our next witness is from yale university, teaches constitutional law, clerked for stephen breyer, now it just us, but he clerked for him in 1984 when he was a judge. he's won awards from the american bar association and has been cited in over 30 cases before the united states supreme court. welcome, professor. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's an honor to be here. i think it was mentioned that there is a hearing on the electoral college in 1997 and i remember testifying at that hearing and expressing some skepticism about the electoral

should justice kennedy or either of the court's oldest liberals, ruth bader ginsburg or stephen breyer, retire, trump could change the court for a generation by creating a 6-3 conservative majority for the first time since the 1930s. to be sure, it's not clear sailing for trump's agenda. a dozen returning republican senators, roughly one in four, rejected or never endorsed trump's presidential bid, and they may push back on some of his nominees and proposals. still, it's a striking measure of what has changed that a republican who won the two biggest landslides in his party's history could change far to office by so narrow aedsed margin has the potential to change so much more. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> stewart: the 114th session of congress wrapped up early this morning with the government averting a shutdown when the senate sent a stop-gap spending bill to president obama. the bill passed after senate democrats ended their showdown with republicans over expiring healthcare benefits for coal miners just before midnight. democrats had wanted those benefits to last t

question becomes, what happens if justice ginsburg, 83 years old, justice kennedy, 80 years old, stephen breyerf one of the three of them leave and then president trump replaces them? then everything's up for grabs on abortion, including overturning roe v. wade altogether. >> here looking in the next few years, maybe not immediately, there is a possibility -- when some people are concerned that roe v. wade could be overturned you're saying they really have a reason to be? right? >> oh, absolutely. but not today. >> not today. >> and not once president trump replaces antonin scalia, presumably sometimes in the first half of 2017. that will basically just restore the status quo of five justices in favor of abortion rights. four justices opposed. the real issue and the real political armageddon, if it happens, is if one of those five justices leaves during donald trump's presidency, and then you really do have roe v. wade on the table in a very clear way. >> all right. jeffrey toobin, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. appreciate it. >>> and always good to see you. happy friday. >>>

stephen breyer, 78 years old. are supporters of abortion rights and they may not serve for the full four years of donald trump's tenure. if he has the chance to replace them, then abortion rights -- the calculus will very likely change in the united states. >> we did see the successful blocking of president obama's pick, garland, is there a possibility here that democrats could use the same type of measures despite the fact that they're not in power to try to block some of these possible appointments? >> it's much, much harder without a majority. it's easy with a majority. one of the things that comes with controlling the majority of the senate is control of the agenda. so when mitch mcconnell said i will not bring merit garland up for a vote, that was the end of the story. now the problem for the democrats is they don't have a majority. now they have 48 seats, which is a lot of seats. certainly they can use a lot of delaying tactics. the filibuster still exists for supreme court appointments, but ultimately it wi

supreme court justice stephen breyer look at how some of the high courts decisions are stretching you understood america's borders in the court and the world. in 1944, historian jay reviews the decisions fdr had to make regarding d-day and end of world war ii. journalist jenny reports on lives of afghan women and girls in the underground girls of kabul. another staff pick from the hard harvard bookstore is bidet monowho weighs in on race and equality in the american health care system. in we should all be feminist, [inaudible] argues that everyone should be fighting for gender equality. brandeis university john burt six debates between abe hail lincoln and steen douglas during their 1858 u.s. senate seat race, in lincoln's tragic pragmatism and barrel reveals difficult did i she faced as year pilot first woman to fly solo against atlantic water in west with the night. that's some of the staff picks in cambridge, massachusetts. many of these authors have parred on booktv. watch them on our website booktv dog.

our next witness is from yale university, teaches constitutional law, clerked for stephen breyer, now a justice, but he clerked for him in 1984 when he was a judge. he's won awards from american bar association and has been cited in over 30 cases before the united states supreme court. welcome professor amar. >> thank you, mr. chair, it's an honor to be here. i think it was mentioned that there was a hearing on the electoral college in 1997, and i remember testifying at that hearing. and expressing some skepticism about the electoral college. and i remember representative scott, especially some skepticism about my skepticism. so here we are again. and we've had two presidential elections in the meantime and representative scott, i warned you. no. in fact, i don't believe that the current electoral college has a partisan skew. indeed, one of the things to be said on behalf of reform is that it's not a partisan measure. in 2001, i posted something on the internet that was sort of a fantasy, a dream about how we could have direct election as a practical matter without constitutional amen

our next witness is from yale university, teaches constitutional law, clerked for stephen breyer, now it just us, but he clerked for him in 1984 when he was a judge. he's won awards from the american bar association and has been cited in over 30 cases before the united states supreme court. welcome, professor. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's an honor to be here. i think it was mentioned that there is a hearing on the electoral college in 1997 and i remember testifying at that hearing and expressing some skepticism about the electoral college and i remember representative scott about my skepticism. here we are again. had to presidential elections in the meantime i'm representative scott, i warned you. in fact i don't believe the current electoral college as a partisan skew and indeed one of the things to be said on behalf of reform if it's not a partisan measure. in 2001, i posted something on the internet that asserted a fantasy, a dream about how we could have direct election as a practical matter without a constitutional constitutional amendment which is very difficult and that was

our next witness is from yale university, teaches constitutional law, clerked for stephen breyer, now a justice, but he clerked for him in 1984 when he was a judge. he's won awards from american bar association and has been cited in over 30 cases before the united states supreme court. welcome professor amar. >> thank you, mr. chair, it's an honor to be here. i think it was mentioned that there was a hearing on the electoral college in 1997, and i remember testifying at that hearing. and expressing some skepticism about the electoral college. and i remember representative scott, especially some skepticism about my skepticism. so here we are again. and we've had two presidential elections in the meantime and represent iative scott, i warne you. no. in fact, i don't believe that the current electoral college has a partisan skew. indeed, one of the things to be said on behalf of reform is that it's not a partisan measure. in 2001, i posted something on the internet that was sort of a fantasy, a dream about how we could have direct election as a practical matter without constitutional ame

our next witness is from yale university, teaches constitutional law, clerked for stephen breyer, now a justice, but he clerked for him in 1984 when he was a judge. he's won awards from american bar association and has been cited in over 30 cases before the united states supreme court. welcome professor amar. >> thank you, mr. chair, it's an honor to be here. i think it was mentioned that there was a hearing on the electoral college in 1997, and i remember testifying at that hearing. and expressing some skepticism about the electoral college. and i remember representative scott, especially some skepticism about my skepticism. so here we are again. and we've had two presidential elections in the meantime and representative scott, i warned you. no. in fact, i don't believe that the current electoral college has a partisan skew. indeed, one of the things to be said on behalf of reform is that it's not a partisan measure. in 2001, i posted something on the internet that was sort of a fantasy, a dream about how we could have direct election as a practical matter without constitutional amen