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Binding law as it is the what is signed by the president. its gone through the senate and the house, and that is the law. but it also is a practical or functional matter. i think having seen the legislative process, i know how compromises come together in the house and the senate, within the senate, within the house. there is negotiations late at night over precise words and compromises, e compromises, inevitably. when we depart from the words specified in the text of the institute, we are poten...

I would keep an open mind on that case under the precedent, first amendment law, and would think about that. the policy question i think is really for congress in the first place to determine, assess, study exactly what kind of disclosure requirements should be put in place. >> the potential hassard there is that the unleashed power of unlimited political dark money then becomes like a ratchet. the obstacle to solving that problem. and i hope you can understand that as a matter of political prin...

What it is that you have to intercept? -- interpret? is it what we say or subjectively intended? >> it is what is written in the text of the statute, senator. justice kagan said it well at a talk two years ago, maybe three, at harvard law school. i was present in the audience. she said we are all textualists now. she was talking about justice scalia who brought about significant change this the focus of all federal judges. i have seen it acrossed supposed philosophical spectrum. all federal judg...

Compromise, even if we think we would have struck the compromise in a different place. as judges, thats not really our role. as a formal and functional matter, i think its important to stick to the text. there are canons of interpretation which owe kag-- cause you to super impose a presumption on the text. otherwise, sticking to what you passed is important. >> you certainly consider yourself a textualist. if you follow justice kagans statement, we are all textualists now. thats what judging is?...

Constitutionaltecticonstitution- constitutionists, i think those are referring to the same things, the words the constitution matter. as i have said repeatedly, you look at historical -- the history. you look at the tradition. federalist 39 -- 37 tells us to look at the liquidation of the meaning by historical practice easter time and then you look at precedent, which is woven into article 3, as i said, in federalist 78. but, you know, start with the words as justice kagan said. we are all origi...

To be clear its not like you can just say. >> cant do it on a whim. >> you have to make a case. that could be made public. >> why dont we want this law? >> theres some real serious question about whether its constitutional. im not sure first of all other than an academic exercise. i dont think the votes are there to enact that legislation. >> this is a political process. thats what matters. >> im a bottom line person. its not likely to happen. also things have changed. both parties lived through...

American people have concern about the role of very, very big spenders and influencers doing things like being involved in the selection of a supreme court nominee and running dark money campaigns to support the confirmation of a nominee? is there any cause for concern there as a general proposition? >> there are a lot of premises in your question that im not sure about. >> im not asking to you to accept the policemenis as true. its a hypothetical. if there were very, very significant big specia...

Spenders and influencers doing things like being involved in the selection of a supreme court nominee and running dark money campaigns to support the confirmation of a nominee? is there any cause for concern as general proposition? >> there are a lot of prem sis im not sure about. >> im not asking you to accept the prem sis as true, pito thet cal, if there were very, very significant, big special interest funding behind the organization that was responsible for selecting you and recommending to ...

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