Transcripts For CSPAN Justices Breyer And Ginsberg At The Or

Shakespere theater company. This is just over an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Shakespeare Theatre company bard Associations Annual dinner and mock trial. Before we begin murder in mycenae, take this time to silence all electronic devices. Photography of tonights trial is strictly prohibited. Now please join me in welcoming chair of the Board Association Bard Association. [applause] thank you so much for joining us. I said earlier all of the things we do watching plays, feeding on the board being on the board, the mock trials and Bard Association is the most joyous. Tonights dinner and mock trial is resented by the Bard Association, an Affinity Group among many that support this theater. Tonights argument is based on the text of the oresteia, which was adapted from the originals. With a chronicles of the delusion of violence deluge of violence that can only be stopped when society peers into its own soul and sees a way out. Our performance, which was our beloved artistic directors last here at the end of 33 years of being our artistic irector. [applause] a closed not long ago to critical acclaim both those who write about it and those in the audience. If you didnt see it, et me set tonight stage. Agamemnon killed his youngest daughter as a sacrifice for military success in the war against troy. After 10 years of war, greece enraged, he returns home and is murdered by his wife clytemnestra. Following this tradition, their son, orestes, with the encouragement of his sister electra, then murders clytemnestra, a crime for which he is ultimately pardoned. In other words, with all going on in his family, it was kind of like the great early version of an episode of keeping up with the kardashians. [laughter] upon orestes return, he is plagued by nightmares. He hears voices in his head. He files a lawsuit seeking compensatory damages against his sister, lleging it was her actions that were the proximate cause of his mental state and the damage to his reputation. Orestes case was tried before a jury, who found in favor that electra and taken advantage had taken advantage of his mental state and her act was the proximate cause of his emotional distress. Electra appeals, arguing the jurys verdict is contrary to the weight of the evidence and contrary to the law, and that the award was excessive. The Circuit Court of appeals of athens affirms the verdict and electra appeals for the following question. Did electra intentionally or recklessly use orestes as the instrumentality to murder their mother, thereby causing psychological or reputational damage to orestes . At the conclusion of tonights argument, you will vote on the following question did electra intentionally or recklessly use orestes as the instrumentality to murder their mother . At the end of the arguments, if you believe that Trial Court Decision was correct and should be upheld, vote with a blue token. If you believe it should be overturned, vote with a red token. Please first welcome United States Supreme Court marshall. [applause] and counsel for the petitioner electra. [applause] [applause] counsel for the respondent orestes from the constitutional accountability center. [applause] and in just a moment, we will welcome the members of the counsel for the respondent orestes from the constitutional accountability center. [applause] and in just a moment, we will welcome the members of the esteemed bench. They will be called to the bench by the marshall, and presiding in the Supreme Court of athens for the scenario will be United States Supreme Court justices ginsburg and breyer, from the United States court of appeals for the Third Circuit , and from the United States District Courts from the district of columbia. Thank you for being with us tonight. Enjoy the trial. Please, marshall, take the gavel. All rise. Ict of columbia. Thank you for being with us tonight. Enjoy the trial. Please, marshall, take the gavel. [applause] all rise. [applause] oh yay, oh yay, oh yay. The Supreme Court of athens is now in session. Please be seated. The Supreme Court of athens will now hear arguments in the case of orestes versus electra. And we will first hear from the council brickman, who is representing electra in seeking to overturn the judgment of the courts below. You may proceed. Madam chief justice, and may it please the support, id like to reserve five minutes of time for rebuttal. King orestes is not pleased that he is unpopular in the public polling. He brought this suit against his sister electra to diver diver attention from his failure to make athens great again. [laughter] the court should say no to this attack. Orestes tells this court a story thats different from the one that he told the other court that acquitted him of murder. There, he claimed it was apollo through the oracle at fox and friends that induced him to murder his mother. [laughter] as for the kings claim of a proximate cause, electra did not recklessly, let alone intentionally cause injury to her brother. When she spoke with orestes at the tomb of agamemnon, she was caught off guard. She thought orestes was dead. Orestes repeatedly spoke of himself as a stable genius and how he knew more of everything than did electra. Its plain as day that orestes already had resolved to murder his mother when he snuck back into the city. Otherwise, orestes wouldve arranged a homecoming as heir apparent and demanded the Buckingham Palace banquet approach that he prefers. [laughter] oraclecourse, the hannity explained orestes should return to arrest his mother to free up his ability to take the throne and become king. And that knife proves nothing. Orestes demanded electra hand her the knife. He had other knives. Orestes has invoked executive privilege to refuse to provide an answer to our subpoena for the sword. [laughter] and he refused his tax returns to be released so we can deduct purchase of weaponry. [laughter] finally, there is no evidence to support king orestess claim to damage. Damage to reputation . Seriously. [laughter] the