you can't argue that the quote that justice kagan read is not sectarian. it invokes jesus christ as the savior of the world. there are many religions who don't believe that. let's get past that. >> so, your honor -- >> this is sectarian. >> we agree that these are sectarian. but the kinds of debates that you're seeing among the parties, whether, for example, 15%, 50%, 60% of the congressional prayers are sectarian. those are debates about whether "holy spirit" is sectarian. a court -- a district court has held that "allah" is not sectarian. >> so let's talk about the context instead of prayer. if the chief justice got up at the beginning of this session and said "all rise for a prayer," would you sit down? >> your honor, whether i would sit or not, we don't think that that would be constitutional. >> do you think -- how many people in this room do you think would sit, talking truthfully? >> i don't think -- i don't think many would sit, your honor. >> all right. >> but we don't think that that >> so why do you think that someone who is sitting in a small r

you can't argue that the quote that justice kagan read is not sectarian. it invokes jesus christ as the savior of the world. there are many religions who don't believe that. let's get past that. >> so, your honor -- >> this is sectarian. >> we agree that these are sectarian. but the kinds of debates that you're seeing among the parties, whether, for example, 15 percent, 50 percent, 60% of the congressional prayers are sectarian. those are debates about whether "holy spirit" is sectarian. a court -- a district court has held that "allah" is not sectarian. >> so let's talk about the context instead of prayer. if the chief justice got up at the beginning of this session and said "all rise for a prayer," would you sit down? >> your honor, whether i would sit or not, we don't think that that would be constitutional. >> do you think -- how many people in this room do you think would sit, talking truthfully? >> i don't think -- i don't think many would sit, your honor. >> all right. >> but we don't think that that >> so why do you think that someone who is sittin

it starts off with elena kagan, the persuader. people love to talk about the swing vote, but the truth is that only at -- every supreme court justice has only one vote to cast. what makes a justice influential is the ability to persuade others to agree. that depends on the effectiveness of the justice. in that respect, elena kagan has what it takes to be a highly influential supreme court justice. she has demonstrated herself to be an incisive legal thinker, both in her written opinions and her questions for the bench. she is also an excellent communicator with a crisp and direct style that will make her a persuasive -- maker persuasive, not only among her colleagues, but among be court's broader audience. she is an important voice on the court for decades to come. it is our pleasure to welcome our speaker and have a conversation. justice elena kagan. [applause] >> can i think everybody first? i just want to thank the judge for that warm and gracious introduction which i hope a little bit of it is true. and i want to thank the who

. >> i must say that justice kagan has been one of the more gracious guest that we have had as you can all see from our first few minutes together. it is a real honor to have you here. i was tempted, listening to the introduction, about all the

with elena kagan, the persuader.eople love to talk about the swing vote, but the truth is that only at -- every supreme court justice has only one vote to cast. what makes a justice influential is the ability to persuade others to agree. that depends on the effectiveness of the justice. in that respect, elena kagan has what it takes to be a highly influential supreme court justice. she has demonstrated herself to be an incisive legal thinker, both in her written opinions and her questions for the bench. she is also an excellent communicator with a crisp and direct style that will make her -- makerive persuasive, not only among her colleagues, but among be court's broader audience. she is an important voice on the court for decades to come. it is our pleasure to welcome our speaker and have a conversation. justice elena kagan. [applause] >> can i think everybody first? i just want to thank the judge for that warm and gracious introduction which i hope a little bit of it is true. i want to thank the whole law school fo

it starts off with elena kagan, the persuader. people love to talk about the swing vote, but the truth is that every supreme court justice has only one vote to cast. what makes a justice influential is the ability to persuade others to agree. that depends on the effectiveness of the justice. in that respect, elena kagan has what it takes to be a highly influential supreme court justice. she has demonstrated herself to be an incisive legal thinker, both in her written opinions and her questions for the bench. she is also an excellent communicator with a crisp and direct style that will make her persuasive, not only among her colleagues, but among be court's broader audience. she is an important voice on the court for decades to come. it is our pleasure to welcome our speaker and have a conversation. justice elena kagan. [applause] >> can i think everybody first? i just want to thank the judge for that warm and gracious introduction which i hope a little bit of it is true. and i want to thank the whole law school for inviting me her

