this photograph shows justice william brennan and richard arnold and grinin's chambers in 1960. the occasion as the beginning of richard arnold's clerkship. he has also just become a member of the arkansas bar candy is the supreme court justice, william brennan, to swear him in. it was an interesting time to be in washington and at the supreme court's allitt relatively early era in what we know of is the warren court. some of you may remember these billboards that could be seen throughout the united states. in part is the reaction to brown versus board of education but also as the reaction to some of the other decisions of the warren court, and you can see the message there. szabo republic, richard arnold could see some of these billboards on his way to work for justice brennan in 1960. this was part of his background and his experience before he was appointed to the federal bench on two occasions by jimmy carter. so, when he was at harvard law school in 1957, he found a violent up for at central high school in little rock both distressing and personally embarrassing. leni reach

to take to judges that i like, brennan and thurgood marshall, both of them were just hanging on hoping they could out live reagan. [laughter] and then, maybe bush will be defeated after one term, as he was but they quit when bush's popularity was very high and looked like a shoe-in and aegis believe they could accurately out of a second term. but, there is no good in people hanging on past their prime and most of the justices do that. the other thing i went through all the 20th-century judges with the standard, what did they add to the american jurisprudence in the course of their career? and with the exception of bill brannon, every single justice that i looked at had within 18 years accomplished everything jurisprudentially that they were going to offer to american law, so i don't see any need for an added term. this is about a quixotic question as one could have and not surprisingly, if you took a vote among the supreme court justices about life tenure he would finally get unanimity on a fairly divided court. >> wait for the bloom for one second. it will drop on your head. >> if the

in that respect, he's very different from justice brennan, who was well known for, i don't want to say sacrificing his principles, but using his ability to strategically engage with his other colleagues to bring other people into opinions, if he really needed to leave something out, to bring other people in, he would absolutely do that. i think that kennedy has written far too many individual solo concurrences and solo dissents, where you've seen nobody else join him, that he really -- really is much more in that second category where if he believes strongly about something, you are not going to get him to diverge away from that, which has been one of his -- one of the reasons why he has been able to be such a strong actor at the center of the court, because if he's been assigned to write that majority opinion, he's been assigned it probably to keep his boat, which means that to a large extent, as long as he doesn't go way out, he's able to put into that opinion what he wants to. but he has certainly written an awful lot of opinions, where nobody else has been willing to join him. so i

this is barclays bank, they bought the brennan seven lehman brothers services lehman brothers trading for 7,457th avenue mine back at the scene, not the scene of the crime but the same trading floor i used to work and i noticed in the corner office i said who it is that man in the corner office? and as he said to me, that is bought diamond, and i said it the ceo of barclays' capital? and he said, yes. how things have changed. things have changed in the sense that you have lessons learned hopefully, you now have the ceo of barclays' capital right there on the trading floor with the best and brightest paying close attention to what is going on. not in the 31st floor completely away from the battlefield. >> unit, and at the beginning that this was the end of capitalism in america but had you mean that? >> not the end of a capitalism has been changed forever because first and foremost you have the fed window, the federal government has now been assisting banks have to the primary credit facility. in other words, you have investment banks that are having access and getting help from the go

justice powell, just hear blackburn's papers, thurgood marshall's papers, william brennan papers are mostly public at the library of congress. so these justices' documents provided a lot of material for me to see what would happen in the drafting process and that's where i was able to detect when justice scalia might have lost a majority, and from the outside you often don't know that. but in fact it's good to bring this up because i just heard from a lawyer who argued one of the cases that had been 5-4 in the opposite direction until justice scalia lost the majority, and bill brennan switched votes and it went the other way, and that was a lawyer that had been on the case and didn't know it happened. >> host: didn't know he almost lost? >> guest: you wouldn't know unless you went to look it up. and i think in the late -- in the early 1990s, when justice thurgood marshalls papers became available, and it was very big deal to journalists and observers, people started looking at them but only as a matter of routine people spend a lot of time in those papers. >> host: so they keep at it

so there was frustration and he also didn't like -- at that time in the court history bill brennan was still there controlling a lot so the liberals even though they were more republican appointees on the court the liberals had an upper hand that did not sit well with him either. >> host: okay. while we will talk in a moment or two about some of the opinions. >> guest: great, thank you. >> "after words" and several other c-span programs are available for download at podcast. more job with joan biskupic and tittles an analyst. >> "after words" with judd alan biskupic and ted olson continues. >> host: joan, at the end of the conference for some reason -- i mean, they don't, right? the votes are tallied up. they've each casting vote, right? >> guest: that's right. >> host: someone writes an opinion, whoever -- tell us how the opinions -- >> guest: we are talking about private conference the justices have after they've heard oral arguments and everybody results a case and the taking a vote. and the majority side is then going to prepare the opinion for the court. and the most senior justic

at that time in the course is you, bill brennan was still there and controlling a lot. the liberals, even though there were more republican appointees, the liberals had a bit of an hand that did not sit well with him either. >> host: we will talk in a moment or two about some of the opinions. >> guest: great. thank you. mika brzezinski what are you reading? >> "the glass castle" and jeannette used to work at ms nbc. do you know her? she grew up in west virginia under the most unbelievable conditions and she writes about it. and hashish use her live through a glass castle of this existence with a very mentally ill mother and a very poor existence. and it's a book that i'm sure with my daughters. and then she has another book out just now. i can't remember the title of it but i'm going to move on to that one. i have to get her first win under my belt. >> you also are writing a book. tellis. >> is out on january 5. i'm a little nervous. is called "all things at once." and it is about the search for the ability to admit to myself that i love to work. and it is important to