cnn's joan biskupic is joining us now. joan, o'connor is someone who played such an important role -- i think that we have an audio issue. we will work on reconnecting with joan. we will promise you stay with us, because we will have the special coverage of the funeral service honoring the late sandra day o'connor, and that is going to begin shortly, a little later in the hour. and in the meantime, we have reconnected with joan biskupic, and can you hear me? >> how are you? >> i'm doing great. talk to me about what today is going to look like. all of washington and far beyond washington gathering at the iconic cathedral to remember an i icon. >> yes, and plenty of arizona will be there where sandra day o'connor was born, reared and really established most of her professional life as a state senator there. kate, it is going to be like a state funeral like we saw in 2018 when former george h.w. bush was celebrated for his life at national cathedral and this is the kind of thing that we will see this morning. we will see presi

joining us now is cnn senior court analyst, joan biskupic, other than that, a pretty chill term aheadifepristone, which we've spoken about a lot since the night this started heading in this direction, the fda has made several changes to increase accessibility to the abortion pill, by allowing the drug to be taken later in pregnancy, explain how these changes are at the heart of the appeal. >> sure, phil, morning to you and erica, and you're right, i remember, you know whren this al started when these lower court judges started to restrict access of mifepristone. we're on a whole new front in the national controversy over abortion. the specific regulations here date not to the year 2000 when it was approved, but to starting in 2016 when the fda started to relax some of the regulations around the drug saying that women could have access to it up to ten weeks of pregnancy, not just up to seven weeks of pregnancy, that non-physicians could be prescribing and dispensing it as well as physicians, and also when it came time to actually get the drug after consultation with a physician that it

cnn senior -- big joan biskupic is here. joan, thank you for being here. first, let's talk about the arguments for -- >> it takes us back to the court that started it all about one year and a half ago we are the reversed constitutional abortion rights nationwide. this involves women's access to a drug that has become the most common method for women who need to end a pregnancy, the most common method to do that. but the case doesn't challenge the court for the approval of the drug but rather restrictions. how easy is it to get the drug? can you get it through telemedicine? can you pick it up in person or can you get to the mail after you have been approved? can you get it ten weeks into the pregnancy were just seven weeks. there's other crucial questions of the case. it also involves the food and drug administration deciding what drugs, diabetes drugs, cancer jokes, epileptic drugs, what drugs are safe and effective, or where lower court judges might second guess that as happening right here in this case. >> obviously this will be very impactful on the ele

we go to joan biskupic, and can you tell us more about the memorials plan and the public can pay their respects, kr ekt? >> that is right, sara. i just came from that scene that you showed from the great hall, and able to hear the remarks made as a preface to the viewing going on until 8:00 p.m. by the way. so the public can go to 8:00 p.m. to see her. i wanted to tell you about the remarks made that captured sandra day o'connor's contributions to america and the justices themselves. first, one of her former clerks spoke, a woman named jane faughey who is a reverend and spoke about her devotion to the law clerks and their children who she called her grand clerks. but the most moving words came from justice sotomayor who is the senior forewoman, and how she was the social glue of the nine, and how she insisted they go to launch after the oral arguments, and if there were some differences, she would walk arm and arm with them to launch, and she felt that helped form collegiality, and helped to get to answers for smoothly. and she liked to take justices and clerks to movies and as she sai

council is pushing high court even more now to take this matter up quickly, and we will get over to joan biskupicdetails that are truly just coming in. >> yes, the donald trump subversion case has just submitted another filing to the supreme court doubling down on the imperative of the supreme court to take this case up now before waiting for another court to handle it. the question is whether former president donald trump is immune from criminal prosecution for election subversion arising from the 2020 election right as we head into the 2024 election. what he is trying to do here, the special counsel jack smith, is to counter what donald trump's lawyer said yesterday. they said, supreme court, no need to take this case up hastily, and it needs to go to the appellant court first, which is, kate, the normal processes, and yesterday, trump's lawyers said that jack smith had not made a sufficient case on this, but today, in this 11-page filing, special counsel jack smith tries to reinforce how the rule of law is at issue, how donald trump's actions back in 2020 need to be resolved, and here is a lin