justice hagan samurai star case, kagan summarized our case. you cannot refuse to participate in the prayer just before you stand up to ask the board to take discretionary action that affects you directly and personally. this is highly coercive and also a sectarian endorsement. it violates all of the principals of the establishment clause that both sides of the court, the liberals and conservatives, have agreed to carry and endorsements are prohibited. and we have both of those things in this case. >> what is the larger problem, the message or the method? >> the message. it does not matter who was selected to give the prayer. it matters what the prayer givers says. the prayers in this case are explicitly christian and often heavy handedly christian, talking about the saving grace of jesus christ on the crossed and similar things. we do not care if pastors give a prayer as long as they remain nonsectarian. >> how can you make them sectarian to appeal to many religions? how can you do that? >> we have a tradition in this country of nonsectarian p

kagan on the workings of the nation's highest court and that dedication ceremony for the winston churchill bust in the nations capital. and the head of google research shows how computers are being designed to learn. on the next "washington journal," a reporter discusses efforts to raise the minimum wage. than an author looks at his book " america 3.0." representative a from the national endowment for the arts on federal funding for the arts. plus, your e-mails and phone calls and tweets. at 7hington journal," live a.m. eastern on c-span. >> a discussion now with supreme court justice clarence thomas. he spoke at the federalist society's national lawyers convention and talk about his life on the court and what it was like to get there. this is about 50 minutes. [applause] >> thank you, david. could evening, everyone. evening. it is my great honor and pleasure to introduce our distinguished guest this evening. although much of what i might say by way of introduction is no doubt familiar to all of you. justice clarence thomas has served with great distinction on the united states supreme cou

followed by a lake and kagan -- elena kagan at 9:45 eastern. tv thursday -- book at 9:30.ettysburg address. the 10 sentences president lincoln spoke i gettysburg. 4:00 and 10:00 p.m. >> one day before the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, the consumer federation of america and the credit union national association released their holiday spending survey. this briefing is 10 minutes. >> ok. good morning. i am bill hampel, chief economist for the credit union national association and i am here with stephen brobeck who is executive director director of the consumer federation of america. we're here to release the results of our 14th annual survey of consumer holiday spending plans and some of the factors that might influence those plans. 1000 phoned interviews for the survey. between november 10 -- the seventh and the 10th which is a little over two weeks ago. we had approximately a 65-35 split of landline and cell phone lines on our service. and considering the survey results, it is important to note that we asked respondents if they would spend more, the same

. >> justice kagan what the convention says in article vii, section 1, 33a what it says is that each nation-state convention agrees in accordance with these constitutional processes to pass p. no laws that make it unlawful for individuals conduct that would violate the convention by a nation-state. i would respectfully suggest that making that translation if you will between what violates the condition for a nation-state and what would be comparable individual conduct is not obvious and when the government does that through pena legislation there is no reason why pena legislation shouldn't have to comply. >> mr. clement why not? there can be no doubt that chemical weaponry is at the forefront of our foreign-policy efforts right now. look at the serious situation. it would be deeply ironic that we have expended so much energy criticizing syria plan if this course were now -- this court were now to create legislation to implement the treaty was in unconstitutional. putting aside the impact on foreign relations if it's okay to regulate the possession of marijuana for a local crime, why

. >> jon: trey radel was partying with chuck hagel and elena kagan. were there any signs?he congressman admitted his favorite vacation spot was cartagena, colombia. [ laughter ] >> jon: were there any signs? anything? anything that could have tipped us off that he was a cocaine user? anything you found? anything? >> radel who calls himself a hip-hop conservative. [ laughter ] >> jon: a hip-hop conservative -- that can't go together. they can't -- i'm a hip-hop conservative -- you can't be. i'm a smooth jazz anarchist. i'm a disco nazi. you can't -- it doesn't -- how are you a hip-hop conservative. >> he breaks down what he says is the conservative message behind public enemies fight the power. >> if you really get down to it in my ways reflects the conservative message of having a heavy handed federal government. >> jon: it has nothing to do with that. i guess flava flav is wear age debt clock. is that what that is? and too live crew is an ode to traditional marriage. i guess we can get his new book "i do not understand rap music. we're all human, we make mistakes the prob

