he argues half of the supreme court docket every year, and tom goldstein gets the rest. this case, two years ago, just like tom listed the cases that affect us, this is your garden variety federalism, adultery and chemical when the -- weapons. this woman learned that her best friend was pregnant by her husband, and instead of divorcing him, or arguing, she does what i am sure some of you might want to do, which is get some chemicals, not the dearly novel chemicals, but she has access due to her work in a lab, nothing too exotic, but she uses them and sprinkles them on the best friend's mailbox, the door handle to her car and other places she is likely to come in contact with. she gets hurt, chemical burns and what not, and this woman is charged with -- does she charged with assault or something like this? now. she is charged with violating the federal statute that implements the international treaty on chemical weapons proliferation. so, the first question that comes to mind, the first issue the supreme court has to deal with, is can she even defend herself by attacking h

to discuss the term, we have tom goldstein and david savage.thor of this year's looking ahead essay in the review is a partner at williams and connely focusing on supreme court and appellate litigation arguing 11 cases before the supreme court, more than any other lawyer in the firm's history other than the legendary founder, andrew bennet williams, in a number of areas like antitrust and criminal law. born and raised in lawrence, kansas, go jay hawks? >> yeah, absolutely. >> he received the ab from harvard, many-lit from oxford, and jd from harvard, executive editor of the harvard law review and clerked for scalia and court of appeals for the fourth circuit and joined williams in 2008 after serving as an assistant to the solicitor general. most importantly, he's my girlfriend's boss. [laughter] tom goldstein, a partner at goldstein and russell, supreme court bo teak, known as goldstein how and russell. he removed his wife from the letter head. [laughter] he argued 25 cases before the supreme court spanning a broad array of issues. he teaches s

. >> tom goldstein who has argued before the court thinks roberts wants a more conservative court.gradually. he's not trying to move the law radically quickly. justice roberts and justice scalia want to get to the end of the law. >> the conservative court watcher doesn't believe much will change any time soon. >> certainly this is not a crusading conservative court, new mexico we have a shift, i think in the membership of the court, it's impossible to call it a court that means more to the left or to the right. >> for the opinions that could be close, 5-4 decisions will also -- who's the swing vote in some of the toughest cases. >>> do you think you could feed yourself for a week on just $29? phoenix mayor greg stanton wanted to know what that was like. he live ed on $29s a week. >> there's too often stereotyping that goes on about people living on food stamps. they don't want to be on food stamps. these are people that need to be supported during these times and when the economy comes roaring back and it's in the process of doing so, i'm an optimist, i think they're going to be a

. >> reporter: tom goldstein who has argued before the court thinks roberts wants a more conservative court but h that he'll do it gradually. >> he's not trying to move the law radically quickly. i think justice scalia and thomas want to get to the end as quickly as possible and make the law conform to what they really understand, whereas the chief justice is more incrementalist. >> reporter: but conservative court watcher doesn't believe that will change any time soon. >> certainly this is not a crusading conservative court until we have a shift in the membership of the court it's impossible to call it a court that leans more to the left or the right. >> reporter: for opinions that would be close, opinions will be paid attention to by justice anthony kennedy who's the swing vote. >>> protests and bloodshed dominate international news. austerity measures continue to bring aim and outrage. we'll take you to madrid and the latest in protests over spap's latest plan for budget cuts there. >>> in syria, the death toll and devastation continues to mount as fighting rages block by block in

. >> reporter: tom goldstein who has argued before the court thinks roberts wants a more conservative court, but that he will do it gradually. >> he is not trying to move the law radically quickly. i think justice scalia or justice thomas really want to get to the end answer as quickly as possible and make the law conform to what they really understand, whereas the chief justice is more incrementalist. >> reporter: the conservative court watcher carrie severino doesn't think anything will change any time soon. >> certainly this is not a crusading conservative court. until we have a shift in the court it's impossible to call it a court that liens more to the left or to the right. >> reporter: for opinions that could be close, 5-4 decisions, attention will also be paid to justice anthony kennedy, who is frequently the swing vote in some of the toughest cases. joe johns, cnn, washington. >> joe, thank you. >>> a mystery in tennessee. two children are missing after their house was destroyed in a fire. now authorities are asking for the public's help in finding them. when we got married. i

[laughter] tom goldstein is a partner at goldstein on russell. until recently was known as goldstein howell and russell serino after leaving tom's first power play was to remove his wife from the letterhead. [laughter] 25 cases be worth supreme court spanning a broad way of issues. he teaches supreme court litigation at stanford and harvard last close in 2003 of course not as good a spot from which makes my job so much easier than in 2010 they can build black ever to receive the aba's silver gavel award for fostering the understanding of law. among his accolades come in the national law journal named him one of the 40 most lunch with the decade of the all-time sanctum of the 90 greatest washington lawyers and gq did them all one better by naming him one of the 50 most influential people in washington. so we are an company. the law journal named him one of the leading players under 40. the american lawyer into one of the top 45. you see where this is going in 50 years we can expect international law to name him one of the top 100 lawyers under 100

