Day. I. Want to hold this hearing i believe we should not being written forward on this nomination a lot of people on our side just ram it through not until the election is ended i would like the world and the country to know more about your spirit this is a vacancy this occurred there a tragic loss to the great woman and were going to build that they could see with another great the stakes are extraordinarily high for the American People theres nothing unconstitutional about this process. Also coming up corona virus infections are rising across europe but nowhere is the surge as great as in spain and that people say they know who is to blame to not get in more do not want to experience that again the government has to do its homework and must keep its promises and more personnel. Lets you our viewers watching on p. B. S. In the United States and to all of you around the world welcome we begin the day watching americas politicians trying to hold court today Senate Hearings of the contentious kind got under way for amy coney bearers the woman President Trump has now. Emanating from the Supreme Court if confirmed barrett would tip the scales of the court in favor of the conservatives and to those who would like to see the court overturned major decisions of the past such as the right to an abortion barrett is the holy grail to those who since decades of social progress such as same sex marriage being eroded well they say barrett is a holy nightmare but bear it goes beyond the usual parameters of partisan politics President Trump says he wants are on the court by election day next month the implication here is obvious and its troubling if trump loses the election but refuses to accept the results and if the Supreme Court is asked to decide would barrett come down in favor of president drop which day the battle lines were drawn 1st thing take a listen the bottom line is Justice Ginsberg when asked about this several years ago said that a president serves 4 years not 3 theres nothing unconstitutional about this process this is a vacancy this occurred there a tragic loss of a great woman and were going to fill that vacancy with another great moment when Justice Scalia died in february of 216 Senate Republicans refused to consider a replacement for his seat until after the election at the time senator mcconnell said the American People should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice bill if approved amy kone berridge would be President Trumps 3rd Supreme Courts appointment in 3 years his presidency has already seen the appointments of neil gore sick and brett kavanaugh. I think at 48 to judge Amy Connie Barrett could shape the Supreme Court for many decades to come 3 years ago trump appointed the staunch conservative to the federal court of appeals in chicago she has indicated support for gun rights trumps immigration policies and restrictions on abortion and l. G. B. T. Rights group called her quote an absolute threat feminists fear she may move to restrict abortion rights in 2013 as a professor at the university of notre dame she was quoted as saying life begins at conception Senate Democrats grilled her on her religious views during the 27000 Appeals Court confirmation hearings senator california senator Dianne Feinstein who was even accused of anticatholic bigotry i think your case professor when you read your speeches. The conclusion one draws is that the dog lives loudly within you barrett has said repeatedly that her faith would not interfere with her judicial decisions if barrett is confirmed to be for election day on november 3rd one of the 1st cases in front of her will be about the fate of the Affordable Care act known as obamacare trump wants to invalidate the law which provides health care to millions of americans. Today judge perry deliberate her 1st statements in the u. S. Senate and she outlined the role of the courts in her legal opinion but courts are not designed to solve every problem are right every wrong and are public like the policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people. The public should not expect courts to do so and courts should not try and my 1st guest tonight predicted the predicament of todays u. S. Supreme court years ago in his 2010 book the decline and fall of the American RepublicBruce Ackerman writes that the u. S. Presidency in the 21st century will be one of demagoguery and with that will test checks and balances in government and that includes Supreme Court nominations resume and is a law professor at yale and is one of americas authorities in constitutional law he joins me tonight from new haven connecticut mr ackerman its good to have you on the day is President Trump is he the demagogue president and with his nomination of judge amy barrett is he doing what a demagogue president does yes. Ok thats thats the thats the long answer that thats the long answer their. Answer is yes and hell should how should Congress Since were talking about checks and balances how should Congress Deal with that. Well you see i mean i think that the important thing to recognize is that congress isnt some kind of unitary think. The real question right now is the republican senators who are looking in their crystal ball some of them are going to run for reelection in 3 weeks and in about. 