so then they will talk about that but you talk about you had unfettered access to chad who's started the organization and now the head of the human rights campaign and that most of ben incredibly interesting to be the fly of the wall story for your accounting and you were are conference calls you could walk into so boyars meetings. -- though boyars meetings did you have drinks with them? >> for instance the trial i ryan did in san francisco i took all my vacation time just to be in these rooms. i would echo eight or nine days before. but i was reading room to room where chad griffin buyer is mounting a huge campaign but what is interesting to me now is they are reading this book they find out things because i was the only one crossing room to room. >> host: i take it any litigator knows it is intimidating. i had the impression you were part of that intensity that you lived with it and a breathlessness to the experience and if you felt part of the teams that you had t

lawsuit because the doma lawsuit was asking for less. it was asking for recognition of the legality so even that was controversial. when the proposition 8 case was filed john davis was invited to a large ad robin michelle reiners and rob writer who attracted a lot of the funding for the lawsuit and was a personal friend and an architect of the lawsuit. he felt like the conversation was disrespectful and it was sort of ignorant of the fact that many people had lot of it the idea of a federal lawsuit was hardly new. it was not new and facts as you know because you were with small small -- paul smith in the lawrence case one of the landmark cases that predated this litigation that i'm writing about and it struck down laws. paul said ted wilson approached him as a potential cocounsel in the proposition case. he too had thought of this after he had won the lawrence case. maybe there should be a federal lawsuit and we have to be able to get married and he taught to justice kennedy and justice kennedy wrote lawrence and was considered a swing v

officers saying that doma was completely kosher. as a lawyer and as a person lose sense of who you are and what your gut tells you what is right. if you're gut tells you, you have to keep fighting. i lost the first marriage case. we got hosed by the court of appeals. think kept fighting and i this will be two victories throughout the country. >> today at the city club, we are learning a ton at the friday ,orum with robbie kaplan counsel in the windsor case that overturned the defense of marriage act. we will return to robbie in a moment for our question and answer. and we encourage you in the audience to formulate questions for our speaker and remind you that they should be brief and to the point. and all ofyou here andjoining us through 90.3 pbs. -- wviz television broadcast for the city club are made possible by cleveland state university and pmc. our live webcast is supported by the university of akron. next friday, may 9, the city club welcomes dr. to me spell per, offers -- author of "thomas jefferson's quaran." therder a dvd o

-- officers saying that doma was completely kosher. you can't as a lawyer and as a person lose sense of who you are and what your gut tells you what is right. if you're gut tells you, you have to keep fighting. i lost the first marriage case. we got hosed by the court of appeals. but we kept fighting and i think this will be two victories throughout the country. >> today at the city club, we are learning a ton at the friday forum with robbie kaplan, counsel in the windsor case that overturned the defense of marriage act. we will return to robbie in a moment for our question and answer. and we encourage you in the audience to formulate questions for our speaker and remind you that they should be brief and to the point. we welcome you here and all of you joining us through 90.3 and w z i -- wviz pbs. television broadcast for the city club are made possible by cleveland state university and pmc. our live webcast is supported by the university of akron. next friday, may 9, the city club welcomes dr. to me spell per, offers -- author of "th

i was married and i am a lesbian so doma had terrible implications for me as well. as a lawyer i was -- felt it was important to put that aside. that is one of the reasons. i did not want lawyers talking and going on press junket's and going on meet the press and talking about this case until we had a decision. i wanted to -- wanted it to be focused on her and that was a strategy that was important to us but there were times when it would seep through. on the argument, the chief justice started going after me on this question of why the world has changed so much. how is it today there are 17 states that allow gay couples to marry. when we argue the case there were nine and one we brought the case there were five. his thesis was people were just following politicians, they were following president obama and following bill clinton who wrote an op-ed. there were people following politicians in i disagreed with that. just think americans ever follow politicians but i think on this it was very much politicians with all respect to the president following americans and we

