our second panelist is margaret brennan, and anchor and reporter for bloomberg television news in new york. she was a general assignment reporter for nbc and a contributor to nbc's today show and nightly news as well as an best nbc. she is also a graduate of mr. jefferson's university of virginia. alan murray is managing editor and executive editor on line for the wall street journal. he was previously managing editor of a wall street journal and author of the weekly business column. he has served as washington d.c. bureau chief for nbc and the wall street journal. we are very fortunate to have alan on our governing council at the madison of public affairs at the university. a member of distinction for many years. next we have robert sanders, contributing editor of newsweek and the washington post where he has written about business and economic issues since 19707. his articles also appear in the los angeles times, boston globe and other reading newspapers. his latest book is entitled the great inflation and its aftermath, past and future of american capitalists in case you are wonder

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

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

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

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

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

brennan," judge lynch admonished the successors of judge brennan that they must engage in constitutional interpretation -- quote -- "in light of their own wisdom and experience and in light of the conditions of the american society today." close quote. in that same article, judge lynch stated that he personally believed it was a simple necessity that the constitution -- quote -- "be given meaning for the present." skwrufrpblg lynch's -- judge lynch's quote included the opinion that justice brennan's -- quote -- "long and untiring labor in the principles of the constitution in the way that he believed made most sense today seems far more honest and honorable than the pretense that the meaning of those principles can be found in 18th or 19th century dictionaries." i had a problem with that speech in 1997 when he came up. such strong statement of adherence to the doctrine that justice brennan was the foremost advocate of of the living constitution that words don't have fixed meanings, that you can make them say what you want them to say to affect the result you think is appropriate today. b

i remember i it just brennan artie about parent night which i thought was probably the most boring thing in the world, and was talking to a teacher, mike sheppard hill said i really want to write things that are more interesting. he said why don't you? done under his encouragement i went off and wrote an article about laetrile and the school paper and thought that was kind of interesting. that started me down a path of writing about topics that apaled to me and ultimately i realizeds a writer you can look at anything in do anything. you can if you decide you are interested in politics, the reporting for politics is the same as the reporting for a scandal or repoing have a feature story and you just have to apply it. so i started eventually at the time i started jumping around from tic to topic of just things that caught my fancy. c-span: bob strauss, how does he really to the adm corp.? >> guest: bob strauss, starting in the late 1960's when he and dwayne andreas went to the same fund-raiser for a senator from texas, bob strauss and dwayne andreas had been best of friends. they would spe

and i want to thank john brennan, our cdc director tom freeden and secretary sebelius, napolitano, duncan and locke for all the good work they've been doing to get us to today. when i first saw the first cases of h1n1 in spring, i don't want anybody to be alarmed, but i want everyone to be prepar. response plans have been put in place across all levels of government. our plans and decisions are based on the best scientific information available and as the situation changes, we will continue to update the public. we're also making steady progress on developing a safe and effective h1n1 flu vaccine. and we expect a flu shot program will begin soon. this program will be completely voluntary. but it will be strongly recommended. for all that we do in the federal government however, every american has a role to play in responding to this virus. we need state and local governments on the front lines to make anti-viral medications and vaccines available and be ready to take whatever steps are necessary to support the health care system. we need hospitals and health care providers to continue pre

. >> frederic schwartz, professor schwartz's chief counsel at the brennan center for justice at the new york law school. his legal career, he has a high level of private practice with a series of critically important public service assignments. mr. schwarz served as chief counsel of the church commission, has been a time when i came to the sate and when i think what first appeared hee has also served as chief counsel to the senate select committee on intelligence. he chairshe board of either institute of justice. recently received the gold medal award for distinguished service to the new york state bar association. he received an a.b. magna cum laude from harvard university law degree from harvard law school where he was editor of the law review. mr. schwarz, it is always good to see you here. pleaseo ahead, sir. >> that was quite a few years ago when we first met. >> yes, sir. was. >> i actually had hair back and. it was a little bit darker. >> and i had solid black hair back then also. so thankou for convening this hearing. thank you for your proposal for the commission which i suppor

