and help me toast to the 6 years of putting justice -- 96 years of putting justice to work. so to the legal aid society. thank you. during this past year, the society's attorneys, staff and volunteers have served literally thousands of clients and families throughout the bay area and their achievements have been numerous and really quite inspiring, as i'm sure most of you know. >> i'd like to share one achievement in particular in a title ix lawsuit filed on behalf of four low income high school girls denied equal treatment and benefits in their high school's athletic program, particularly the girl's softball team. you may not know the legal aid society is focusing on title ix work which is really exciting. after a 10-day trial in federal district court, the judge down in southern california held that the high school had violated title ix and found that the inequalities demonstrated at the trial should have been rectified years before by the school and that promoting compliance with title ix is important societal value. he emphasized which is this wonderful quote that equali

of course, justice o'connor. the role of judges has been the subject of two previous hearings with supreme court justices. justice kennedy, scalia and brier. in the wake of the recent rhetoric about the sitting she's just as, i think that the conversation is more relevant. i am concerned about the rhetoric about the chief justice. he has been called everything from a traitor to having betrayed president george w. bush. i think these types of attacks reveal the misguided notion that justices and judges 0 some allegiance to the president who appointed them. i've served on this committee for the three decades. i have questioned every supreme court justice serving on the high court at their confirmation hearings. i've voted to confirm justices and judges nominated by both republican and democratic presidents. as i did in voting for chief justice roberts. on long noted that i do not vote to confirm individuals because i expect to agree with all of their decisions. probably every justice i voted, i disagree with some d

who are these justices. and it's interesting to look back over time and see how our expectations of the kinds of people who filled the seats on the supreme court have changed. back in the early days, of course these were among, among the justices were framers of the constitution, leaders of the new country. over time, that continued for quite a while. for instance, even as recent as the world court, earl warren himself had never been a judge. he was a three-time governor of california. he had run for national office for vice president on the republican ticket in 1948. his court was filled with former senators, former cabinet officers, former attorney general robert jackson and so on. you know, and that seems strange to us today because today for the, well, since i'll indicated him on the court, it's no longer true but leading right up to elena kagan's nomination for the first time in american history, we have a supreme court all of whose members have as the most recent wine on the resume, having been a feder

and the women on the court, justice ginsburg, justice sotomayor and justice kagan were just asking one question after another, dozens of questions. and i sat there thinking, you know, this is the new normal. with three woman on the court, it's no longer a surprise to hear a woman's voice from the bench. and when i first heard justice to connor on the bench back in 1981 when president reagan named her to be the first woman on the court, i mean, it was just a startling thing to see sandra o'connor sitting there. it was maybe just a year before her nomination that there had been a broadway play, maybe some of you remember it, first monday in october, that posited a female supreme court justice as a joke. the play was a comedy because people thought, well, that's never going to happen. and now, as i say, the new normal. so we've seen all kinds of biographical changes over time, and some of this, of course, relates to the confirmation process. and i want to say a little bit about that. it's almost a truism to talk about the confirmation mess and the breakdown of the confirmation process, an

and for making our acts of justice possible. now i have the distinct honor of introducing an old friend and current mayor, and i have promised joan i won't tell any stories from the old days, but this mayor has a firsthand deep understanding of both the injustice and the fixability of poverty. please give a warm welcome to our friend and our mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you, denise. again, congratulations to you and joan, to your wonderful staff and the legal aid society and employment law center for celebrating the 96th anniversary. it's my pleasure to be here today to join all of you. and as i was looking at the theme today, putting justice to work, my immediate thought is that i have a very complementry theme i've been trying to do as your mayor and that's putting people to work. and i hope that that is very much the same. because we cannot be the greatest city in the world or the most innovative city in the world unless all of our communities share in the richness of this city, and that's been my theme and i know puttin