has been forced to recognize another state's same-sex marriages in the wake of the supreme court's doma decision, united states v. windsor. what role did justice scalia have in all of this? back in february, we ran a report about how scalia's own snarky dissent on that doma case was being cited by judges and turned around against him. in a 26-page rant, scalia took a knife to that logic, even writing a fake ruling, showing how easily the majority opinion would be used to strike down bans across the country. >> in his dissent, he takes part of the majority opinion and says, hey, guys, this is how you take the majority opinion, cross out a few words, and what you end up with is the identical argument to strike down every ban. >> yes, we now know scalia was right, and he was so right that his vitriolic but prescient dissent has been used by five federal judges to expand gay rights. >> but it's not just five anymore. that number is now nine judges having cited a scalia dissent to expand gay rights. and here's the funny thing. yesterday's idaho decision doesn't even cite the same scalia lang

he plans to invite them to his residence at the doma santa marta, the hotel on vatican grounds wheredecided to live rather than the papal apartment. he'll say a mass in the chapel and hold a private meeting with them. also present is going to be cardinal sean o'malley of boston who was the architect of that 2008 meeting with victims with benedict. he's also played a role on this one. he is widely seen as a reformer on the sex abuse issue and he's also a member of the pope's new commission for the protection of minors. so i think this is a clear indication that francis is trying to get the message out that he gets it about the need to confront the church's abuse scandals, brianna. >> eric, the pope also said something that kind of stuck out to me. he talked about the resignation of his predecessor pope benedict which was strange to us. we hadn't seen this in centuries. he said it was not an isolated case. what does he mean by this? >> he's opening the door to suggest he might resign one day. keep in mind both benedict watched john paul ii become ill and suffer with parkinson's. he ope

>> i think it's the language in justice kennedy's doma opinion. i think that was very important. justices and judges across the land, whether they're in a federal court, whether they're in an appellate court, they understand that this is the law. this isn't about whether you're republican or democrat. this is about being an american. and they're interpreting the law as every person in this country deserves the same rights, whether they're gay, straight, bisexual or transgender, everybody deserves those same rights. what's happening now is you're seeing states you never would have expected coming along with arkansas and texas and utah -- states like that. that underscores that, yeah, you might get the coast but you're never getting the flyover states. now we're getting the flayovyov states. >> orrin hatch said, anybody who does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land just hasn't been observing what's going on. he's not just lit igatory. >> the film documents this legal strategy to make sure that prop 8 never p has again. but the fact of the matter is, it's

>> from the first attempts to stop california's prop eight to beckerdown doma, jo tonight on 10:00 eastern and tomorrow at 9:00. is "e, our club selection himit calls you back." on tomorrow plus newsmakers, bernie sanders is our guest. he is the chairman of the veterans affairs committee and talks about allegations of misconduct. he comments on eric shinseki's role and adjusting the matter. the truth is that the v.a. is a huge institution.

what doma did was family law, divorce, etc. is generally to preserve a state law. in that case, they made it to preserve a federal law. in so doing, removed some 1100 federal rights from couples that are duly married in their state. so, this involves a state tax right, a social security right, and on and on. the question i have would be if your state were to approve same-sex marriage or the supreme court on the windsor case, i guess would repeal doma, how would you feel and how would you act as a judge? >> my personal feelings would be irrelevant to how i act as a judge. you have my commitment i would follow the decision of windsor. i would follow any precedent on marriage equality issues as i would any issues. i personal opinions expressed over 10 years ago on that issue may or may not have changed to whatever might personal beliefs are on that, they have never been relevant to how i have decided cases. with respect to your earlier question, my fundamental philosophy as a judge is to have an obligation to follow the law. you don't have to believe me necessarily wh

stop california's prop eight to beckerdown doma, jo tonight on 10:00 eastern and tomorrow at 9:00. is "e, our club selection himit calls you back." on tomorrow plus newsmakers, bernie sanders is our guest. he is the chairman of the veterans affairs committee and talks about allegations of misconduct. he comments on eric shinseki's role and adjusting the matter. the truth is that the v.a. is a huge institution. it does a whole lot of very important work. in many ways, it seems like he has done a good job. everybody has heard about the claims backlog. is underle don't know bush, do you know how we did claims? we did them by paper. that meant an individual veteran could have files this page. multiply that by hundreds of thousands of veterans. our member talking to shinseki and he said i will convert that from paper to electronic. we will have those claims down accuracy.s with 98% they have cut the backlog in half. they are on the way to fulfilling that goal. one of the national embarrassments is the level, high-level of homelessness among veterans. vietnam vets living on the streets.

