our second speaker will be michael carvin. he also has extensive appellate experience. he served in the department of justice and handled a number of cases there and now in private practice again, heading up the supreme court advocacy there. he was one of the lead lawyers in the famous case of bush against gore. he has been involved in a number of other major cases. our third speaker is professor richard epstein. he is a distinguished professor both at the university of chicago law school and also at new york university. he started his career in california at the university of southern california where he started teaching and is also a fellow of mine at stanford university. he is an extensive writer on legal subjects, having published many books and many more articles of the various sorts and specializes in his teaching in a variety of legal setbacks, including constitutional law and legal history and law policy. we are pleased to have the speakers with us. please join me in welcoming the first speaker, the solicitor general of the united states. [applause] >> thank you

he's joined by michael carvin who argued on behalf of the national federation of business in the healthare case before the supreme court. the hourlong forum was held at the heritage foundation in the washington d.c. [applause] >> thank you, rachel, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. i have joined in welcoming all of you here to the heritage foundation and to this annual event looking at the most recent supreme court term. we've had, as you know, over the last several weeks a number of rather momentous decisions by the court, and so we have the scholars in this panel and the scribes in the next panel to analyze them and put them in perspective and to give their opinions and their analysis of what the supreme court has done. we have as the scholars here three excellent attorneys, people who have themselves participated in either actual appearances in advocacy before the supreme court or extensive writing about it. our first speaker who has requested to lead off the pack is the honorable donald b. verrilli jr., the solicitor general of the united states, and we appreciate very much, mr.