hunter college in new york city and will be devoted to the subject of civic education which justice o'connor has done so much on in her years since leaving the sprint court. i also want to mention the aspen institute each summer conduct a seminar in aspen, colorado. the justice society seminar, in which we read classic works of political philosophy and jurisprudence. the seminar this year will take place july 13-19. if you are interested in further information will be found on the aspen institute web site. this year the moderators for the excellent program will be barbara rothstein, the director of the federal judicial center, and richard burthough. the same kind of thoughtful programming, i hope we are providing today, will be provided in a more expansive we one format going back to some first principles. i urge you to take to give some consideration to taking the course this year or another year. i now have the very distinct pleasure to introduce our keynote speaker. most of us in this room are familiar with at least some of the details of the life of sandra day o'connor. raised on the laz

although i don't have a red light, justice o'connor, plan to be just as brutal chief justice rehnquist. i am going to start. he set up a commission set up to fix the situation there. he will tell us what happened in the west virginia and presumably what the steps might be. >> thank you very much. certainly an honor to be here this morning. i would be remiss if i did not start out being reminded of the story of fred thompson used to tell when he left his law practice to serve as watergate counsel. he remarked to a friend, great, i can just see him not being introduced. here is sam dash constitutional scholar and arguably and serious thompson, intersection lawyer for national tennessee. i suppose i am happy to introduce myself as a lawyer from charleston, west virginia. >> i don't think so. >> i have been asked to provide a bit of a west virginia perspective on the caperton case and particularly what happened in the wake of the supreme court ruling. our governor appointed the independent commission on judicial reform. we were honored to have the participation of justice o'connor serving

justice o'connor is anything but that. i think her colleagues would say that as a jurist and as a human being, justice o'connor was the heart of the supreme court. she is held in the highest esteem, and we're privileged to have her with us today. ladies and gentlemen, the hon. sandra day o'connor. [applause] >> don't stand up. that was too kind introduction. we're just here to learn something today. i am right with you. learning about what has been going on with the supreme court. gosh, a step away from a couple of years and there is no telling what is going to happen. [laughter] thank you, meryl, and thank you, georgetown law school. thank you for putting together a symposium in which i think all of us have a real interest today. you have heard some good panels on citizens united. your the experts now. there is not much that i can or would try to add to the explanation of these cases. i want to take a step back and think about how these two cases of fact the threat judicial independence. they become intertwined in the pol

with justice o'connor's departure from the court and the addition of chief justice roberts and justice alito, the court's campaign finance rulings have swung from deference to congressional regulation to basically deregulation. and justice alito, his substitution for justice o'connor on the bench made the difference here. he was the decisive vote. she in the past had been deferent to congressional regulation of campaign finance. >> brown: all right, marcia coyle, as always, thanks very much. >> my pleasure, jeff. >> lehrer: reaction to the court's decision ran the spectrum. president obama condemned it. in a statement, he warned the result will be a "stampede of special interest money in our politics." but many republicans welcomed the decision. house minority leader john boehner called it "a big win for the first amendment." now, the impact of today's ruling to sort that out, we're joined by steve simpson, the lead attorney on campaign finance law at the institute for justice. and monica yoon of the brennan center for justice at new york university's school of law. they both filed fri

it said, dear justice o'connor, i have been in the audience watching the court today. i noticed that you did not have a judicial collar. all your colleagues were wearing white shirt collars. they showed under the robe. you just looked like a washed out justice to me. what is happening? i took that to heart. i figured i should find some sort of judicial collars to wear. i did not always have a white shirt under the robe. it was hard to find. nobody in those days made judicial white collars for women. i discovered that the only place you could find them were in england. there was a woman who was the first female judge in the state of delaware. she was older at the time. i had met her. she gave me her judicial collars, which was kind of a lace thing that she had acquired somewhere down the line. and that was pretty elegant. so i used that as well. but finding appropriate judicial collars turned out to be quite a task. >> our cameras have visited the robing room. knowing that the court is full of conditions, can you tell us what the procedure is like? >> on the days of ora