word shorted is etched in stone at the house. Infanticide, matricide, cannibalism, incest, and treachery of every sort has long been attached to orestes family name. And damages to mental state . Orestes continues to rule. He presented the people with his personal physicians letter that hes the healthiest person to ever be king. As a pall of apollo, the god of healing. In fact, king orestes claim of damage is a subterfuge. Electra is a woman, and therefore denied to property. So a damage award for electra may mean debt imprisonment or worse. May i ask . This is all well and good what you said, but we all know your client had an unusual talent. She put things into peoples heads. She gave clytemnestra bad dreams. Now, isnt it likely that with that talent, she did the very same thing to her brother orestes . She put ideas into his head that would not have been there if she hadnt put them there. Beth well, electra did not plan to put any ideas into orestes head. She had been 10 years a servant. She had been serving in a position without any decisionmaking, without any ability to be out in the world like orestes. And indeed, your honor, if electra had had the intent and the obsession to kill their mother, she had all that time to use a much more feminine guile of poisoning against clytemnestra, and yet she never took that upon herself. But she repeatedly said, i will have my revenge. It will be to my brother, my brother. [laughter] beth she commiserated. She commiserated with her brother. [laughter] beth this was only after orestes came back and was explaining to her what apollo and the oracle had told him to do. I think your version of this conversation does not match the transcript released by wikileaks. [laughter] beth well, your honor, my client was not able to record or release any recording of that transcription. We all know the credibility of orestes is at core questionable because of his inconsistent story. He saved his own life by blaming apollo, and now he comes to this court and blames his sister electra. I wonder if there is another culprit involved that might be consistent with your theory of innocence. Is it possible that orestes, during his travels, had a stay at a resort in the Dominican Republic . [laughter] beth certainly, orestes was a man of the world and had traveled far and wide, and came back to mycenae under the dark of night and viewed his sister as a noncitizen. Indeed, he would label her an alien. He suggested he could build a wall to exclude all women from the city. Its implausible. Well, could i ask you another question . In your brief, you suggest apollo is to blame because hes the god of medicine and he somehow failed to treat oreste health condition. What im wondering is doesnt that depend on orestes coverage . [laughter] i thought that his Mental Health state was a preexisting condition. And shirley ely [laughter] [applause] surely he is still not on his Parents Health coverage. Beth well, now with his parents both dead, i assume that Health Coverage has expired. [laughter] beth as a ruler of the kingdom, he certainly has access to health care that he has attempted to deny to citizens, let alone the aliens within his jurisdiction. Foreign language] you are in the court of appeals of athens and you dont speak greek . [applause] [laughter] beth i come here as a mere noncitizen myself, your honor. I have been denied the ability for a true education, your honor, so i feel lucky enough to be here. Certainly one can hope of the day women are afforded the same rights of education as the men. [applause] ruth how can you possibly answer what electra has said . Shes condemned herself from her own mouth. She said he held the knife, its true, but only because i handed it to him. So she is waiting and waiting for her brother to return. She has a knife especially made for him. He wielded a knife, but she gave it to him. Beth but she gave it to him not out of voluntariness. This was her brother, who had been gone for 10 years, who she had yearned for to commiserate the loss of their sister at the rivers and of their father agamemnon. Then the death of their father at the hand of clytemnestra. She looked to him as a soulmate, someone to commiserate with. But again, your honor, it was only after he came to her at the tomb of agamemnon and surprised her and brought forth to her the story from the oracle and apollo that he was destined. I read on orestes twitter account that he has been cocked and loaded and ready to commit the murder. [laughter] asked his general how many people might die, and he called it off. [laughter] [applause] beth your honor, i think that goes again back to this court question, though, that he already planned to carry this out after speaking with apollo. The question is was he lying then or is he lying now . I dont understand this i am very confused about the facts. [laughter] i mean when you talk about incest, infanticide and murder, youre not just referring to. Erving children of the gods he didnt decide he was going to murder somebody else atreus kills his own brother, then we have the two children of atreus, agamemnon and menelaus. And agamemnon kills his daughter, and then after he kills his daughter, a woman comes and kills clytemnestra, who murders agamemnon. No yes, murders agamemnon, exactly. Then orestes kills everybody and if youre in pursuit, this is a seriously dysfunctional family. [applause] we will respond to that and then reserve time for rebuttal. Beth yes, your honor, that proves the point that there are no damages here. What reputation could possibly be harmed through that . He doesnt need a judge, he needs a therapist. [laughter] by the way, my wife is a therapist. Beth we do know that orestes was the only one in the room where it happened. [applause] electra was not there. And regardless of the knife, it was orestes who murdered clytemnestra and cannot now be called to blame electra for that. Thank you, your honor. [applause] counsel, please proceed. Good evening, madam chief justice. My friend on the other side is impressive, no doubt, but