what doma did was family law, divorce, etc. is generally to preserve a state law. in that case, they made it to preserve a federal law. in so doing, removed some 1100 federal rights from couples that are duly married in their state. so, this involves a state tax right, a social security right, and on and on. the question i have would be if your state were to approve same-sex marriage or the supreme court on the windsor case, i guess would repeal doma, how would you feel and how would you act as a judge? >> my personal feelings would be irrelevant to how i act as a judge. you have my commitment i would follow the decision of windsor. i would follow any precedent on marriage equality issues as i would any issues. i personal opinions expressed over 10 years ago on that issue may or may not have changed to whatever might personal beliefs are on that, they have never been relevant to how i have decided cases. with respect to your earlier question, my fundamental philosophy as a judge is to have an obligation to follow the law. you don't have to believe me necessarily wh

since the supreme court struck down doma, the defense of marriage act, last year, 14 judges have consideredans on same-sex marriage or recognizing same-sex marriages. all of them have struck down those bans. so clearly the federal judiciary is moving in the direction of strike down them all, but the supreme court has not spoken on the issue. i think the odds are at this point they will say same-sex marriage is constitutionally required but it's not a sure thing. >> the legal question still remaining, the infringeable right of gays to marry. give us an idea of all ways going into that. >> last year, the supreme court had the chance to decide this very issue. they had the proposition 8 case out of california. instead, they said, on procedural grounds, we just don't think this case is appropriate for our review. clearly, at least one of these many cases that are now floating through the system will go to the supreme court and the court will have to address the very profound fundamental issue, is does the constitution guarantee gay people, as well as straight people, the right to get married. i

. >> now president doma rue said last week when she was here inaugurated the new stadium, she actuallyet with a couple of leaders of this movement. the government is watching this very closely, because they know that this has the potential to explode into a bigger protest, like what we saw last june that swept all over brazil. the protestors have started setting tires on fire, blocking the entrance to the stadium. off in the distance, i don't know how well you can see it, blocking the actual world cup stadium, that is what they say is the symbol of all their grievances. >> the world cup kicks off on a 12th and just about -- russia says it is rejecting the u.s. requests to continue using the international space station, past 2020. the u.s. was hoping to run a $100,000,000,000.15 nation project through 2024, the announcement follows the american plans to deny export licenses for some hi-tech items to russia. more from moscow. >> as the ukraine crisis continues to harm relations between russia and the united states, there's a new battlefield. on wednesday, three astronauts one american, o

thing, and i think the united states supreme court did the right thing in that same vein in the recent doma decision. >> governor deval patrick, thank you for spending time with us. >> appreciate it. thank you. >> governor patrick who is opposed to capital punishment also shared his thoughts on the boston bomber who faces the death penalty. for that go to our website, cnn.com/sotu. >>> with more than 2 1/2 years to go in his term, is president obama playing small ball. >> on thursday i'll be heading to coopers town, new york, home of the baseball hall of fame to talk about tourism. >> the president's seventh inning stretch. we'll look at how it goes from here with senator dianne feinstein after this. [ female announcer ] there's a gap out there. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home... the gap begins to close. so let's simplify things. let's close the gap between people and care. ♪ when folks think about gap wth

the problem is, first lula and then doma told the country explicitly that the world cup was not goingjust a soccer term in, it was going to walk hand-in-hand with even more developments, more money, more employment, more opportunity for people. when folks see the gap between the promises for the world cup and the actuality of what it is bringing, and in the context of actually much smaller growth rates in the country and existed even three years ago, that is what is really feeling a great chill of the discontent. when you see a stadium being built for $500 million and there's no food on the table, no health care and education has gotten worse him and then it breeds the kind of anger you're seeing right now. thousands oflo, families have occupied an airing of the site the world cup's opening match. outside the stadium last week, protesters called for more spending on housing, health, and education. >> it is shameful, really shameful. not the stadium itself, but so much has been spent on building the stadium which has pushed up rents. we don't have a basic hospital. why is that? because