justice scalia and justice breyer. in the zero wake of the sitting chief justice, -- the wake of the sitting chief justice, there is rhetoric about the chief justice. he has been called a traitor for having betrayed george bush. these kind of attacks reveal the misguided notion that justice's zero some allegiance to the president hu appointed them or to a political party -- justices own some allegiance to the president who appointed them or to a political party. i have known the justices nominated by both parties. i did not vote to confirm individuals to the bench. i can find every justice i voted in which i agreed and disagreed with. no one should demand political allegiance from any judge, whether nominated by a democrat or by a republican. as many sitting censuses have noticed, -- justices have noticed, we have the right as americans, including the supreme court. i find the opinion of justice ginsburg to college are congressional under the spending clause. it reveals a complete misunderstanding of our system to atta

justice ubran is one of 15 justices in the israeli supreme court. the only member of the court who is an israeli arab, israeli christian, and he has many observations to make for us today, as he has done in chicago this year, and we look forward to hearing from him. he was appointed to the bench in the year 2003, but it was in the springtime, i think, when you went to the bench so i call upon you before i call upon justice morris fish who ascended to the bench as the associate justice of the canadian supreme court in that sameee, 2003, but in august. and justice fish, i have to say i was struck in your buying agraph that you started out by naming who your parents are, and i think that's very significant. that told me and all of us a lot about what kind of justice you are as well and we're very pleased to have you here today. [applause] >> another person who is not only well known to us here in chicago but worldwide is professor basunni, an interacknowledge law expert, especially in the area of criminal law. if you combine the books he has personally

have equality and justice for all. not have any criminal record, but i have been arrested 55 times. i've been choked and stabbed. >> thank you. >> [inaudible] >> thank you, commissioners. i will be brief, but you might consider appreciative the line outside. i just want to say first our criminal justice system is broken. we lock people up and throw away the key. the thing that happens, or one of the results of that is the u.s. has the largest incarceration rate in the world. the leak of voters supported him because he is committed to oçvchanging that. it is brutal irony to watch the super tie warrants -- the zero tolerance laws applied to this case. we're very uncomfortable with the democratically-elected official being unilaterally ousted from office by political opponents. we are disturbed by the reports that the mayor committed perjury in his testimony. we ask that the ethics commission recommend that ross mirkarimi be reinstated as sheriff. we do not believe he has committed official misconduct and we ask the commi

in the past we have had justice o'connor -- i was telling her earlier that justice breyer and justicealia were here coming and we have had so many schools around the country and we now have a dvd of that hearing, and in the state of vermont i had people stop me on the street who have seen the tv, and it is the chance to learn -- it is a learning experience, and we try to do that periodically here. of course justice o'connor was appointed the supreme court by president ronald reagan in 1981 and she serves on the court during her retirement in 2006i recall we talked about this and barry goldwater from arizona came to see me as he did others to praise justice o'connor and say she would make a great justice and she's absolutely right. she is the leading voice for the improvement of civics education, currently serves as the chart of the board of directors for an organization which promotes some education in our nation's schools. justice, you're pleased to see a number of students were here. >> i think it would be very instructive for young people to have a chance to do that. >> you are bri

justice ginsburg? >> to take a concrete case, the ticking bomb case, was a really splendid judgment of a supreme court of israel. the question was, if the police suspect someone they have arrested of having information about where and when a ticking bomb will go off, can they use, to put it bluntly, torture to distract that information? the answer of the israeli supreme court was torture never. how do you implement that decision? how can we see it to that it is enforced by the security forces? >> actually, we don't have more than our pencil and the paper. we can't followed up what's happening on the ground but the police or by the government. if somebody comes to our court in a specific case concerning this issue, then we have the right to check what's happened in this specific case. generally we can't follow up our rulings. we don't have this power, unfortunately. >> thank you very much. justice fish, canada has a legislative override provision, does it? >> yes, we do, and that's one of the two consti

those are criminal justice system -- does our criminal justice system wheÑilpcare?e should, and i know you will do. thank you. >> excuse me. >> excuse me. it is a little bit hard to hear because of the noise outside. and i do not know if you can do something to move people further away. thank you. >> thank you.