cnn's joan biskupic joins us. now the attention turns to the u.s. supreme court.d happen here? >> yes, a lot and very fast. the colorado state supreme court is the first court in the country to say that donald trump should be kept off of the ballot based on that provision of the 14th amendment. it said in its ruling that it concluded that the evidence, the great bulk of which had been proved at trial established that president trump engaged in insurrection, president trump's direct and express efforts over several months exhorted, to alleged fraud on the people of this country were overt and voluntary. i should tell you, kate, that the three dissenters in the 4-3 case stressed that donald trump had never been convicted of insurrection and there are other questions about whether donald trump should even be covered by this provision of the 14th amendment as a colorado trial judge had said. so very weighty questions that are going to be put to the supreme court that will affect not just colorado, but other litigation that's percolating up here. the timeline you asked

i want to bring in joan biskupic, and gloria borger and others on our panel today. and joan, you knew her well? >> yes, she worshipped over at the cathedral, and so you will hear the music that was so much a part of her life, and she was there until 2006 when she retired and then we grew up on a ranch, and so she was sort of used to a solitary life, and when she burst on the scene as a politician in arizona state and then here in washington, she was always about engaging with people, and mixing it up with people, and yesterday, it was so wonderful to be in the great hall of the supreme court, and the way she was saluted was about her personal touch. she was always one for, you know, taking her colleagues to musical events, to the theater, to sharing barbeque or seonya mayor said she is always about a scotch and water. and clearing way for the personal work, and the difficulty of deciding hardest cases before the court. >> i loved fact that she referred to herself still as a cowgirl. >> oh, she was all about arizona, and it is going to be interesting if there is going

joan biskupic has more on. this and joan, such a trailblazer, and tell us more. >> she was.e was! she was the very first woman to sit on the nation's highest court. in 1981, ronald reagan made her the first choice for the high court. he had promised it when he was running for election in late 1980. sandra day o'connor, and what a trailblazer not only became the first woman on the court, but the key vote on the u.s. supreme court, and in case after case from the late '80s into be the '90s until the day she retired in late january 2006 succeeded by samuel alito and her legacy was so deep in those year, kate. her importance as a figure in america, and someone who is inspiring to all three of to, all four of the women justices who now sit on the supreme court, and it is hard to imagine what it is like back in the 1980s, and the country had gone in the late 17 -- from 1790 to 1981 with only men on the court. she came, and she had grown up on a ranch in arizona who had, i like to say she had come to the supreme court knowing how the count votes. i had written a biography on her, a

joan biskupic is cnn's supreme court analyst and author of "sandra day o'connor: how the first womaneme court became its most influential justice." you write in the book that her appointment did not just change the court, it transformed the court. what do you mean by that? joan: it really did and it is great to be with you even though we feel sadness. i like to say that she made history certainly by being the first woman justice on the supreme court but also she was a real politician on the court, she came knowing how to count votes, how to work consensus, and she had a very pragmatic style that involved not just trying to find the center of the law in america but also the center of the court. there was no one like her for 1981 and there will be no one like her going forward. she influenced so many important areas you all touched on. abortion rights, religion, racial affirmative action. her overall approach was to ensure that when those nine justices got together in a conference room with nobody else but them, everyone walked away feeling they got something. people were critical abou

joan biskupic, thank you very much to you.ant to go to ty cobb. 13 pages and the three dissents and i'm trying to work my way through here, from what you've seen, what do you take away? >> so i -- the way i see this is -- is that the supreme court has to take this. they can stay the dates in colorado. they'll move expeditiously. i was struck by the majority opinion and the amount of verbage devoted to the sort of strong man arguments. the real key issue in this case is is trump an officer of the united states -- in the context in which that term is used in article 3? >> right. >> and in 2010, chief justice roberts explained in free enterprise that people don't vote for officers of the united states. article 2 officers of the united states is commonly understood in the constitution to refer to appointed officials and to the extent that the president or the vice president are included as an officer or included within the admonitions of the constitution, they are typically highlighted like in the impeachment clause which specific