Transcripts For CSPAN Inside The Supreme Court 20141228 : vi

Made the biggest false claims this past year. Democrats tend to get more upset at them because i think they are bothered by the myth of the liberal media and they think that the media is on their side. Republicans firmly believe in the myth of the liberal media. They expect that it is going to be the Washington Post those quote column. They are not going to disturb me. I hope that over the last four years, i have done enough back and forth treated both parties with equal fervor that people have no come have now come to marginally say here so and we can do business with. The Senate Majority pac which is affiliated with harry reid they have stopped answering my questions midway through the Campaign Season because they felt they were not getting a fair shake from a. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q1 day q a. New years day on the cspan networks. Here are some of our featured programs. 10 00 a. M. Eastern. The washington ideas forum. Business magnet t boone pickens. Inventor dean kamen. At 4 00 p. M. Eastern, the Brooklyn Historical Society Holds a conversation on race. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern from the explorers club, apollo seven astronaut walt coming him Walt Cunningham on the first manned spaceflight. Just before noon, hector tovar on the 33 mend buried in a chilean mine. Then at 8 00 p. M. Eastern former investigative correspondent for cbs news Cheryl Atkinson on her experiences reporting on the obama administration. New years day on American History tv on cspan3. At 10 00 a. M. Eastern,juanita abernathy on her experiences and the role of women in the civil rights movement. The link between now politics in prerevolutionary new york city. 10 president ial characters as historian David Mcculloch discusses the president s and some of their most memorable qualities. New years day on the cspan networks. For the complete schedule, go to www. Cspan. Org. Tonight on cspan, a conversation with Supreme Court Justice Elena kagan. Then a discussion on the future of conservatism. Later, google executive chair eric schmidt talks about Data Collection and the Tech Industry as a whole. Supreme Court Justice elena kagan returned to her alma mater, Princeton University, last month for a conversation with the president. She talked about her career, her approach to law and serving on the nations highest court. She took questions from audience members. This is under an hour and a half. Welcome, folks. My name is stephen, professor of politics at the University Center for human values at princeton. I helped to instigate this event which is brought to you by the University Center for human values, now in his 25th year. Also brought to you by the Princeton University public lectures led by professor eric gregory. I want to thank the University Staff who have been involved in this and most especially, who has managed any detail. Elena kagan, princeton class of has had a distinguished career 1981, of professor of law at the university of chicago and harvard, and also as a member of the executive branch of the United States government as council and domestic policy advisor to president clinton and solicitor general of the United States under president obama. She has seved as dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009 where she was a Bridge Builder in that institution. Of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009 where she was a Bridge Builder in that institution. During her four years on the Supreme Court, she has emerged as the courts more liberal wing and continued her efforts as a consensus builder and her hunting trips with Justice Scalia. They shoot skeet and other things [laughter] as former Vice President cheney been involved in any of these . If he is, stay hained him. [laughter] it has been said that the role of the Supreme Court of the United States is to speak on behalf of justice for the american people. Constitutional selfgovernment written by a princeton Vice President. He is a authority on constitutionalism and the Supreme Court. Constitution and the court and justice in america than the two people to my right, princeton president and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court elena kagan. [cheers and applause] good to be herement let me start off by thanking you to have you here. By the extraordinary audience to welcome you back. Thank you for making time. I was thinking the last time i was back and it was my 25th reunion and i spent a little part of the afternoon Walking Around princeton and seeing all the new thing on campus and it looks fantastic. Woodrow wilson came back when he was in the white house. And might give them them butterflies. Any time we get you back. Steve wanted to hear us talk about the court and the constitution. I want to give an opportunity these rumors about these hunting trips with Justice Scalia. It is a pretty funny story. I grew up in new york city. And i did not hunting. You have to do these courtesy visits, the hearings you see on tv. The tip of the iceberg and you have to talk to all the senators. I did 82 of them. And what was striking is how many of them both republicans and democrats wanted to talk to me about guns. As a kind of there are rules about what you can ask at these kind of sitdowns and what i could say and they couldnt ask me direct questions about what i thought about particular issues. The proxies were along the lines of do you hunt . And i went through the views. And it was and my answers were pathetic. No. Do you know anybody who hunts . Not really. I was sitting with one of