kagan called for an investigation. mark baggage is the first to sign up for health care on the exchange. it took him weeks but he finally managed to do that. mark prior is slowly back at their way, mary landrieu introduced the bill, the people kept their policies. and polling data at, polling data, they are hearing it from their constituents. and my feeling for the long term is six web site is not going to solve these problems and if we get into the high 2014-15 there will be new problems. they're putting lot of people in the system and capacity. in rural areas this will be a problem. in urban areas will be a problem. this will be interesting to watch and will not go away anytime soon. >> there are winners and losers. with the winner is being people have no insurance today or awful policies that will get something better but on the losing side true or false, your impression is there could be a significant number of people with employer supplied health insurance who may end up with policies that may be less generous thr

. >> barack obama got kagan on the supreme court, sotomayor, they're on the left side of the ideological spectrum but had to be confirmed by the u.s. senate. imagine who he will nominate if he doesn't think he has to get them past republicans basically at all. who will we wind up with? >> the president said he wants to remake the federal judiciary and you can imagine the image of that to be remade and looking at kagan and sotomayor, i suspect they'll look moderate compared to the judicial nominees will be and i think that the supreme court is not going to be immune from this change in the rules. i think they're going to use it at the supreme court if they have to and the republicans better toughen up too and when they're back in power and the senate's controlled by republicans, a republican in the white house and there will be, the fact of the matter is they need to play tough, too. this is not one way. >> play the chuck grassley sound bite. listen here. >> yep. >> the democrats are bent on changing the rules, then i say go ahead. there are a lot more scalias and thomases out there that

today on c-span, hear from two supreme court justices, clarence thomas at 9 p.m., followed by elena kaganr days of book tv. including deborah solomon. tonight at 9:30. on c-span three, it is american history tv. a 150th anniversary of the gettysburg address. we will commemorate resident lincoln speaking at gettysburg. at 4:00 and 10:00. november 25 marks the 50th anniversary of president kennedy's state funeral. we will now bring you nbc's coverage, including the procession from the u.s. capitol to the white house. the mass at sa

. >> reporter: but justice elena kagan said what if it began with a priest? some say it's unconstitutional. >> and we ask all these things in your holy name, amen. >> i don't think you should have to endure religious indoctrination in order to participate in your own town government. >> reporter: but the town say it is has history on its side. >> we have a rich tradition back to our founding fathers of opening legislative meetings with prayer. >> reporter: several of the supreme court's liberals today questioned it saying that people may feel compelled to join a prayer. both houses of congress have always started their days with prayers from paid chaplains, a practice endorsed 30 years ago. >> eternal god, how great you are. >> reporter: justice steven breyer suggested that the court could draw up rules to make local prayers more inclusive. but justice samuel alleto said e didn't see how it was possible. >> pete williams starting us off at the supreme court tonight. thanks. >>> now we turn to this growing scandal involving bullying ant nfl. a lot of people ha

. >> reporter: andrew kagan represents ray louis and 15 other current and former nfl athletes who say because of those bogus signatures they lost millions in unauthorized transactions. the investigation centers around jeff ruban whose firm helps pro athletes pay bills and manage money. bp and t allowed ruban to open accounts in players names and transfer money out using these phoney signatures. >> anybody can look at them and see they are forged. >> reporter: the nfl players insist they didn't know their money was being used for investments including this alabama entertainment complex which was raided for having illegal gambling machines. ray louis lost $3.8 million say the suit. for its part, bp and t declined to comment on the lieu suit. -- lawsuit. >> now the financial individualsor at the center of the allegations and been banned for life by securities regulators half high risk investments lost millions for other athletes. >>> a truck driver pleads not guilty to a misdemeanor crash that sent a woman's car plunging off the bay bridge. morgan lake is clinging to a rock after her car

kagan. also this weekend, four days a book to become including deborah solomon on the life and art of norman rockwell, thursday and 9:30, and on c-span3's american history tv, the 150th anniversary of the gettysburg address. at 4:00 and 10:00 p.m.. live coverage of a discussion on u.s. foreign policy challenges in the second term of the obama administration. until then, part of this morning's "washington journal," looking at afghanistan. we are joined by jason campbell. thank you for joining us. you told me you just returned a couple of weeks ago. tell us about your trip and what you saw and heard there. guest: i was working as a to then analyst coalition forces, a stint kabul. did a lot of focus on looking at how the afghan national security forces are being developed, what are the gaps we are trying to close in the time remaining, and to what degree are they working to get her and coordinating at the subnational level. you have good visibility on what is going on among the senior leadershi

