Transcripts For CSPAN Neil Gorsuch A Republic If You Can Keep It 20240713

Tomorrow is Constitution Day commemorating the day when delegates of the Constitutional Convention signed a document establishing the new government for the United States of america. We have celebrated Constitution Day since 1956 at the archives, 4 years after installing the original document in the place of honor in the rotunda. Over the decades, we have celebrated the constitution in many ways. Tomorrow we host one of our favorite events, a ceremony for new citizens of the u. S. It is always a moving experience to watch people from all parts of the world stand in front of the apartment signed by our and swear50 years ago to support and uphold the constitution. Today, we are especially honored to have with us the sitting justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate Justice Neil Gorsuch has recently brought together his reflections on the constitution and the separation of powers into one volume, a republic if you can keep it. Himre pleased to welcome here to the home of the original United States constitution. He was born in denver, colorado, and received a dr. Of philosophy from oxford university. For thed as a law clerk United States court of appeals andthe District Of Columbia work for Justice Anthony and kennedy of the Supreme Court. He was in private practice. He was Principal Deputy associate general, attorney general at the u. S. Department of justice. He was appointed to the United States court of appeals, 10th circuit in 2006, he served on the Standing Committee on rules and practice and procedure of the u. S. Judicial conference and chairman of the Advisory Committee on rules of appellate procedure. He taught at the university of Colorado Law School and president john jay trump president donald j. Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court and he took his seat. Please welcome the honorable justicesuch, associate of the Supreme Court of the United States. [applause] thank you. [applause] it is wonderful to have you back. You were here test after you just after you were seated. It is nice to have you back with us. It is always nice to be here. It is a wonderful place. I encourage all young people especially to visit. It is across the mall from the air and space museum. [laughter] it is not that far. If you are really lucky, i know out get to spend camping night with the constitution. How cool is that . Thank you for doing that. September,back to 2016, colorado, as you do in the beginning of the book. What happened . Well, my life more or less changed in every conceivable way overnight. I was living a quiet and happy life in a little town outside boulder, colorado where i had been a judge for a decade on the 10th circuit. All of a sudden, everything changed. If you asked me to give one story emblematic of that it would be this. We had to sneak out of our home in boulder and sneak into the white house. [laughter] the president was committed to it being a surprise. We wanted to honor his wishes. How do you get into the white house unnoticed . Turns out it is tricky. You have to go into the kitchen. We went into the kitchen of the white house. [laughter] that turned out to be neat. I am a history buff. Down there, you can see there are still scar marks from the fires in the war of 1812. Bulletre still indentations as well. We snuck in through the kitchen. The president very graciously allowed me to use the lincoln bedroom as an office for the day. That is where i wrote my remarks for the evening, the announcement, at a table, a desk on which there is a copy of the gettysburg address written in lincolns hand. Wow. Is britishuise, originally. A proud american now. He gave her use of the queens bedroom for the day, right across the hall, where churchill stayed, where the queen stays. They asked us not to make any phone calls. They did not want folks to know. They had no problem with louise calling her parents in england. They figure five hours ahead, middle of the night, they will never tell anyone anyway. Luis calls her father and she says, dad, you will never believe it. It is going to be neil. My fatherinlaw had stayed up to watch the news. He said, darling, i am watching your American News and there was another fellow and he is driving and he is at a gas station and he is driving on his way to washington. I am pretty sure it is going to be him. [laughter] inlaws. [laughter] the other fellow was a dear friend of mine. Dad, i am pretty sure it is neil. I am sitting in the lincoln bedroom. Honey,kly replied, yes, but president trump, the other guy might be down the hall. [laughter] everything changed. Even your milk delivery. Yeah. That is a story in the book. Marshals guarding our home and family, i o a huge debt to them, their wonderful people who give their lives serving the country and the courts, very a truckbut one night, apparently came up, sped up to the house and a man jumped out and started running toward the house carrying containers with a white substance inside of it. Luis got a call the next morning. There was a company that delivers her milk. Our milk. They informed us our usual milkman, serving us for years, would no longer be coming to the house. [laughter] somebody else would be doing the job. She said, did something happen . She went out to the marshals. Did something happen to which there was the terse reply, there was an incident, maam. [laughter] it took some cross examination before it came out what had