justice sonya sotomayor has impeccable legal credentials and a record of excellence and integrity. equally important, she has the experience not only to make an excellent justice but also to have a significant impact on a court that today reflects too narrow a lice of america. -- a slice of america. judge sotomayor's deep preervetion how the law affects -- appreciation of how the law affects the lives of ordinary americans is borne from her compelling personal background. as well as her times as assistant district attorney, a commercial litigator, and later as a judge. once confirmed, she will become the first hispanic justice and just the third woman to serve on the nation's highest court. what do we make, then, of the assaults on the character and record of the seemingly exemplary nominee? unfortunately, this seem to be a remedy of more than two decades of culture wars over supreme court nominees. as someone who was present at the beginning of these wars, i've seen them develop into elaborate political dances where both sides trade charges that are predictable and often baseless.

company, i was cheered by the president's nomination of sony and -- of sauna so the more you sonya sotomayor. i am so glad that i am no longer grown to be the lone woman on the court. i look forward to a new colleague that is well equipped to handle the challenges that our work reserves. -- our work presents. we note a few of the most watched cases and then we describe second circuit decisions on our agenda. last year, i thought we might hear as many as 100 cases this term. that proved incorrect. we heard 78 cases and that was up from 69 in the preceding term. in the next term, we will stay in the high seventies range. of the 78 argue cases, 17 of them were 5-4 decisions. it was considerably higher than last year's 16% and there will be more by-fours in the next few weeks. -- by-fours --5-4's in the coming weeks. even so, our agreement " out ran our disagreement. and the press tends to focus on splits with the chief justice. justice stevens was on the other. it is not always so. true, there were nine of the 17 that did shake up in the usual way, but in five of the cases, justice stevens, ken

let me turn to one domestic issue concerning sonya sotomayor and her nomination. these writers say that the poll found that most americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and the government could do a better job of holding down health care costs than the private sector has. your reaction? guest: i have not seen the internal on the pool yet. but it is remarkable how precisely the poll comports with the editorial position of "the new york times." we have all the with polling and you have to be careful with the freezing. i have dealt with health care since 1993 with the clinton health-care plan. that is not what i have seen in the pulling of the years and recently, but it depends how you phrase the question. -- with the polling over the years. there are polls recently that americans eat less of a crisis now than in 1993. it is now and the low 50s as opposed to the 60s. if anything there is less energy for radical change now banned in 1993, but we have to look at the internal on those polls. this is also a moment where the

. -- sonya sotomayor. caller: people were looking at a circle, should the vice president be able to fill the rest of the circle for the presidency? i believe so. joe biden has gotten very-- joen has very good qualities and assets he brings to the administration, but as others have said he needs to speak before me thinks because he is not the president. he is there to help the president be successful and not be a joke for comedians. host: from the associated press an update on the situation in iran. president ahmadinejad says his reelection was real and free and cannot be questioned. he made these comments during a press conference, his first since the government announced that he was reelected to a second term in a landslide victory during the vote on friday. his top opponent accused the government of voter fraud and many of his supporters have clashed with police and theran's streets. about 1 mile away from the press conference, young iranians set trash bins, banks, and other things on fire as police beat

and with sonya sotomayor, people are very excited. of course, the hispanic community. what were your thoughts? >> i think she sounds like a very interesting and good nominee. as a woman, i'm proud that there might be another woman on the courts. so we'll see what happens. but i wish her well. host: first thought? guest: i agree with her i think we need more women on the courts. we need the balance. women are different than men in terms of how they look at things. i think that's a great perspective that we need to have. i think it's great that we have a hispanic nominated as well. i think that adds to the credibility of our court. you know, one of the things i've been worried about recently in our country, and the thing that really holds us together -- we can say all of these things. the thing that holds us together is that people have a confidence that would truly do have a fair and equitable justice system, and that you can trust having an appropriate hearing before the courts. in other words, the rule of law means something. and one of the things that concerns me is