justice kagan, you asked a great question. congress was not focused on this issue at all. if you look at the legislation they pass to implement this, the chemical industry and others put in front of them the possibility there was a fourth amendment inspections ofe chemical production facilities that were authorized under the convention. when congress had the constitutional problem in front of it, they had all sorts of provisions to deal with that concern. the future ms. bonds of the world did not have the same lobbying resources as the chemical industry. sort of clearme statement rule would make perfect sense, to make sure congress does not exercise the police power when all it thinks it is doing is implementing a treaty. your statement is about the treaty? >> i'm ,oday on c-span, newsmakers followed by a conversation with the daughter of lyndon johnson and lady bird johnson. then the future of the health care law. >> this week on "newsmakers," senator patrick leahy on a democrat of vermont, joins us to talk about the nsa surveillance program. josh is a white house reporte

know we tell them what the what the downsides are we tell them what the upsides are it's going to kagan in syria circus new york. at syracuse university on monday you had a guest austin pearson whose story about the libertarian view of property rights and using the courts to sue for example a corporation that poisoned your water or pollute your air yet there was a man in texas who sued a fracking corporation for poisoning his water because he could light a fire and he wants his suit and then to add insult to injury the corporation countersuit him for defamation and won so how can libertarians support a system that clearly favors corporations and also happy belated anniversary to you and louise thinks well thank you that's very sweet. how can libertarians i've never been able to understand how anybody who actually understands libertarian principles can be a libertarian. when there was a time when i was in my mid twenty's when i thought i was a libertarian i had basically read a few bumper stickers and flyers and it seemed kind of cool you know yeah let's not have government be all involv

up you know we tell him what the of the downsides are we tell him what the upsides are is going to kagan in syria circus new york. at syracuse university on monday you had a guest austin pearson whose story about the libertarian view of property rights and using the courts to sue for example a corporation that poison your water or pollute your air yet there was a man in texas who sued a fracking corporation for poisoning his water because he could light a fire and he watched his suit and then to add insult to injury the corporation countersuit him for defamation and won so how can libertarians support a system that clearly favors corporations and also happy belated anniversary to you and louise thinks well thank you that's very sweet. how can libertarians i've never been able to understand how anybody who actually understands libertarian principles can be a libertarian. i mean there was a time when i was in my mid twenty's when i thought i was a libertarian i had basically read a few bumper stickers and flyers and it seemed kind of cool you know yeah let's not have government be all invo

elena kagan and clarence thomas. also this weekend, four days of book tv on c-span2. including deborah solomon. american history tv, the 150th anniversary of the gettysburg address. sanesident obama spoke in francisco about immigration law. during his speech he was interrupted by protesters who urged his ministration to halt deportations. this is 30 minutes. [applause] >> hello, everybody. hello. hello, san francisco. it is great to be back in california. it is great to be with all of you. i love san francisco. [applause] food andgot great scenery,ple, beautiful no more super villains because that kid cleaned the streets . love that kid. thanking forrt by the great introduction. [applause] i want to thank your mayor ed lee. lieutenant governor gavin newsom. members ofecognize congress who are fighting every day for the people of california . [applause] judy chu, they are all doing great work every single day. [applause] we have a special guest, janet thelitano who is overseeing uc system and doing a great job. [applause] we miss her back in washington. she is going to

terrence thomas and elena kagan -- clarence thomas and elena kagan. also, deborah solomon on the life and art of norman rockwell. on c-span3's american history tv, the 150th anniversary of the gettysburg address. the 10 sentences president lincoln spoke. >> 175 years ago, a white southerner from charleston, south carolina, named angelina grimke, became the first american woman to address a legislative body. she spoke before the masses uses state legislator -- the massachusetts state legislature. coming up, this is just over two hours. [applause] >> welcome, everyone. moderatoryour evening . we are here tonight to explore how women become political. we will look at the past and the future,and consider the too. there will be some remarks and the panel of discussion you'd regretfully, senator elizabeth warren is not able to join us because she needs to be in washington. someone has to work. she is there to work in the senate. [applause] has made a short video for us that we will share place of the remarks she would have given. during the evening, we invi