when doma fell and we get to 17 states there's a little sense of, okay, we're good.od in any way. and we want to help them understand how these things are all connected because there's no such thing as a la carte inequality. dr. king said a threat anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. we know they care deeply about these issues and they want to push on them. if we can use mtv as a platform to accelerate that push and that fight and make their voices louder, that will be for the better. >> tell us what that looks like. what is your call to action for these young millenniums? >> i'll let jason answer that. >> i think it really starts with looking internally. if you want to go to the school to prison pipeline or pay inequality, that's a huge thing that a young person in their daily life can't have an impact on. but they can get to know themselves better and their own implicit biases. and a lot of young people may not know they're there. the more they're aware of them, the more they can challenge them in their sphere, with family, with friends, when they see things

marriage equality on a federal level, doma is unconstitutional and it's up to the state's discretionnd we're seeing it being implemented on a state level. houston is a quality rights ordinance, monica, a great journalist out of houston, texas, galvanized so many voices around that. >> a fairly conservative state? >> yeah, same thing of topeka, kansas, they passed an ininclusion on their nondiscrimination ordinance. the ball is going to keep rolling but it would great to see on a federal level. >> can the mainstream media have a role in impacting that fight? >> i think it's important that it be covered the way it has been. i don't know impacting it so much is helping people understand why it's an argument, what is complex about it. when you have about 12 states have now changed their policies to let students play on the sports team of the gender they identify with, that's something that parents and schools and parents are all going to be talking about and what that means, i think that debate is a very important one and issue it raises is an important one to be covering. >> i know this

approve same-sex marriage, or the supreme court on the windsor case, i guess would repeal delmar -- doma. how would you feel and how would you act as a judge? >> my personal feelings would be irrelevant to how i would act as a judge. you have my commitment that i would follow the decision in windsor. i would follow any president from 11th circuit or the supreme court on marriage equality issues as i would any issues. my personal opinion expressed over 10 years ago on that issue may or may not have changed. whatever might issue, my personal bullies are on that or any other issue, they've never been relevant to how i decided cases. with respect to your earlier question, senator, my fundamental philosophy is judges have an obligation to follow the law. you don't hav have to believe ie "usa today" under oath, i hope you would, that i would follow president but how could also look to what i have done for the last 10 years that demonstrates a faithfulness to follow president in over 14,000 cases and to understand the three opinions i've offered on the georgia court of appeals that have all bee

her client in the doma case was edith windsor who sued the federal government for failing to recognizeer marriage to another woman. ms. kaplan also talks about ongoing court cases around the country involving same-sex marriage. this is just under an hour. [bell rings] >> good afternoon. my name is jonathan leiken. i'm the president of the cleveland metropolitan bar association. i am pleased to introduce robbie kaplan. yesterday, may 1, was law day. we celebrate law day every year to reflect on the importance of law in our society and what better place to have this conversation than the citadel of free speech, the city club of cleveland? and what better topic to illustrate the importance of law in our society than the fight for equal rights for the lgbt community? i just want to give a little bit of context to today's conversation. it has been almost a year since the u.s. supreme court for a landmark decision striking down the defense of marriage act and bringing robbie kaplan to national attention. still, there is a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage. a lawsuit file

luckily the supreme court's ruling on doma last year stymied that effort, but you just would not quitry to par patriots from serving, by railing against the one group not protected by don't ask, don't tell, transgender service members. as expected, you found some divisive comments to say. saying transgender people would flock to the military to have their gender reassignment surgery paid for by the government and that their presence might lead to more sexual assaults. more than 20 years after you began your small-minded campaign, it might be time for you to have a seat. transgender americans serve at double the rate of general population and their service is part of what we, the american people, will celebrate on monday. because the american people overwhelmingly support equal treatment for lgbt americans in the workplace. so do i. especially when their workplace is the battlefield. sincerely, melissa. c'mon, you want heartburn? when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast, with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact. and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum

hook what's happened with doma, with all these issues. we all sit restlessly, how's justice kennedy going to go, how's justice this one going to go, that one going to go? these are nine individual human beings. they're as imperfect as the rest of us. they're of blood, they're of skin, they're of bone, they're of brain matter, and the idea that a great republic with 310 million people has to await the decision of really one justice depending on how that justice swings or five justices to determine, you know, a particular social or cultural issue for the entirety of the nation is absurd. and the idea that there's no recourse whatsoever is absurd. and nobody, nobody can point to anything that took place at the constitutional convention or any of the state ratifying conventions that supports such a judicial oligarchy. there would be no constitution if that's what the constitution created, and it didn't. so one of my amendments, actually two of them, attempts to address this by term limiting supreme court justices, because my view is 12 years