. >> reporter: tom goldstein who has argued before the court thinks roberts wants a more conservative court but that he'll do it gradually. >> he's not trying to move the law radically quickly. i think justice scalia or justice thomas want to get to the end as quickly as possible and make the law confirm to what they want to understand whereas the chief justice is more incremental list. >> reporter: conservative court watcher doesn't believe it will change any time soon. >> certainly, this is not a crusading conservative court. until we have shift in the members of the court, it's impossible to call it a court that leans more to the left tor the right. >> reporter: for the opinions that could be close 5-4 decisions, attention will also be paid to justice anthony kennedy, who's frequently the swing vote in some of the toughest cases. deb and victor. >> joe johns, thanks. much more ahead this hour. >>> here's what's coming up. >> i can see in his face there was a lot more to her story than even what she was willing to let o on. >> women hold up half the sky, that's the message of a new

the masquerade question picking up on something tom goldstein said about the court been reluctant totake next steps. so here we have potentially big step cases, an invitation for the court to deal a serious blow if not eliminate affirmative action and school admissions to strike down or uphold a federal statute to seriously change the workings of the land irks civil rights law, the voting rights act come is the court would take the steps or will that do it incrementally? >> i think it is just very difficult to predict because justice kennedy will have two things pointing in different directions, the notion this is about groups and the definition of marriage is absolutely traditional institution. i think that the sense five years ago is cases like this has no chance at all to prevail in the supreme court. there is just been a change in conventional wisdom that are now corresponds with a can of abode in the the supreme court. in terms of the voting rights act and affirmative action, these are areas where justice kennedy does believe strongly in what he believes strongly that that does

and scotusblogs tom goldstein. we expect the event to get underway momentarily. . . [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon. welcome back from lunch. wellcome also to all of you who are just now joining us and also to our c-span audience. this is the second panel on this, the 11th of the cato institute's constitution day conference. our second panel takes up the court treatment of the right, the founding generation took to be fundamental the right to property. indeed in his famous essay entitled property in the 1792 national gazette, james madison, the principal author of the constitution, wrote that, and i quote, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights, thus echoing john locke's famous reduction of rights to property, broadly understood as he put it as lives, liberty and estate. today of course property rights treated as chief justice rehnquist famously put it like poor relations of a bill of rights. and in three main ways. first, when property is taken through the power of eminent domain it often

[laughter] tom goldstein is at goldstein and russell, that until recently was known as goldstein allawi and russell, so we know the first power play was to remove his wife from the letterhead. [laughter] argued 25 cases before the court spanning a broader array of issues besides practicing law he teaches supreme court litigation at stanford and harvard law school's. in 2003 he of course founded scotusblog which makes my job easier and in 2010 became the only blog ever to receive the aba silver double word for the understanding of the ball. among his accolades the natural thing to one of the 40 most influential lawyers, the times named him one of the 90 greatest washington lawyers of the last 30 years and gq did them one better by naming him one of the 50 most influential people in washington, so we are really in good company here. there's more. the national journal twice the income of the leading lawyers under 40 american lawyer called him one of the top 45. you see where this is going. in 50 years we can expect the international law gazette to name them one of the top 100 lawyers under

. >> reporter: tom goldstein who has argued before the court thinks he'll do it gradually. >> he's noting to move the law radically quickly. i think justice scalia or justice thomas really want to get to the end answer as quickly as possible and make the law conform to what they really understand. whereas the chief justice is more incrementalist. >> reporter: but conservative court watcher doesn't believe anything will change any time soon. >> certainly this is not a crusading conservative court. until we have a shift i think in the membership of the court, it's impossible to call it a court that leans more to the left or to the right. >> and, wolf, for those opinions that could be close five-to-four decisions close attention will also be paid to justice kennedy who is frequently the swing vote in some of the toughest cases. >> going to be some very important cases coming up. joe, thanks very, very much. let's dig a bit deeper right now with our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. his new book entitled "the oath" debuts this week at number five on the "new york times" best seller list

tom goldstein made the scotus blog which is the indispensable one about the court. more than a million people turned to the blog for word of the decision which they got fast and accurately. tom spends his free time as a lawyer specializing in the supreme court. he argued 25 cases before justices which is a remarkable number for a lawyer who can accurately be described as young. >> thank you so much to the federal society. there is no organization in the united states which is better serving of a forum for the principal legal issues of the day or rate lawyers for unbelievable journalist. i have been asked to comment on the voting rights. such an incredibly good job describing -- very little to add and i will talk about the business cases. two points i want to make about the same sex and voting rights cases is why it is justices would get involved because these cases are not on the docket. it famously takes only one of 100 cases, but scotus is -- there's a rule that says if we are going to strike down a federal statute that is our job so they're likely to step in. the