now we will hear first from makan, carolyn and bill. we will have a conversation about what that means for the state of our judiciary? >> we thank you for inviting me to be here on this -- i think one of the more important topics that we can discuss in a democracy. as were a lot of us that have been watching what's been unfolding in the middle east and egypt and jordan. it remind me i was 10 years old when i left iran and it eerily reminded me of something that was going on back then. not really appreciating it back then. in my experience having lived in the government to work in all three branches of the government. i think that what we have in america as far as the judicial branch, an independent judicial branch, is, in my view, probably the most significant element of a true functioning democracy, people can take their grievances to the courts and be comfortable that they will most likely, regardless of what the outcome is and people will be happy and unhappy half of the time with the outcome of whatever the grievance is but we respe

i do want to -- i have to end on makan's other point. what a great thing if only, only president obama dropped the six nominees who have had any controversy whatsoever we could go nice and easily. wh that means is that we should only the democratic administration should only nominate judges who will get unanimous consent so that if any republican opposes or two or three republicans opposes then we should pull back from the democratic administration should pull back the administration and, excuse me, pull back their nominations. i'll be interested to see if that's the tactic that's taken by the next republican president. it certainly wasn't the tactic taken by the last. and i'm not sure why it didn't occur now. the real problem as i see it is president obama hasn't put up enough thnominees. when i use the term controversial, i don't mean outside the mainstream. criticism from jim demint is not outse the mainstream. that has to be remembered. even if we want to put aside this constant debate about who is outside the mainstream and who isn'

makan delrahim is a shareholder at barbara schreck. he was appointed deputy assistant attorney general for the department justice antitrust division by president george w. bush in july, 2003 and from 2000 to 2003 he was the staff director and chief counsel in the senate judicial committee working as the principal legal and policy advisor for then chairman orrin hatch. carolyn lamm is a partner at white and case in the district of columbia. carolyn was president of the aba from 2009 to 2010 as well as the past president of the dc bar. she was named one of the 50 most influential women in america by the national law journal and one of washington's top 30 lawyers by washingtonion magazine. bill mahr -- marshall is professor of the school of law. bill was deputy white house counsel and deputy assistant to the president during the clinton administration and served as solicitor general of the state of ohio. bill has published extensively on the first amendment, federal courts and presidential powers and is a leading expert on judicial select

now we will hear first from makan, carolyn and bill. we will have a conversation about what that means for the state of our judiciary? >> we thank you for inviting me to be here on this -- i think one of the more important topics that we can discuss in a democracy. as were a lot of us that have been watching what's been unfolding in the middle east and egypt and jordan. it remind me i was 10 years old when i left iran and it eerily reminded me of something that was going on back then. not really appreciating it back then. in my experience having lived in the government to work in all three branches of the government. i think that what we have in america as far as the judicial branch, an independent judicial branch, is, in my view, probably the most significant element of a true functioning democracy, people can take their grievances to the courts and be comfortable that they will most likely, regardless of what the outcome is and people will be happy and unhappy half of the time with the outcome of whatever the grievance is but we respe