nearly a year after the landmark decision striking down doma, the v.a. still does not have a clear policy to ensure all veterans, all veterans and their spouses have access to their earned benefits. in response to the situation, idaho resident and 27-year army veteran colonel barry johnson offered madeline and jean his plot at the staple cemetery stating, madeline loves her country, she wants her partner by her side and she wants to eternally rest among veterans in the state she made home. she deserves that. we need more people like the colonel here in congress willing to speak up on behalf of all our veterans and their families who deserve to receive the benefits that they've earned. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you so much, mr. speaker. and i'd like to congratulate the team from hebrew academy in south florida for winning this year's national counci

>> from the first attempt to stop california's prop eight and two strike down doma. tonight at 10:00 eastern on afterw words on cspan 2. our book selection is "it calls you back," by a former gang member. >> a look at the condition of some of the bridges are currently and in the funding necessary to make infrastructure improvements. this is from today's "washington journal." >> "washington journal" continues. host: we're joined by a reporter with transport topics. as we begin this discussion on infrastructure spending yesterday marked one year since the bridge collapse on the bus ii-5 bridge in washington. how has that collapsed focused attention on the need for bridge investments over the past year? >> yeah, exactly. that bridge collapse may 23, 013. it breached the national conversation because it started the dialogue among infrastructure advocates about the need to finance and replace old bridges. this is a bridge that was built in 1955, and is heavily used by trucks to transport freight from vancouver to seattle. so the economic impact of not having access to thi

others to do start fulfilling the geneva agreements and follow the road map there won't be welcome in doma that is if he carries on it was a military operation if poroshenko interesting. he will find a reliable partner. and on our website r.t. dot com you can find more on the situation in ukraine including the timeline of the current events and the background and analysis of the unrest there. all europe's leaders got together to discuss the election jolts they got from you were skeptic and far right parties in the e.u. poll some have already voiced their concerns with the outcome was the german chancellor calling the people's choice remarkable yet for gravel the french president though has noted it's perhaps brussels seeking too much influence that has turned citizens against the bloc now it's a view active on many europeans who have been complaining for campaigning rather for years about their national identities being eroded and putting brussels at odds with the people all over explains. after the parliamentary elections much has been made of right wing parties taking more seats the numb

whatever your opinion is look what happened in california, doma, look what happens with all of these issues. we sit on the edge of our chair in june, how is justice kennedy going? this one? that one? these are nine individual human beings as imperfect of the rest of us. they are of blood and bone batter and they are imperfect and the idea that all of us have to wait the decision on one justice or five justice to determine a social or cultural issue for the entire nation is absurd and the idea there is no recourse whatsoever is absurd and no body can point to anything that took place at the constitutional convention or the state radifying convention that support such. there would be no constitution if this was existed. i think we should limit the term limit. i think 12 years is enough. whether you are a great justice or not. it is way too political. and the other is 3/5th of the state legislator can override a supreme court decision. why shouldn't there be recourse beyond one justice with a body politics? the people of the united states -- if they can raise the resources and get 3/5th

. >> i certainly think that the obama administration has done so many important things, repealing doma was massive, don't ask, don't tell, but, really, nothing was more important -- everything's important, but nothing was more important than the president himself coming out and saying that he and michelle support marriage equality and that they think it's a just cause. i think that spoke volumes. >> it's the same in so many ways and different in so many ways. i haven't been inside yet, so i don't know what's in there, but this weekend has had the same amount of glamour. but also, an inspiring amount of substance, that made me really feel like you're meeting the people that can shift the world. and in terms of hollywood, people shift the world, but in a much different way, in the language of emotions and ideals and hopes. >> you know, it's interesting, because you do walk the line about what causes people are here for, and if they're just having a good type. there are still a lot of heavy issues going on in washington. i mean, i talked to senator mccain about ukraine tonight. and i also