today on c-span, hear from two supreme court justices, clarence thomas at 9 p.m., followed by elena kagan at 945 eastern. four days of book tv. including deborah solomon. tonight at 9:30. on c-span three, it is american history tv. a 150th anniversary of the gettysburg address. we will commemorate resident lincoln speaking at gettysburg. at 4:00 and 10:00. november 25 marks the 50th anniversary of president kennedy's state funeral. we will now bring you nbc's coverage, including the procession from the u.s. capitol to the white house. the mass at saint matthews cathedral, and the burial service at arlington national cemetery. we are on the steps of the capitol. there's is a huge crowd that has gathered. the watch is almost over. van is about to play hail to the chief. the casket will be brought down. the family is looking into the rotunda. a very quiet crowd. they are paying their last respects now. -- thed morning air cason will roll to arlington national cemetery. -- will notice in the crowd they are conscious that there is a television camera on them. you will see no waves. i saw one.

followed by a elena kagan at 945 eastern. also, for days of book tv on c- span two including deborah solomon on norman rockwell. thursday at nine 30 p.m.. the 150th anniversary of the gettysburg address, james mcpherson helps commemorate the 10 sentences president lincoln spoke at the dedication of the soldiers national cemetery at gettysburg. several reports over the past year outlined the scope and scale of chinese hacking against the u.s. government and private sector companies. longress conducted a year- investigation last year of chinese telecommunications firm. of that president chinese company recently sat down at the asia society to discuss cyber espionage and attacks with the former c.i.a. officer all chad swede and an author. the moderator is david sanger from new york city. his is one hour, 25 minutes. much and you very thank all of you for joining us here today. because itreat group comes at this issue from a very different angle. it will be my job to try to sew together what areas they will agree on and what they

followed by elena kagan. also this holiday weekend, four days of book tv on c-span2, including deborah solomon on the life and art of norman rockwell tonight at 9:30. and on c-span3's american history tv, the 150 anniversary of the gettysburg address. -- at 4:00rson helps and 10:00 p.m.. congressional leaders dedicate a bust of winston churchill last month. after a was placed cause passed by the u.s. house shortly before the 70 and the anniversary of his wartime address to a joint meeting at congress. this is one hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, please , theme our honored guests democratic leader of the house of representatives, the republican leader of the united fate senate, the majority leader of the niceties and become a united states senator if they, and the speaker of the united states house of representatives. [applause] please stand as the chaplain of the u.s. house of representatives give the invocation. >> let us pray -- god of all nations, we ask your blessing all on this gathering of people separate

. >> will you join me in thanking justice kagan? [applause] >> thank you very much. [applause] >> president obama and his family are celebrating a quiet thanksgiving at the white house. spent time at the executive mansion. the menu included turkey, prebaked ham, corn stuffing, oyster stuffing, greens as well as green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, macromedia and she's, and dinner rolls. for dessert, the family had a choice of nine highs, including huckleberry pie, pecan pie, chocolate cream pie, sweet potato prime, coconut cream pie, and banana cream pie. the guest list was made public. -- wasn't made public. span, a look at sugar policy in the u.s. with the doctor who hosted a youtube video that went viral. then supreme court justice clarence thomas talks about his life before and after his appointment. he is followed by justice elena kagan on the workings of the nation's highest court. later, the dedication ceremony for the winston churchill bust in the nations capital. on the next "washington congressional reporter ginger gibson discusses efforts

followed by elena kagan at 9:45 p.m. also, for days of book tv on c- 2, thursday at 9:30. the 150th anniversary of the gettysburg address. the presidentas spoke at the dedication of the cemetery in gettysburg. at four clock and 10:00 p.m. obama spoke in san francisco about changing immigration laws. was confronted by protesters. this is 30 minutes. . ["hail to the chief" plays] [cheers] hello, everybody. hello, san francisco. it is great to be with all of you. i love san francisco. you've got great food. you've got great people. what beautiful scenery. no more super villains. batkid cleaned up the streets. [cheers and applause] i love batkid. i want to start by thanking her for the wonderful introduction and the great work she has been doing. give her a round of applause. your mayor, lieutenant governor gavin, newsom. i want to recognize some wonderful members of congress who are fighting every day for the people of california, mike honda -- judy chu, they are doing that work every single day. napolitano, now overseeing the entire uc system and will be doing a great job. w