5 or 6 of them are in very close races. What happens do they really want to vote for this nomination before they know whether what happens in november if they vote for judge byrd. They will alienate. Many conservative will educated professional women who will either not voted all or vote for the competitor and so if they make it clear that they dont want to vote then the majority leader of the senate wont be able to do it and they could yet they still havent go yes. Yes moreover theres a whole group of senators who will be in 2022 in 2024 and they wont know they they dont know whether trump is going to win or not and they will therefore. Be very cautious because if they vote for trump and he loses this will be understood as any. And then judge bear gets if that omission gets that gets on the Supreme Court this will be understood as a humiliating moment in the history of the constitution of the United States so. My question my point is not to tell you that you or the senate what they should do but to inform your witnesses is that if its more complicated than if it appears if you ask me yes they probably will appoint judge barrett but it is by no means as clear as every want to say right now the president has implied that he wants barrett on the court by election day in november in case he contests the Election Results now if that does happen wouldnt Justice Barrett wouldnt she have to recuse herself or could she actually sit in judgment should be the next u. S. President. The president doesnt surprise me unsurprisingly doesnt know the law and the law is that. The Supreme Court will not. Intervene in determining who the next president is going to be rather this decision will be made and this is the constitution is very explicit about this the constitution has 600. 00 words out of lets say depends on how you count 3000 which was devoted explicitly to how the president should be selected and the constitution explicitly says that the president and Vice President shall be selected as their 1st act by the joint session of congress that meets on january of this year 5th or 6th and this session will be presided over by of all people mike pence. And mike pence is the presiding officer and. He will open the ballots this im quoting the constitution and the 12th amendment which revise it and and then the each member of each. Members of the house will vote in a special decision rule unique in our marriage in the american practice in which each state delegation the 53. 00 delegates of california and the one house member from. Population state has equal delegates. So there is the need 26. 00 delegate delegations of states to select the president of the United States. And thats going to be the crucial moment of truth because there may not be 26 republic. Delegations or they maybe. What do you think that the president do you think hes expecting there to be a repeat of what we saw happen though in 2000 with george bush and al gore isnt he planning on that happening where the Supreme Court does decide. Well you see i was representative of al gore her. Theory i was his representative in that in before the Florida State legislature the the it is quite correct to say that the Supreme Court intervened before january 4th in that case but in our case today there are going to be shipped or 7 states that are closely contested contested it is really john roberts will do his utmost to prevent a repeat of bush against gore except the court would have to intervene in 6 or 7 different states and find facts and make decisions in blind things time you know this is you know i dont think it at all i happen to also be quite good with john roberts he is a rule wall conservative a serious jurist i disagree with him on a lot of things but not that hes a serious jurist and he and it is and in this particular he will persuade his colleagues now if truck were to win. By manipulation or something of this kind in the joint session mind you with pence making all the contestable rulings and predictably on the side of trump. If. Trump does win then we will see a devastating transformation john roberts will lose control of his court. We have 5 really strong conservative with disparate being extraordinarily. You know radical conservative. Really let me ask you before we run out of time here are just for the delay we were talking olds in each other here i said at the beginning of the program that the legitimacy and the credibility of the Supreme Court are now all the while i do you think that that that statement is true either way with a reelected president or with a newly elected president by the if trump wins our democracy is in crisis it isnt only the Supreme Court our entire democracy we will be inviting mar. 1931 ok. No mistake about that if biden winge and the. Very strong conservative court appreciates to us soldiers womens rights as they surely will but even more they will assault the foundations of health care in this country and the regulatory apparatus and environment and other things this will precipitate a crisis that is comparable to the Court Packing crisis of 1937 and. So is the there is no question that. That if biden with inch the Supreme Court members will have to really think do they want to provoke a foundational crisis of the republic of iraq which will no telling them no no no if. A dont know whether it is a longer control the his colleagues over we definitely will come back to you mr ackerman when we get closer to election day and after the election as well to see were what happens professor ackerman we appreciate your time and your insights tonight thank you. Here in europe the