happened. The final answer was, yes maam, he ended in a prone position. [laughter] thoseok over one of towers and sent an apology, i am not sure he totally got over it. [laughter] vein ofin the identification, let me remind you of the role the archives played in your confirmation process. We were asked by the Senate Judiciary committee to deliver everything we could we had about you. 13,285out to be electronic assets, that were responsive to the request. Of these, 2700 related circuitally to the 10th and those contained 19,000, 438 excel microsoft spreadsheets and databases. Attachments in56 different formats. My apologies. [laughter] my apologies to all my friends and family and coworkers during this process. My law firm had to produce every document i had signed or filed as a lawyer. I eighth grade teacher got assaulted by press corps coming out of school. On and on it went. Some of you are here tonight, thank you. Thank you. My friends and family just emerged from the woodwork. Talk about your loss of anonymity. Something. Ll, it was one day i am living quietly in colorado. The next day everybody in america knows who i am. I was photographed more in one minute then i had been in my full life. That is disconcerting at first. Noodles at aing restaurant and someone in the restaurant is videoing you. That takes getting used to. I realized when god take something away he usually gives you something in return, if you look for it hard enough. What i got in return was an opportunity to see firsthand how much the American People love this country, how much they love our constitution, how good and kind they are, a deep reservoir of goodness in the American People. Letters of support from all across the country and even a package of socks. [laughter] from someone who had seen on television and thought my socks fell down too often. [laughter] i mean. People come up to me in a coffee shop, early in the morning, i am blearyeyed and they say, i think you need a joke. They tell me a joke. [laughter] people say, i support this president or i dont, but i wish you well and i am praying for your family. Process, i wasy on the flight between denver and washington. Those moments when i was feeling frazzled from middle. I was seated next to a little girl, probably six. Doing, starteded encountering turbulence. She leaned over and said, would you mind if i held your hand . We held hands for 20 minutes through the turbulence. At the end of it, she said, now would you like to draw . [laughter] hours withe next 2. 5 her coloring book. That was a wonderful moment for me of just being normal. Of course, at the end of the flight, her mother recognized me. Two weeks later i got my favorite thank you note ever. It was a drawing the girl had done of an airplane with stick figures standing in front saying, thank you for holding my hand. The stick figures are holding hands. That is the American People to me. That is what i got to see. I get to see it day in and day out. It is a humbling privilege. Tell us about the inspiration for the book. It came during the confirmation process. Scaliaecessor, antonin smoked a pipe at his confirmation hearing. I dont think we are likely to see that again. Hisld boss, byron white, hearing lasted 15 minutes. So did mine for the 10th circuit. [laughter] things were a little different the next time around. Process,e confirmation i was truly surprised at how many people thought a judge really just a politician who wears a robe and should promise to do certain things and rule certain ways in cases they have not heard. Everyone has their favorite you must abide precedent, they tell me their favorite and then they tell me, i must do this thing over here that they dont like. I meet with one person and then another and it is the exact opposite. I came to think, it is one thing to think judges occasionally, andakenly, humanly err follow their personal preferences over their honest views of the laws demands. It is another thing entirely to think that is the way it should be. That is the way it is routinely and that there is no difference between a politician and judge then i got to thinking about this subject more. Where are we on separation of powers . The constitution . Civics education. I was truly shocked. One third of americans can name the three branches of our government. Another third can only name one. 10 of americans apparently they believe judge judy serves on the Supreme Court. [laughter] i happen to like her. But she is not one of my colleagues. [laughter] the archives does wonderful work. I visited some of the president ial libraries. They do wonderful work. All sorts of wonderful organizations working in this area. I thought i owed Something Back and i wanted to put down a few thoughts on paper about the subjects. Lets get to the meat of the book. Best this isit as so well written this is so well written and this is a terrific job in writing about the separation of powers. The separation of powers. It can sound pretty dry, cant it . Everyone understands the First Amendment contributes to your liberty. We all get. We understand that. I dont think we understand or appreciate every day as much as we might how the separation of powers contributes to our liberty and the genius of it. Madison, who wrote the constitution, did not want to write a bill of rights. He thought if we got the structure right we wouldnt need a bill of rights. He thought a bill of rights was really just a list of promises. Promises are only good as the enforcement mechanism behind them. Now, here is how to test madison in the real world. Bills of rights. Which one is your favorite . Favorite is north koreas. Yes, i said north korea. It promises everything our bill of rights promises and more. Free education, free health care, and my favorite, the right to relaxation. [laughter] sounds pretty good, doesnt it . I am not sure how that fairs with applicable prisoners over there but there you are. The truth is though, that bill of rights is not worth the paper it is written on because all power is concentrated in the hands of one person. A tyrant. Was madisons genius, he recognized that. So what am i . 