chief justice, and may it please the court: petitioner's answer to justice kagan's opening question is entirely formalistic. there is no separation in time between the public hearing and the invocation. people appear before this town board to ask for personal and specific things. our clients put shows on the cable channel. they were concerned the cable channel was about to be abolished or made much less usable. people appear to ask for a group home, parents of a down syndrome child. there are many personal petitions presented at this -- in the immediate wake of the prayer. >> but that's during the public that's during the public forum part. >> that's in the public forum. >> which is not really -- it's not the same thing as the hearing. >> it's not the same thing as the hearing and that's the point, your honor. >> there's another -- there's another part of the proceeding that is the hearing. >> yes. >> and that's when somebody has a specific proposal. they want to -- something specifically before the board and they want relief. they want a variance. >> the -- the hearing is a particular

. >> reporter: a concern expressed by justice kagan, what troubles me about this case is that here a citizen is going to a local community board and is immediately being asked, being forced to identify whether she believes in the things that most of the people in the room believe in. but justice scalia said, there is a serious religious interest on the other side of this thing, that people who have religious beliefs ought to be able to invote the deity when they are acting as citizens. it seems to me that when they do that, so long as all groups are allowed to be in. marco rubio pushed back against the allegations that the prayers are unconstitutional. they're held before the business ever starts. >> the argument here today is that somehow that's unconstitutional. it makes no sense. the very people who wrote the constitution themselves invoked prayer before they began meetings. >> reporter: and a potential solution would be to have a town official approve the prayers in advance. a number of them, justice kennedy saying that government should never be in the business of censoring or e

. >> thanksgiving, air from -- hear from clarence thomas followed by linda kagan -- elena kagan.also this weekend, four days a book tv on c-span2, including evora sulman on the life and art of norman rockwell, -- including deborah solomon on the life and art of norman rockwell. >> president obama coming up in about 15 minutes in california talking about jobs and economy. until then it, a conversation from this morning's "washington journal" on poverty in the u.s.. host: welcome back. one in six americans are in poverty. what does that mean and who is the hardest hit? guest: the average listener is thinking significant material deprivations. the average newscaster will flash to a homeless family, but the reality is roughly 46 million americans who are labeled by the government as poor, only one percent of them are homeless at any given point in time. close to 50% of all poor families actually own their own homes, typically a three-bedroom house with 1.5 bath. the typical poor family, according to census numbers, lives in a perfectly large house or apartment that is in good repair.

solicitor general kagan wrote you when you were acting assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel. in that particular e-mail she asked whether you had seen former judge michael mcdonald's, quote, piece in the wall street journal. she was referring to a march 15th of bed in the wall street journal in which judge mcconnell discussed the constitutionality of a proposal by house democrats to avoid any additional votes on obamacare legislation. the idea was to circumvent the vote on the exact language of the bill as passed by the senate. in response to that the alien replied, quote, yes, getting this going. presumably that was in caps. what did you mean by that, he is getting this going? >> i want to just be hesitant in answering you for the only reason that i am not sure if that e-mail has been publicly disclosed and i would hate to say anything that might waive a privilege i am not in position to be able to wave. one possibility is -- >> it is public. >> i could give you an answer in my written in a written follow-up if i could see the e-mail i appreciate that. >> on the same

>> i liked the way the session began with elena kagan. i thought her questioning was excellent. >> [inaudible] is there a middle ground? >> for years and years and years the town of greece had a moment of silence then suddenly in 1999, the new supervisor changed all of that for the worst. >> [inaudible] >> i don't know. we filed a police report. we never find out. >> you don't know if it was related to this case. >> i believe it was. this all happened when the case was being discussed in the local media in rochester. i have no doubt it was related. >> thank you. >> my name is aisha, i am the legal director for americans united. americans united has been so proud since 2000 and eight to have sponsored this case and have represented these extraordinarily brave and courageous women. we got involved in this case for a simple reason, we believe that what the town of greece was doing was wrong. are dissipating in local government -- participating in local government is a irreversible right. it should not be conditioned on recitation of the lord