>> the ennis sea and through john brennan. >> there are a couple of reports about a bank loan to the brazilian government for offshore drilling and i am wondering if you can give an administration take why the investment in brazil and exploration there is a good idea and helpful for the u.s. economy. >> i have all seen this story. i would have to look at this. >> and eastern told abc today talking about health care, quote, i feel we are talking losing control of congress if health care fails. it would totally in power republicans to kill all changed its hard to imagine the democrats convincing the public that republicans are to blame for health care reform going down the democrats of such large majorities. is their anything the white house disagrees with in that and is that any way under the allies as the white house what talk and may be such negative terms in the next couple of months? >> i have not seen the comments. i doubt it and don't know if the president has. we don't look at -- we don't look at -- we are not making decisions about health care, the economy, cash for clunkers,

colt brennan, picked off. derrick martin with the interception and he'll return it to the 45-yard line of the ravens. it was webb who brought the blitz pressure, and colt brennan, off target as he threw under pressure. 0 >> gerry: on the heels of the derrick martin intercession, the ravens take over. we take off for the field and rob burnett. >> rob: derrick, i've watched a lot of football, that was one of the most gutsiest performances you had last year to put your shoulder injury and the things you did. how's it feeling right now? >> shoulder is fine right now. no problems. i had surgery on it and it's feeling good right now. no ill effects from last season. >> rob: another question is take us a little bit through your sudden retirement and return. what kind of sparked that? >> going through the injury throughout the whole season, then ending the season and not being able to get into my off- season regimen as fast as i wanted to. just kind of wore on me, the whole season wore on me last year. and i just felt

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

but especially chief renquist it feels like is shunted off to the left-wing with his friend of bill brennan and people are listening to him and he's not having the opportunity to reshape the law. he's just dealing with what he views as a reactionary right-wing that's constantly undercut a is that only a limited action in other kevin fifth time and again fell and he thinks that all he can do with that point is right is said and hope to become the basis for future majority opinions when the court changes its composition. >> host: in describing him use the word exceptional, exceptional family growing up in an exceptional place in baltimore hazmat. >> guest: when addressed in the history. what happened was i had written "eyes on the prize" about the american civil rights movement with it in the course of doing the research for the book had come across the idea that there is one historic figure in this book still live still an active person in the american society thurgood marshall who sits on the supreme court in the late 1980's it is and i thought he lives in the same city as live-in and nobod

in an analysis of her record done by the brennan center for justice the numbers overwhelmingly indicated judge sotomayor is in the mainstream of the second circuit. judge sotomayor has been in agreement with your colleagues more than 94% of constitutional decisions have been unanimous. she's voted with a majority over 90% of constitutional cases. when judge sotomayor was voted to will the government will action on constitutional her decisions have been unanimous over 90% of the time. republican appointees agreed with her decision to hold government action on constitutional nearly 90% of the time. when she voted to overrule lower court agency her decisions lower court or agency, her decisions have been unanimous over 93% of the time. republican appointees agree with judge sotomayor's decisions to overthrow the decision in a 94% of the cases. judge sotomayor's record is a testament to her strict adherence to precedent. per unyielding belief in the wall and the constitution. i strongly support the nomination of judge sotomayor and firmly believe she will prove to be one of the finest tariff

all the way to the right, say like judge thomas, ten being all the way to the left, say like justice brennan, i think the bush nominees to the supreme court and court of appeals were almost exclusively ones and twos, way over. if you looked at president clington's nominees, they were somewhat left of center but not much, mainly sixes and sevens. prosecutors, partners in law firms, not lawyers had had spent their careers in activist causes. president obama has taken a different approach. he's -- he's trying to return the the court to the middle, to the pre-bush day, the days of having judges that may not be exactly what the right wants in a judge or even when the left, the far left wants in a judge. we are returning to the days where judges were fives and sixes and sevens, fours. they were squarely in the mainstream. we are returning to the days when judges put the rule of law first. and somehow my republican colleagues are aghast. the only judges they seem to want to vote for are ones and twos, judges who are on the hard right. and the president is not going to nominate judges who have that

in an analysis of her record done by the brennan center for justice, the numbers overwhelmingly indicate that judge sotomayor is solidly in the mainstream of the second circuit. judge sotomayor has been in agreement with her colleagues more than 94% of the constitutional decisions have been unanimous. she has voted with the majority over 98% of constitutional cases. when judge sotomayor was voted to hold a challenged governmental action unconstitutional, her decisions have been unanimous over 90% of the time. republican appointees have agreed with her decision to hold a challenged governmental action unconstitutional nearly 90% of the cases. when she has voted to overrule lower court agency, her decisions -- or lower court or agency, her decisions have been unanimous over 93% of the time. republican appointees have agreed with judge sotomayor's decisions to overrule a lower court decision in over 94% of the cases. judge sotomayor's record is a testament to her strict adherence to precedent, her unyielding belief in the rule of law, and our constitution. i strongly support the nomination