the senators from a senator from idaho and he was telling me how important it was to many of his constituents and i totally understand why and why many senators would want to know these kinds of things. And it was late in the day my 93rd interview and i say said, if you would like me to hunt, i would be glad to come. And this look of abject horror passed over his face. I said senator i didnt mean to invite myself to your ranch, but i will tell you that if im lucky enough to be confirmed i will ask Justice Scalia to take me hunting. I group up in new york and i understand why this matters to you and i would commit to do that for you. And when i got to the court, i went over to Justice Scalias chambers this story and he thought it was hilarious and i said this is the single promise i made in 82 office sbrouse. He said i will have to let you fulfill that promise. And he started with skeet shooting and we went and did the real thing and couple of times a year we go out and shoot quail and pheasant and once went out top wyoming where i shot a deer. You enjoy it . I do like it. Im a little bit of a competitive person you know. [laughter] you put a gun in my hand and you said the gun is an object, lets do it. Long before you were a Supreme Court justice or a hunter, you were a student on this campus. How do you remember princeton . I love princeton. All of you folks who go to princeton are incredibly lucky. I suspect its better. But i was a history major. I had fantastic professors. How many of the faculty were so generous with their time, whether in out of office conversations. I saw think these is adviser a little bit before this and im a little bith nervous he is in the audience, i think he is going to take out his red opinion pen. Dont worry about it. We repealed the grading policy. He edited my these is four times over and i learned it here. I have friends who will be my friends until the day i die. I did activities that were important to me. I spent time fee daily prince tonian. And i feel warmly about it. And what it did for me. Did you occur that you wanted to be a Supreme Court justice . I never had that thought. I did an event earlier with some students and a woman asked me, did you know you wanted to be a lawyer and i had to admit to her that i didnt. The law did seem all that interesting or exciting to me. My dad was a lawyer and i look at what he did and i understand why it was deeply meaningful to him. He was not a courtroom lawyer. As a kid i didnt get what was interesting or exciting about it. And i went to law school for the wrong reasons. And the kind of i dont know what else to do and i want to keep my options open reasons. And i got there and loved it. And i was glad i made that decision. Life takes you on different paths. Honestly, i had come back my 25th reunion, eight years ago, if you said what are you going to be doing with the rest of your life, i said i was going to be cries iseberger and thought i was going to be a university president. Flukey way life works. And takes twists and turns and dont know where you are going to end up. Are you enjoying it . Its a good gig. As much as i say all of that, if you had said to me in law school you have a chance to be a Supreme Court justice i would have said yes. You did clerk for two extraordinary judges. Can you say a bit about how those experiences shaped you . The person i am and the lawyer i have been not just like in the last five years, i started thinking about those two men. They have had a longlasting impact on my life. The judge, next week is getting the National Medal of freedom, and that will be just wonderful. Had this really interesting career. He ended up serving in all three branches of our government. He was a congressman from illinois for a lot of years before he became a judge and left the bench and went into the Clinton White house and how i got into the Clinton White house and he said come work for me again and a lot of my life has been shaped by that experience. But he knew all kinds of things about how law worked and government worked. And he was also the worlds most decent human being and i learned about that, too. Justice marshall. There your 27 years old and kind of experience jerblely, as you know, you clerked on the Supreme Court, too. You are young and there you are in this institution where all the cases are being decided and kind of a trip, but then in addition to that, there you are in Thurgood Marshalls office, the person i think was the greatest 20th century lawyer and he was a story teller. And he was nearing the end of his life. He turned 80, the year i clerked for him. And kind of old 80. He was looking back on his life and however much a story teller he had been, he became more so and more so and we walked into his chambers and talked about the cases and do all our work and at a certain point, he talked about stories about the extraordinary career lawyering, at the trial level, a. M. At level, constitutional cases being this the fofere front of everything that was most important in the second half or actually in a significant period of time eradicating jim crow. And he was funny. But he also told the stories to have a point and we got that. And if you wanted to spend a year at a relatively young age, talking to somebody who could tell you something about justice, that was the man to do it with. I will be very grateful for that experience. Let me fast forward from your time as a law clerk to arrival at the Supreme Court as a new justice. Were you welcomed, were you hayesed or looking at things that were new or familiar . Little bit of both. Did they hayes you . Ok. I tell you