elaina kagan to the united states of the supreme court. confirm with republican support. and again, the record is very clear. there have been only 42 of more than 1,500 overall appointees that failed to get confirmed by the senate. this is a red herring and i do believe what senator mcconnell said today is absolutely correct. this is an attempt to change the subject from the disastrous roll youft obama care. what has plunged democratic approval ratings to new lows. it won't help grid lock. it will make grid lock that much worse and i think it is a dark day for the senate. >> first off, mel watt is a haley qualified ten-year member of the house committee. >> i would agree. >> they're blocking him for political reasons. one of the thing that i think pushed this over the edge is that mitch mcconnell has publicly said if and when the republicans take control of the senate, they will repeal the filibuster. senator mcconnell has said that. and i think democrats take him at his word. >> i like how it comes back to bite you in the proverbial tail. they'll pay the price on both si

i heard a couple of your reports, particularly what justice elena kagan had to say?'s one thing for somebody to sit in a town board meeting and the supreme court 30 years ago said there noz constitutional problem with legislative bodies opening with prayer. suppose the supreme court opened with a minister being called up by the chief justice and minister talked about the sacrifice of jesus on the cross and asked everyone to pray, would that cross the line? that was -- that sort of typical of how far can you go here. the problem is that the town has history on its side. the supreme court upheld legislative prayer noting that the very first congress started it the at the same time with the bill of rights. it didn't bother the founders. they say it's different from you're sitting in a town board meeting and you're there to ask the town for something, zoning change or some policy change and if the town leads a prayer that you find offensive or don't agree with, you feel compelled to participate so you don't offend the people you're asking for something from. but the prob

remember, republican senators more than 75% of them voted against both sonia sotomayor and elena kagan court and now they're using a preconnectal argument to block caitlin and pattie millett that was nowhere to be found when we approved shree a few months ago. i have a little bit of a concern there is also a double standard with respect to women candidates on this second highest court in the land. >> hi, senator. this is evan mcmorris-santoro from buzzfeed. i saw that in your statement about women nominees. are you really saying that republicans do not want women on the bench? >> you know, again, i've only been here ten months, but i'm just really struck in ten months we had three d.c. circuit appointments, in other courts that are thought to be lower courts, we have in a bipartisan way approved women candidates. but at the supreme court, sotomayor and kagan, more than 75% of republicans voted against both of them, and on this court, just in ten months we had a woman candidate up, caitlin haligan, the work load is not sufficient, we're going to have to block her. shree, male candidate,

i had to run with future justice kagan. she was a good team. she doesn't i skate rink outside.roductory dinner in one of these typical hubs at harvard law school. everything looks like it's mahogany. it's ridiculous looking. she sat down at the table. and she said, is this a beautiful room? as it looks like the haunted mansion before it was haunted. she gave me a look like i killed a kitten and then we sort of moved on. every couple of minor run-ins with dean, seem to be justice taken when she's tried to fight against the solomon amendment. she tried to throw out off campus basically. so i made that public and we got a era. good deed, that justice. >> host: michael posts on our facebook page. please ask mr. shapiro about shirley sherrod's lawsuit against his so-called new site, breitbart.com. >> guest: i don't want to comment for legal reasons. i know the lawsuit i believe believe is still ongoing. i am not personally involved. i was involved with the company at the time. i'm happy to talk about shirley sherrod in my own opinion because i need entry at the time. and the legal s

here is a hypothetical question that began today's oral argument from justice alana kagan. she said suppose at the beginning of the supreme court session the chief justice stood up in front of everybody, talked about how jesus died on the cross, made the sign of the cross. she said would that be allowable? the lawyer for the town said, well maybe not. she said, what if it's in the beginning of a congressional hearing? that's the problem for the court. they don't seem to be willing to do one thing that was potentially an issue here. there was no indication at all. the supreme court says you can't have prayer at the beginning of a government meeting. the only question here is, is there any way to set guidance or limits on the kind of prayers allowed. >> pete williams from the supreme court for us. thank you. >>> up next, our agenda panel weighs in on senator rand paul's plagiarism scandal and also toronto's mayor coming clean about smoking crack. >> your status with the dolphins? your status with the dolphins? >> miami dolphins player richie incognito accused of sending racis