brennan engaging in a serious inquiry into the witness for the supreme court many of my republican colleagues have made this nomination into a referendum on whether the newly minted individual right to bear arms to be incorporated against the states for the first time in the nation's history very this is doubly unfair. first judge sotomayor could not answer questions at her hearing that would suggest how she would ruin in later cases. that is inappropriate. second it is inappropriate to try to force on a giant a particular political view us of the price of admission to her judicial office. criticisms of effuse reliance in the various speeches are equally perplexing. judge sotomayor's long and noncontroversial 17 year judicial record and should have to allay any concerns about those remarks. but social the context of those features themselves. the wise latina, and we have heard so much about came in a speech that are you how important is for judges to guard against bias in to be aware of their own prejudices. is it not better to admit that we all have prejudices' we must management and to pret

the nonpartisan brennan center for justice reviewed all of judge sotomayor's constitutional law decisions and said, "based on this exhaustive review, the conclusion is unmistakable in constitutional law cases that judge sotomayor is solidly in the mainstream of the second circuit." judge sotomayor's former law clerks wrote a letter endorsing her nomination in which they said, "as former law clerks to judge sotomayor, each of us can attest to her intellectual prowess, extraordinary work ethic and commitment to the rule of law. working for judge sotomayor is an awe-inspiring experience. we each have the privilege of working closely with her as she confronted and resolved incredibly complex and intellectually demanding legal challenges. judge sotomayor approaches each case with an open mind and arrives at her decision only after carefully considering all of the pertinent facts and applicable rules of law. the law clerk said that they agree with mr. of judge many ofe sotomayor's other colleagues who he say they respect her collegiality and balanced and fair jurisprudence. mr. president, i wou

especially rehnquist i think he feels he's shunted to the left wing of the court with his friend bill brennan and that people aren't listening to him and he's not having the opportunity to shape the law at that point, that he's just dealing with what he views as a reactionary white wing constantly undercutting not only affirmative action, undercut with balky and continue to undercut time and again and he thinks all he can do at that point is right this and hope that the dissidents become the basis for future majority opinions when the court changes its composition. >> host: in fact in describing him you use the word exceptional, exceptional family growing up in exceptional place in baltimore. >> guest: what a fascinating history. for me, juneau, steve, what happened i had written on is on the prize, a book about the american civil rights movement, and in the course of doing the research for that book had come across the idea that wait a minute, there is one historic figure in this book still alive, still an active person in american society, thurgood marshall who sits on the supreme court. th

rehnquist, i think he feels that he is shunted off to the left wing of the court with his friend, bill brennan, and that people aren't listening to him and that he's not having the opportunity to really shape the law at that point. that he's just dealing with what he views is a reactionary right wing that is constantly undercutting not only affirmative action and they cut it time and again and all he can do at this point is write dissents and hope they become the basis of future majority opinions when the court changes its composition. >> host: in describing him, you use the word exceptional, an exceptional family growing up in an exceptional place in baltimore. >> guest: oh, without a doubt. what a fascinating history. i mean, for me, you know, steve, what happened was -- i had written "eyes on the prize: america's civil rights years, 1954-1965" and in the course of doing the research for that book, i had come across the idea, wait a minute, there's one historic figure in this book still alive, still an active person in american society, thurgood marshall, who sits on the supreme court. this

for those who serve in our marshal brennan program, that was invented by jamie. he is a great professor at american university school of law. abbe smith is another one of the co-authors the book, and she visited us earlier in this academic term because she is the author of a wonderful book called "the case of a lifetime," another one of the coauthors -- it is a small word i-is eva pat pataki at -- patterson. she was the president of the student boding at northern. she was the first african-american president of the student body and was a law professor at the university of california at berkeley. so what a team you put together for this book. we're very interested to hear about the chapters you wrote and your colleagues wrote, and also hear about your views on appointments to be made. i guess the latest i saw is there may be as many as 20 court of appeals vacancies already out there on the plate. so we're poised for a very interesting series of appointments very early on in the new administration. so, go to it, and very pleased that you're here. [applause] >> than

regular meetings here at the white house hosted the by senior white house officials including john brennan and others to continue planning for what the president and his administration talked about earlier this year, that what we saw building up and then that i did communities throughout the country and honestly affected countries throughout the world, hit in many ways at the back end of our own police susan. which in many ways probably likely give us a preview of its depth and severity of what we will face come the fall. we are taking steps working with state and local officials, working with communities, working with school districts to ensure that have the best information about what steps can any to be taken to get ready for what we know is coming. obviously many countries around the world we have seen a preview of the the tax, the taxing major this is going to provide in, the ability with which two this is going to test how the infrastructure. and i know the team is working through decision making in the development of antiviral our production for antiviral in the development for a va