he made a splendid choice in justice sandra day o'connor. it was president carter had decided that the federal judiciary should draw on the talent of all the people of the great united states and not just some of them. >> what did you do in his administration? >> i was on the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit. >> before that, you had not had any government experience? >> before that i had been a law teacher for 17 years and general counsel for the american civil liberties union. >> you were before the court representing the aclu? >> representing a client that was supported by the aclu. >> what is the difference between standing in front of the court and then being on the other side? >> on the other side, you ask the questions, and being at the council podium, you answer questions. >> from your own experience of standing before the court, have been treated the attorneys in a differently because you have that experience originally? >> i think have a keen understanding of what it is like to be on the receiving end of questions. but i a

and particularly when justice o'connor, justice ginsburg came on, there were two women, it would havea question from o'connor, and they'd say no ginsburg. when o'connor left, they gave out t-shirts that said i'm not sandra, i'm ruth. the other one said i'm not ruth, i'm sandra. just to remind the lawyers of mistakes that have been made during the arguments. >> how do you single this out, how are we certain that there's an injuries to your client that she wouldn't have experienced for other reasons? >> well, your honor, first of all, -- >> it's very intense. that's what it's really like. once you start, you are certainly in the moment. and it's all about just fielding those questions and using the time strategyically so that you respond to the questions. it's essential to answer the questions. you can't persuade a justice if you don't answer what they have asked. but you also have to remember that you have a limited amount of time. at most you are going to have 30 minutes. often the argument may be 10 or 15 depending on whether you had to split it with another party. so you have to cov

and then former justice sandra day o'connor. coming up this hour, a conversation on immigration. the immigration policy center and the policy for immigration studies will join us. better that, the obama administration plus handling of foreign policy and diplomacy. a professor from georgetown school of foreign service is our guest. live from the nation's capital, this is "washington journal."

eastern on c-span with an associate justice sotomayor an retired justice sandra day o'connor. for copy of the documentary, is on dvd, part of the "american icons" collection. one of many items available at c-span.org/store. >> "the economist" magazine held a conference looking at issues in 2010. washington d.c.'s chancellor talks about her plans for changing washington's school system. this is about 25 minutes. >> good morning. i don't love to spend time outside of the school district talking to large groups of people. this one, i was particularly interested in because it was "the economist." economists have an incredibly interesting insight into public education that we need to tap into. right now, in particular, in this time of financial crisis, all the talk about stimulus packages and bailouts, what is missing in the conversation is the need to focus on schools. until we fix the problems in public education, the last results were an indication of this. we were twenty third amongst oecd nations in terms of mathematics, well below the average. in science, we were 17. again, b

justice sandra day o'connor was nominated to the bench to fill justice stewart's seat. she talked about to roll the founding fathers envisioned and the ropes that the justices wear. just as sotomayor was nominated by president barack obama, his first appointment, replacing justice david souter. interfirst television interview, justice sotomayor talked about her first impressions of the job, her first oral arguments experience and the call she received from president obama asking her to be his nomination to the court. we will have boasts of those interviews for you tonight. -- we will have both of those interviews for you tonight. an interview with supreme court clerk william suter. that is saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. "the economist" held a conference. a political cartoonist talks about some of the most talked- about persons in the world. this is about 20 minutes. >> please welcome cal calleher. >> how are you guys doing? i am excited to be here with you guys today. i'm going to talk to you about something that i find extraordinarily exhilarating, and that is faces. i

eastern on c-span with the soucy justice onya sotomayor and retired justice sandra day o'connor and get documentary on the supreme court on the edu. is part of c-span's american icon collection a three disc set including programs on the white house and the capital one that many items available at c-span.org/store. >> host: hello it is michelis and with the claire boothe luce policy institute talking with coulter about your book "guilty" liberal "victims" and their assault on america. you know one of the chapters you write about during the primary season the media attack machine turned on their beloved bill clinton and said journalist at visit quintin head change rather they were telling the truth about it. what happened? >> guest: right, that is the chapter on the nonexistent republican attack machine the imaginary phenomenon that scares liberals more than anything other than global warming, and that is, i didn't intend for this book to be as much about the media and politics as it was. i wanted it to be more on the victim culture and help victims are attacking and oppressing but as i w

