supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg vocalized her descent to the ruling from the bench and in 2009 president obama signed the lilly ledbetter fair pay in restoration act. his first official bill signed as president. this is just over an hour. >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you folks. i have to tell you right off, i've got a little hearing problem with my ears. i flew about, over 12,000 miles in march and got it ruptured blood vessel in what my ears so i don't hear very well. but everybody says i'm talking okay. i still have a southern drawl. i didn't get rid of it. "the new york times" stated early on in my battle that i the southern drawl, but she has a good story. and i knew, and the reason that i remain having a good story, i'm not anyone special. this belongs to everyone in this room. it touches every family across this nation. there's not any of you exempt. if it's not you yourself, if someone in your family, your sister, maybe your mother or whatever, but it's ruining this country that women are so mistreated in their pay and their benefits. and it's like what the p

it is less certain heading into 2012 the election because ruth bader ginsburg is the oldest member of the quarter. she's 78. she's in good health, full of energy. has often said that her idol, louis brandeis served until he was 82 and it sounded like a good member. just tiscali have come a 70 sixers vote, justice kennedy, 75 years old. once you get in the upper 70s, it's not always your choice when you leave the court. so i would say it is less clear to the next justice would leave. also, politics plays a big part. ruth ginsburg is going to be a lot more likely to consider leaving if barack obama is president dennis mitt romney's president by the same token, justice scalia and justice kennedy would be much more likely to leave under a romney presidency than under an obama presidency. >> is there such thing as the roberts court? >> absolutely, absolutely. the story of the supreme court is the story of american politics in a nutshell because to me the biggest development of the last 20 years has been the evolution of the republican party. moderate republicans dominated the united states

they cosigned a letter saying that ruth bader ginsburg should rekuz herself from any decision relating to abortion because she had something with the now organization for women. so this is a long time alliance that ryan has had and actually, mitt romney himself you know, they're going to vote tomorrow on the human life amendment being part of the republican platform and mitt romney has in the past said he supports that. so what's really confusing is that romney and ryan are now disclaiming any association with the akin remarks, when really it's not so much an inconsistency, but an inconvenien inconvenience. >> thank you for joining us. i want to bring in karen finney. with us from washington. karen, given the chorus of disapproval from republicans out to mitch mcconnell, calling on him to reconsider his run, even sean hannity suggesting an impact on down ballot races, does his candidacy survive much further? >> he actually sent out a tweet that he is staying in the race and that the good people who voted for him deserve to stay in. >> he's inviting people to continue donations to him.

. >> ruth bader ginsburg participates in the discussion comparing the court systems and constitutions in north america with those in the middle east. this is about an hour 20 minutes. >> good evening and welcome to our panel. to love you, welcome on this auspicious day what we have an august panel of supreme court justices, members of parliament, and professors of law. will give each of our panelists and opportunity to say a few words and make a few observations and we encourage them to interact with one another in a conversational style, posing questions back and forth. then we'll take questions and answers back and forth with the audience as well. many of the programs have been dealing with the rule of law, is best when the rule of law is in direct contravention of the rule of power, as we have been hearing in the news. it is appropriate that we take a look and constitutional law as it is in the north american continent and in israel and sewer these folks today have to say about what lessons could be learned and how we can apply what we have to help the other countries in the emergi

of course, first of all, we're very honored to have associate justice of the supreme court, ruth bader ginsburg with us today, and next friday will mark the 19th year since you have been appointed to the court. so congratulations on achieving that milestone. [applause] >> to justice ginsburg's left, have the justice of the israeli supreme court. 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 course, first of all, we're very honored to have associate justice of the supreme court, ruth bader ginsburg with us today, and next friday will mark the 19th year since you have been appointed to the court. so congratulations on achieving that milestone. [applause] >> to justice ginsburg's left, have the justice of the israeli supreme court. 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

i mean, stephen breyer and ruth bader begins, but both nominated by -- ginsburg, both nominated by bill clinton, both in the mainstream of centrist, democratic thought were confirmed within weeks by huge margins. and so if a president chooses to play down the middle, i thought or my observation told me, confirmation was going to be a piece of cake. well, that stopped happening in the last two nominations. we had sonia sotomayor with a wonderful personal story and a person of high achievement, 17 years as a federal judge, i think more federal judicial experience i believe than just about anybody else ever nominated to the supreme court. and, you know, what happened in her confirmation hearing? of course, she was confirmed, you know, so at the end of the day it was a happy story for her, but all that garbage about one speech she had made and the wise latino remark kind of wren. ed out of contact out of what had been a speech that was very thoughtful and heart felt, not a sound bite. opposition research that turns up something like that and dominated her confirmation process, and just the