review of the rulings by new york university's brennan center found that judges on the 2nd circuit court who are appointed by republicans agreed with her more than 90% of the time when overruling a lower court decision and when ruling a governmental action unconstitution also this is someone whose decisions cut across party lines which is something i think the supreme court could use more of. and third, whether you. >> agree or disagree with her on particular cases, she has a record of sound reasoning. in interviewing judicial candidates, i like to ask questions with no easy answers and listen to their responses. i want to know they're open minded enough to change the views if they hear compelling evidence and to see if they can provide a strong rational for their legal conclusions. even if i disagree with it. the fact is, you're never going to agree with a judicial candidate on every issue. i have appointed plenty of judges whose answers i don't agree with at all. and i should point out that includes times when judge sotomayor has ruled against new york city as she has done on a number

and kathleen, janet, john brennan, arne duncan and our entire team have tried to engage in the most rigorous planning exercise to make sure that anything that may occur in the fall we're prepared for. and so i won't go through the details of this. i'm sure that kathleen and janet and others have laid out what the potential consequences are of a new outbreak of h1n1. we want to make sure that we are not promoting panic but we are promoting vigilance and preparation. and the most important thing for us to do in this process is to make sure that state and local officials prepare now to implement a vaccination program in the fall but also that they are working on an overall public communications campaign with the white house and the possibilities that we may need to be dealing with schools that are seeing significant outbreaks of h1n1. and we've looked at past cases of this being properly handled in situations like this being improperly handled. and one of the most important differences is where it's well-handled state and local officials have complete ownership over this issue. they are providi

one could think of in terms of a chief justice marshall or you could think about it in terms of bill brennan cobbling together majorities of people for positions that aren't always intuitively obvious as a legal matter, but then some sense have this real underbelly of pragmatism and politics in the best sense in terms of making people of all sides and persuasions come together and celebrate the decision. there is some cost to that, of course, in terms of fidelity to the statutory text and precedent as well but particularly multi member court, may be real strong case to be made for it and then, on the other hand, you could say there is the view of the true intellectual, the frankfurter, or the then judge rehnquist writing these loan defense in the 1970's which ultimately it comes in many cases the law of the land. .. in the voting rights act case or in the trip search case. it's unclear to me which is the right way to be. but i do think that that is a really powerful question that is set up by the voting lineups and the opinions written in these case. but i think the very interesting thing ab

i think the last cross party appointment was president eisenhower's william brennan, lewis powell was obligated because he was a southern democrat, still in the early 1970s. but presidents pick members of their own parties certainly for the supreme court. certainly by and large for what the constitution calls inferior federal judiciary. so how do you answer the letter, how do any of you answer the letter writer saying, look, what you believe this want to do is substitute an alternate form of politics for a transparent? >> that is so wrong because under a merit selection system, which i helped design for my home state of arizona, we set up a bipartisan commission of citizens to consider applications of people who want to be a judge. they let anybody apply. now those applications and those records are open to the public. everybody can find out who has applied and they can weigh in. the hearings when the interview these people are open to the public. and they ask that the person who wants to be considered filed forms and answered questions. that is also open to the public. and the commis

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

i think there are no thurgood marshall and william brennan on the present court. secondly is a the justices background i was intrigued by chief justice roberts answer to that question put from the audience a few minutes ago about the phenomena that all nine of the present justices came to the supreme court from the federal courts of appeal, that is unprecedented. i think the chief justice was nuanced and suggesting that that actually masks the fact that the professional background of the nine were fairly disparate before they came to the appellate bench. but as he pointed out, if you go further back again to 1969, there were people on the warren court's who were a major national political figures with extensive experience in politics before they ever came to the supreme court. one thing several worn as governor of california, vice-presidential candidate, hugo black who had been one of that leading new deal senators, felix frankfurter as chief adviser to franklin roosevelt, arthur goldberg secretary of labor, secretary general of the ifl-cio.

marra brennan this would run counter to the president's own pledge to the american dramas about allowing them to keep the coverage of their choice. proponents of this government plan seem to count on the efficiency of the federal government in delivering care for american families since it is already doing such a great job with the banking and automobile industries. if you believe that, medicare is a perfect example. it is on a path to fiscal meltdown with part eight already facing bankruptcy within the next decade, and it pays doctors by 20% and hospitals by 30 percent compared to the private sector forcing increasing number of providers to simply stop seeing our nation's seniors. according to the june 2008 medpac report, an attendant of fisheries have to get additional benefits beyond their medicare coverage. nine out of 10. we have a broken doctor payments system and medicare that has to be fixed every year so seniors can continue to get care from doctors. this year alone this broken for mccall's for the more than 20 percent cut. i can keep going on but the point here is simple. washi