after that, forÑi work justice sandra day o'connor on the recent high court rulings.is headed, next. this is about one part five hours. >> good morning. good morning, and welcome, it is great to see all of you bright eyed and energetic. we have a great session this morning. before we start, i thought i would do two quick things of business. last night,çó the illinois campaign for better health care representative decided that he was born to be a little creative -- going to be a little creative. he broke out the words "budget reconciliation process." and then he wondered what words you could not make out of those letters and what words can you make out of those letters. i am going to read what you can can't not do. -- cannot do. you cannot spell the word filibuster. you can't spell out the word pass and pledge. you cannot spell out the word lieberman. [laughter] you can use those letters for pelosi, reed. you can use those letters for the word urgent. >you cannot for the words lobbyist win. you cared for the word wimpy. you can for the word boalld. you can for the word

eastern on c-span with the soucy justice sonia sotomayor and retired justice sandra day o'connor andet your own copy of our original documentary on the supreme court on dvd. it is part of c-span's american icon collection a three disc set including programs on the white house and the capitol one of many items available at c-span.org/--/store. >> host: hello, it is michelle easton at the claire boothe luce policy talking about ann coulter and sherbrooke. "guilty" liberal "victims" and their assault on america. door in the past presidential primary season the media attack machine turned on their beloved bill clinton and said journalist at visit clinton had changed rather than they were finally telling the truth. what happened? >> guest: right, that is the chapter on the nonexistent republican attack machine, the imaginary phenomena that scares liberals more than any other than global warming, and that is i mean i didn't intend for this book to be as much about the media and politics as it was. wanted it to be more on this victim culture. but as i was writing the book during the 30 year

eastern with associate justice sonia sotomayor and retire justice sandra day o'connor. you can get a documentary on dvd, part of the "american icons" collection. one of many items available at c-span.org/store. >> remarks now from the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, susan rice. on preventing and genocide in the darfur region of sudan. she spoke of the holocaust memorial for about an hour. >> welcome to the museum. i am director iblumfield. -- sara blumfield. we have people here from the advocacy committee and members of the museum board of directors. tonight's program is sponsored by the museum's committee on conscience. this is our effort to deal with present day genocide, particularly the areas of response and prevention. the committee on conscience has two major goals. first, public education, working to sensitize the general public at large to the problem of genocide, the general problem of genocide. we do it through programs like tonight. we just took ambassador rise through the exhibit ourselves. the second part is out reach to policymakers. it was a bluepr

i want to thank the commission and honorary chair justice sandra day o'connor for their thorough review. they have laid the groundwork for reform and in this i will introduce two bills based on their recommendations. the first piece of judicial reform legislation is a public financing pilot project for the two supreme court seats that will be open for election in 2012. the goals is to relieve judges from the burden of political fundraising and to reduce the potential for appearance of bias as a result of campaign donations. this money would be available for both the primary and general elections. the second bill establishes a judicial advisory committee to aid the governor in the selection of judges for circuit court vacancies. almost half of our current circuit judges are initially appointed prior to being elected. this bill would ensure that only the most highly qualified individuals are considered for appointment and will enhance the transparency in this process. now, when i created the independent commission, i asked them to consider ways to broaden opportunities for appeals of circ

with a system of justice sonia sotomayor -- associate justice sonia sotomayor and retired justice sandra day o'connoran.org/store. >> a look now at immigration reform with the directors of the immigration policy center and center for immigration studies. from this morning's "washington journal," this is 45 minutes. >> washington journal continues. host: our guests include the executive director for immigration studies, and we are also joined by mary giovagnoli, the policy director at the american emigrations council. we begin with this statistic from the census bureau. an immigrant enters every 37 seconds. who are these people? guest: they are your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. computer programmers. they come from every country and every demographic. host: what are they looking for when they come here guest:? -- what are they looking for when they come here? guest: a better opportunity for their children. some people are getting away from persecution. some people are trying to join their family members. they are all looking for a better life. host: an immigrant every 37 seconds. what is the