she said nothing that would shed down on the wise advice of the oracle at delphi, to file this suit against electra for intentionally exploiting orestes Mental Illness to cause him to murder their mother. Not only are the two Lower Court Judgments on his side, as well as the law, but you seem like a really nice court, so i feel like its important to say that the favor of the god apollo and goddess athena are also on my clients side. I understand madam chief justice has a vigorous workout routine, but the goddess athena can be very vengeful. [laughter] your honor, my client orestes has suffered greatly. [laughter] his father, agamemnon, was murdered by his mother. And after hearing his fathers dying screams, orestes was haunted by a deteriorated mental state. He was confused and vulnerable. He thought he heard voices. Seizing upon his feeble state, electra coerced him into killing their mother, confessing herself , as the chief justice said, that while orestes did the deed, it was only because electra handed the murder weapon to him. This was not very cool and definitely not very legal. [laughter] electras action was the cause of a tormented mental state and damaged to his reputation and this court should affirm the findings of the courts below. Electras actions caused extreme damage to orestes soul, his psyche, his social standing. The chain of causality is clear. But for electras intentional manipulation of his Mental Illness, he would not have killed his mother. But for killing his mother, he would not have suffered an understandable postmurder meltdown. Him from a prince capable of conversation and introspection, riding down the golden escalator into mycenae, instead turning him into a madman king, calling out for his dead daddy, incapable of recognizing his sister, terrified of birds, and taking to fits of crying on the floor. He had potential to be a great ruler, but now is subject to gossip and undermining and witch hunts. [laughter] as Emperor Trumpus would say, sad. [applause] without this courts judgment and the substantial damages awarded, electra will succeed in escaping the consequences of her actions. But we should not allow that to happen. Counsel, you omitted one very important fact. When orestes returned, before he ever sees electra, he announces that he is going to kill his mother because apollo commanded him to do that. So, he has this plan from the very beginning. Hes set on doing it before he even sees his sister. And then she is a good big sister. She supports him, encourages him. [laughter] that the idea is all his. I dont know how many times in the record of the prior trials he said apollo made me do it, it was apollo, apollo. Never once did he try to cast blame on his sister. Well, madam chief justice, i think we should take orestes seriously, but not literally. [laughter] when he said apollo made him do it, he did, your honor, think at that moment that apollo was telling him to do it, but because electra put those thoughts into his mind, so it is a consistent argument that at the time, he may have thought that apollo wanted him to do it. But he kept coming back to the oracle. I dont know why you say electra was the probable cause when the oracle clearly had the most influence. It was the oracle that told them to kill his mother, to sue his sister. Honestly, the oracle has had many as distinct advisor roles as mick mulvaney. [applause] so, with that much influence, how can you say that it was electras fault . Well, your honor, i think we have an acting oracle right now. [laughter] [applause] i dont know if theyve been able to confirm the oracle. [laughter] look, i will grant you that fate did declare clytemnestra must die for her action. Im kind of worried following up on Justice Powell athena, she of the bronze biceps were messing with some pretty vengeful gods here. These furies, have they started visiting you after orestes . What is the chance they will follow up on us after your client . You know, i hate to see it, but these furies are very good at trolling. So make your dms private. Thats my recommendation. [laughter] the whole story here is a bit questionable. You claim orestes was grieving his father at the tomb when electra intervened. But some of the servantwomen with electra said why did we let bryce harper go to the phillies . [laughter] well, i dont want to step on justice beavis toes over there. But i think this is a perfect example of why we need an excessive damage award against electra. But when it comes to damages, its very difficult to understand why youre maintaining this suit, because electra is afraid. Shes judgmentproof. So if this is just an attempt to humiliate her, knowing you will knowing he will not be able to collect any damages from her. Your honor, i respectfully disagree. First, she can afford this cozy burlington down jacket. [laughter] secondly, she has married a prince, and actually its one of the few greek provinces where women are permitted to own properties. I thought she had an agreement with mexico to pay. I think theyre paying in theory. [laughter] no, she does have resources. She married this wealthy crown prince. Shes able to own property in that state. Her claims of poverty here should not fly with this court. Is this in the record . I believe that the oracle told me about this. The oracle, wikipedia. I dont understand why your claim is based on the argument that orestes suffered reputational injury. Over the past few years, his aides have repeated over and over again that he is the best and able king mycenae has ever had, with the biggest crowds and most devoted followers. I hear that any will fireworks celebrations will be turned into an orestes fest and everyone is fine with it. [laughter] cant deny that if orestes shot you cant deny that if orestes shot someone on 5th avenue, the attorney general wouldnt prosecute him. He has a great reputation. Orestes does hear voices in his head, so i cant take all of his claims exactly literally. Look, this is ancient greece. Well, if this is ancient greece, im still confused. Orestes falls in l