the justice department has refused to act on it. and this latest piece of litigation they are still defending what perez said despite all those emails that we are talking about showing all these politicals being involved in the decision-making to drop this case of outright and really in your face voter intimidation. >> bill: you think it's just because they don't want to make even militant african-americans like the black panthers look bad? do you think that's the bottom line on this? >> leftist civil rights activists object to voting protection given extended to white people they think the law only is designed to protect minorities. there is testimony from jay christian adams and chris coats to that effect and they were officials at the justice department, too. lit lit all right, mr. fitton, thanks very much. we will continue to follow the case. next on the run down cokie roberts npr says mitt romney went to poland to get white people to vote for him back here. it's all about winston churchill, we're coming right back. [ male annou

this is not justice. if willie brown and gavin newsom, the mayor, could get away with that -- [tone] and here you are trying to make -- lay this mantle on him, and reasonable. think of your conscience. but what if you were in that position? it is not fair. you have to legalize the justice scales, right? i'm not a lawyer, but i know a lot about the law. so do your job and tell this man he is to report for work as soon as possible. [tone] [applause] >> before we move on, i appreciate that members of the public are going to have reactions to things that are said. this is public comment. this is not evidence. i feel like we can have a little bit of -- more reaction than we can add other parts. but please respect of speaker and please respect this process. let's not the way things are having a link the outburst, please. thank you. >> lpmy name is francisco. i am standing here on behalf of -- >> please, speaking to the microphone. i'm having trouble hearing you. >> use the microphone, sir. >> oh, sorry. i'm her

exactly his own justice department set them to cartels to kill people. t the obama justice department sh, actually named this program after the hollywood movie. and i had the official hollywodi government slideshow cover to prove it. they actually took aas screensht of the hollywood movie cover and put it into their official ring documents and official names.tel theing unfortunate thing is thah this "operation fast and furious" isn't about dealing with cards, it is where theylowt aere going to allow strawese c purchasers, who can go into gun shops and buy guns for people who cannot buy them.t they were going to follow these guns, allow them to bestressingt transferred to these cartel members in order to take down the big fish are what they called cut off the head of thew snake. th stressing that this was an rec interesting program. the problem was under 2500 weapons that they allowed to go to mexico and they went to the cartels that we recently saw, the headless bodies of women anh men 2500 guns in only two devic. devices in them. one of them was a radio

with the supreme court justice, justice ken city, scalia about the sitting chief justice i think the public conversation ig jre relevant. i'mus concerned about some of tc rhetoric abouthi the chief juste been called everything from a traitor to having betrayed to george w. bush. well, i think these tes ofr fo attacks we feel the misguided notion that justice and judges owe some allegiance to the president who appointed them tod the political party. tm i served on the committee for three decades. more than that. of course, in every supreme court justice serve on the high court today at the conformation hearings. i voted to confirm justice and judges nominated by both republicans and democratic presidents. as i did in voting for chief just is roberts, i have long noted i don't vote to confirm individuals who expect to agree with all their decisions. i can find every justice i voted for i can -- i disagree with. a lot ofvo decisions i agree with. my understanding is will it be a fair and independent judge and fair and impartial. i say this because nobody shouli demandee political allegi

it was his hallmark in -- restorative justice.it was his hallmark on a lot of the legislation that he worked on. ever since the incident happened between him and his wife, i have seen the party going from a position of doubt -- especially among the female members of our party and those who are advocates for domestic riots. you basically have two separate issues. the issue of domestic violence, which me and most of the doubters now believe that he has taken due course. [tone] but most of all, i believe that in terms of the green party, we would like to see ross reinstated to his position. we believe that is the way their processes unravel. we believe the process is two separate issues. that is, the domestic violence park, which we believe he is dealing with. and the fact that -- [tone] [no audio] >> i am a civil engineer practicing in san francisco. i do not know mr. mirkarimi personally, but i have followed what happened. the question is of ethics. i am sure you are all ethical persons. even an unethical person thinks that he or s

but criminal, i think the justice department was clearly right.did not rise to that level. >> i have to put out a caveat, i'm a former a.j. and former prosecutor. i have not seen the eched, and everything i say is based on what i've read: you're accepting a caveat of a buyer beware. even if goldman was misrepresenting a little bit fudging and putting junk into what they represented to be high quality bonds. too bad deutsche bank on the other side of the transaction they should have known better. >> yes and goldman is not a fiduciary here. when you or i may have a money manager managing money for us and they have a responsibility to make wise investments. that's not the case. >> eliot: they might have been viewed as a fiduciary is an open legal issue. probably not other otherwise they would have brought charges. >> let's not perfect that goldman has been punished to so degree. they've paid $450 million on a similar security on the grounds they did not provide full disclosure to investors what was in this security and how it was put together. that w