how they hayesed me. This is true. They said, very particular rule for the junior justice, junior justice is the junior justice and they refer to the junior justice as the junior justice. You have specific jobs. They put you on the cafeteria committee. Its not a very good cafeteria. They hayes you all the time you actually. The food isnt very good. Ok. That counts. When we go into conference, its just the nine of us, we dont bring in any clerks, any assistants. Only the nine of us. So somebody has to do two things, the first is that somebody has to take notes so you can go out and tell people what just happened. And i take notes. That is the junior justices job. And you have to answer the door when there is a knock on the door. Literally, if there is a knock on the door than i dont hear it, there will not be a single other person who will move. They will stare at me and i figure out oh, somebody knocked on the door. These two jobs, the note taking and the door opening you can see how they can get in the way of each other. Even one sounds like a lot. And some of my colleagues, you say what doll people knock on the door for . Knock. Knock. Im not going to name names. Knock, no, maam someone forgot their gases. Knock. Knock. Justice forget their coffee. All that said, all that said, the warmth with which i was greeted by all my colleagues was striking to me and heres the first indication of that. My confirmation vote happened in the middle of the afternoon here in the United States in july. And i say in the United States the chief justice was in australia was at the time. It was 3 00 in the morning there. And literally, the moment that that vote occurred and i watched it in the solicitor germs office with all my colleagues and one of the assistants came into the room and said the chief justice is on the line for you. It was like, and he said, i want you to be the first to welcome you on board and congratulate you and he said you know, i guess we are going to spending the next 25 years together. [laughter] which is a little bit scary really. But i said, really, only 25 . Really . But he and everybody else has been warm and welcoming from the start and in ap way that is to a great credit of the institution and it is a great institution. What did it seem like when i got back how lit will it changed. I clerked there about 25 years earlier. But it was still like remarkably the same institution, using the same procedures, almost a little bit laughbly. In those 25 years, it has been a communication revolution, but seemed to have passed the supreme coordinate by a little bit. But in great ways, that the institution operates ellie efficiently and college yachtly. The first day on the job. The chief justice took me all around to the different offices in the court, the Clerks Office the library, the Publications Office and every single place i went into, somebody said, i remember you from when you were a clerk. It is a great place to work. Little bit nervous about that, too. What was i like that back then. So it didnt seem surprising in the way it operated and just warm and welcoming. Let me ask you about how it is that you interact with the justices your colleagues outside of conference when you are not having to take notes and open the door and the communications revolution. When you have a legal issue or a concern about a particular spin that has been circulated, how do you talk to your fellow justice eggs, are you walking down the hall and shooting emails or different from that . Often you write and that is write rather than talk. Especially if you are commenting on or criticizing a written piece of work or an opinion, you know, it often takes a writing to explain what you mean and why you think something needs to be fixed. And the precision that you can get through a written memo is actually a good deal higher than if you just walked in and put your feet in and say here is what im thinking about your opinion. Once an opinion has come in, is in writing. People will say, i really hope to join you, but there is this aspect of the opinion that i dont quite agree with and heres a way that would make me feel comfortable. And literally we send these memos somebody from the chamber whose job is to walk them around the building. They are being walked around the building. Yes email has not yet hit the United States Supreme Court. I find that astonishing, they have a set of lawyers interacting with colleagues. It is an aattachment to tradition, it encourages there has been a lot of emails that i have sent and i dont know about you that i just pushed the send button. I try not to do that. Do you do a memo and write it and look it at again when someone brings it into you to sign and worst Case Scenario you have the opportunity to say no way, stop. So thats part of the way we communicate. But, different ones of us talk more or less. Im a schmoozer. I do. I Wander Around and talk to people. Sometimes its about opinions and sometimes its just about life. But, you know, ill go into you said steve breyer, we are on one end of the court and the carpet might be getting worn between our two offices. We go back and forth and talk br things that strike us in cases. Thats reassuring in a way. I want to turn now to ask you some questions about how you decide cases. Before doing that and in 30 minutes or so, we will have time to have people from the audience to ask questions but begin by asking you, what sorts of topics you think are fair game in scenarios like this. David suiter was was unwilling where black honmon was telling tales. What is your bouppedry . We speak best when we speak through our opinio