summer of low corona virus infections is over all of them is here and the virus well its proving that it never left more European Countries or reimposing coronavirus restrictions as the continent grapples with rising infection rates spain is the hardest hit country with 860000 cases the spanish Central Government has declared a state of emergency in the capital madrid doctors there say that they are preparing for the worst. The lineups continue to get longer in front of moderates health care centers. The workday should already be over for dr mano garo but shes making time for a quick interview outside her clinic the authorities have banned doctors from talking to the media however she wont be silenced and she remembers only too well the disastrous weeks back in march when moderates Health Care System collapsed. Did not get him or do not want to experience that again the government has to do its homework and must keep its promises and more personnel thats the only way well be able to master the situation and protect the population. The number of those testing positive in madrid has been increasing dramatically for weeks but instead of dealing with it the conservative Regional Government got in broiled in a dispute with spains Ruling Center left government. Epidemiologist gothia together with 600. 00 Health Care Experts released a report accusing Decision Makers of not having learned from whats happened in recent months. That actions are simply negligent and they arent intervening the pandemic has worsened again since the end of july and they are apparently hoping that the problem will go away by itself. Shot up watching these after 1st declining to deal with the accusations now that its deputy minister of health is ready to state his case despite about 10000 people having died so far from the disease in the spanish capital he sees no reason to be selfcritical. So were not magic it is a safe city it has a fantastic Health Care System we already saw that in spring and considering all measures taken we certainly should not disregard the possible social or economic consequences for citizens in last friday the Central Government finally. He imposed a temporary state of emergency in madrid effectively overpowering their Regional Government since then strict rules have been imposed again local only allowed to leave the city in exceptional cases the virus would be less destructive if ill put it titians actually did that job its a sentence that you hear more and more on the streets off now that its people are increasingly tired of a political system in which power games seem more important than pragmatic Crisis Management and they hardly see any sign of improvement. At all it isnt done yet she takes a short coffee break 3 hours after her shift was supposed to end and will then attends to more patients shes worried that the coming days will even be longer for her and her colleagues. I want to bring in now endure hes the madrid correspondent for the New York Times he joins us tonight from the spanish capital feels good to have you on the program spain we understand has been marking its National Day Holiday today what were those celebrations like. Well there were very muted in past years you would have had a big military parade and certainly many more people out on the streets this year you had a new visual minutes of great you had just a very small gathering of the political leaders. This morning and what you need instead in was what was essentially a crude test a car parade. Led by point courage by the far right books party to protest the latest state of emergency measures and he says yes for the government the Central Government to resign or over. On friday the National Government imposed a walk down on the capital against the wishes of the Regional Government so why is it that spanish politicians cant agree on a strategy during what is obviously a National Public health emergency. Well i think you have to go back to the fact that just as spain have not been agreeing on very much for many years we can run a long list of other things on which to have a live read and i think year 2 will suit keep in mind in what kind of political situations got into this Coronavirus Crisis generally was the coming into office of complete limbo year 2 elections of the new mine ricky left wing government and in 2 months up to date it was facing endemic it probably was one of the weakest governments and one of the most controversial ones in the sense that the opposition was already calling for the government to to resign even before it came into office so i think spain unfortunately the country starts off in a very very fragile position in terms of its politics and the crisis has made things really worse all the divisions that where there before rather than getting a bit over deeper yet especially in madrid infection rates in madrid are double the rest of the country why has it hit the capital so hawt. Its a difficult one because its the same scenario we had in the spring one small madrid is basically counting about one 3rd of the National Numbers but in terms of cases and casualties number dead i think. We have to take into account that. Its one of the it is the biggest city it has alongside barcelona dealing the big Subway Network its also a city that attracts well as one of the arguments that is the gateway to space that the fagots fim is basically not testing people can rival at madrid apple probably hasnt helped and i thin