. >> host: john roberts has been chief justice seven years and william rehnquist was chief 17 years? we are early in what we anticipate to be a tenure of 25 years' use the it youngest chief justice ever name since the great john marshall at age 50. did you ever have be thought this was too soon to judge or offer it take? >> guest: i did and i point* out in the book and i tried to make it clear i do consider this a young court and now that i did wonder about that. how the book came about is i was covering the alani taken confirmation hearing in the summer when i received to extraordinary e-mail's. one was from an editor at simon & schuster who was very interested the other a very faithful pbs van who asked me to marry them. [laughter] >> host: and marcia is already taken. >> guest: i did not show it to my husband it was a beautifully written proposal and mike has been proposed to me in a parking lot in downtown baltimore. [laughter] but there was no nothing with that proposal but she convinced me that it was a good time to look at the supreme court because even though it was young and

skeptical of corporations and it wasn't until the 1800s that corporations took off and even then william rehnquist said don't give corporations political power. they're not natural persons. >> so i want to talk about another breaking -- bit of breaking news today that looks like at first blush an abuse of power. and i find deeply troubling. the a.p. has reported that the department of justice notified them on friday that the doj had secretly obtained phone records from more than 20 separate phone lines assigned to "a.p." journalists. this was pursuant to a story the "a.p." ran in may of last year about a foiled plot on the part of al qaeda in yemen to blow up a more high-tech version of the underwear bomb that unsuccessfully sent. after that reporting, there was a leak investigation that was initiated by the attorney general. this is really, david, you're someone who -- i think you're president of the investigative reporters organization. this is really -- >> investigative reporters and editors. >> this is really deeply troubling. >> this is what police states do. you know, congress, we created th

you clerked for chief justice william rehnquist.citor general down in texas meaning the top appellate arguer. and then you worked for the department of justice under president bush. you were the deputy attorney general. you know a thing or two about being attorney general and about the law. how unusual is it in your experience for the doj to be going after reporters, their records and so on? is this something that would likely stand out in eric holder's mind? >> it's unprecedented. and the degree of willingness of this administration to target, to target a reporter for this network as an unindicted coconspirator? i mean, that is without precedent. and, unfortunately, i think it's part and parcel of a pattern from this administration of not respecting the bill of rights. north respecting the first amendment. not respecting the second amendment. not respecting our fourth and fifth amendment rights regarding drone strikes. regarding the irs. over and over again the pattern we have seen is unfortunate willingness to use the machinery of