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two members of the knesset and three justice of the supreme court include the chief justice. this is a nine members committee. five out of the nine are not politicians. this is according -- five are the justices of the supreme court and the two members of the association. the majority is not politicians . the the judges are subject to the law and not any person or institute. we in israel, the judiciary, respect the principle of separation of powers. the government and the knesset may take measures without intervening authorities, but in spite of this, because we did not have the constitution, and in order to protect the democracy and human rights, there should be judicial review of the supreme court rulings of of the government and the knesset. i think this is the right way to serve the public and give the feeling to the public in israel that somebody is listening to them and protect them from measures taken by the government. icahn said that the supreme court -- can say that the supreme court in israel is one of the busiest in the world. the number of cases filed to the supr

so we are not anti-justice department people here. however, this black panther thing should have been prosecuted no doubt people were intruding on apology place. video proves it now we find out the decision not to prosecute had political implications. very bad news for attorney general holder and his friend the president of united states. that's the memo. now for the top story tonight. let's bring in the president of judicial watch tom fenton, the author of the new book the corruption chronicles, obama's big corruption and big government. he joins us from washington. so what do you think exactly happened here. you know, the bush administration didn't charge the panthers criminally they could have. they charged him civilly. panthers gave the finger to the system. didn't even show up. the system didn't do anything to them. then president obama takes over. the thing is still percolating the obama justice department does absolutely nothing. what happened inside all of that? >> filed civil case at the end of the bush administration. the ob

i just ask for the justice to be even-handed. i know that the case for far chief joanna hayes has come up and that was to the level of a 911 call. i just ask that if we are going to do justice that we do it fair across the field and that one person is not isolated and targeted as a feel that sheriff mirkarimi has been. the last time that i was here at the commission meeting, you all were very reasonable. i pray that you continue to be reasonable and fair. thank you very much. [applause] >> good afternoon. domestic violence is not a private matter as a woman and as a mother, i agree with that statement. however, an argument between a husband and a wife is. this was nothing more than that. i am more concerned with the mayor who perjures and himself gets away with it. i'm more concerned bay bomb threat that put everyone's life supposedly in danger other than mayor lee's wife. this family loves each other, they are united, they are stronger than they have been and want to be with another. the political witch hunt is bent on destroyin

for the justice department's civil division. he also served as state special assistant attorney general in california. assistant united states attorney in the northern district of california and special assistant to the deputy attorney general. he spent years in private practice before returning to the justice department as the acting assistant attorney general. i am so proud to introduce you today to the acting associate attorney general of the united states, mr tony west. ♪ [applause] >> good morning. thank you for that very kind introduction and for reminding us about the vital work that is going on in ojjdp every single day. let me thank our partners at the department of education and particularly secretary duncan for hosting the summit and for inviting me this morning to participate. it is quite a privilege for me to be with all of you. i know that many of you have been instrumental in efforts to raise awareness about bullying as well as how to prevent it and intervene to stop it and how to deal with it once it occurred. yo

i am secretary of the mental health board and seeker of social justice.f whether or not the this popular. i believe in this case the greater good would be restoring by -- restoring our elected sheriff to office. in a city whose share of department is without any independent commission or oversight board, it is crucial the person at the top is elected and be truly independent. this person needs to be an attached to a culture that sees protecting its own as more important than doing its own -- been doing the right thing. willing to enforce discipline among the deputies, even if that makes them unpopular. ross is the sheriff. he is willing to disrupt the status quo and act against the political machine to do so -- to do what is right. Ñilpand ross has served the cosf justice. he has made a mistake in the private life. he had been severely punished for this already. over 100,000 in legal fees, not being able to see his wife for half the year. it being scorned in the press, fired without pay. he has not committed any rock of official misconduct. his bad conduc