1 3 of our federal government which is one half of our federal system. Power. That was the wisdom of madison. That all sounds pretty academic and i confess, when i learned all of that in civics which, yes, i am old enough that i have to take, it sounded pretty dry. I came to realize and see in the real world of the impact muddling up the separation of powers has on your liberty. Let me give you a few examples. Act asppens when judges legislators and instead of following the law, fatefully, begin to make things up. Well, maybe the first real unitedre by the states Supreme Court from the constitution was dred scott, and in dred scott, the Supreme Court held that white persons have the right to own black persons in the territories of the United States. They said that to write could be found in the fifth amendments due process clause, which guarantees you due process both for your life, liberty or property can be taken. Scour the fifth amendment as long as you want. It is not there. Dred scott made it up. The judges who did that thought they were doing so for a good reason, something more important. They thought they were helping the civil war and that making it up as worthwhile. They acted as legislators. Judges make lousy politicians. And insteadrong, of averting the civil war, they helped contribute to it. What happens when the legislature gives of its power to make the laws and assigned it to the executive branch . Madison knew that legislation, lawmaking would be the greatest potential threat of liberty, so he wanted it to be hard, deliberate, slow, careful, and involve all of the people. Two houses of congress. Arduous process. The president must sign or there must be a veto override by twopublic different constituencies at different times. It is supposed to be hard. A lot of political scientists established it puts minorities at the fulcrum of power because their votes are often essential in that process to get legislation enacted. We have effectively a super majority requirement inks to our legislative structure. That is what madison thought would protect your rights when you are a minority and unpopular. Take thatns when you process and stick it in the executive branch . Selected once, maybe twice, does not have to be very public, it is going to be a lot faster, isnt it. You will get a lot more of it, arent you . Andhave less say in process minorities are going to play a very small role, the president just needs to win the majority. You have elected yourself a king for four years. R maybe even worse dont even agencies much respond to the president. So you are having law made by a bureaucracy. Lest you think i am exaggerating, let me give you a case. This is the sort of thing that persuaded me. Real facts with real people. A Company Called Caring Hearts located in colorado. Burlap. Earts versus they provided home nursing care for medicare. They were accused of Medicare Fraud by the government and fined 800,000. Being accused of fraud by the government is a serious thing. It can be a business ending proposition. Reallyding proposition and their livelihoods. Years of litigation go by and what we find out. Caring hearts had abided all of the rules, all of them that the executive Branch Agency had made for them to abide, at the time they had rendered their services. In the government accused them of violating rules that they had not even created at the time. It was mcnutt rule so fast that even the government became confused. Second branch. What happens when the executive branch plays judge . I see cases in which veterans have a winning legal argument. Veterans seeking benefits for ptsd. Immigrants seeking lawful admission into this country. I as an independent judge think they should win. They have a winning argument under the law. But we have doctrines now that say independent judges do not get to interpret the law. Does and i, a Supreme Court justice, whatever that is, have to defer to a bureaucrats interpretation of the law. You have a right supposed to have a right to an independent judge to determine your rights under the law. That is lost. Powers, i think it is vital to your freedoms. Those are three examples. Like the rest of our constitution, separation of powers is only as good as the people, and the people have to want it, and the people have to protect it. I think reagan used to say the only one generation away we are from tyranny. Would you say that the three branches are equal, or are they and in balance . Justice gorsuch i would like to say, yes. They are supposed to be. Some of the examples i gave you make me wonder whether we are transferring a lot of legislative and judicial power, whether it is running to the executive. I worry about that. I am familiar of a data point about the number of people who cannot identify the three branches of government, but do add to that, 3 4 of americans can name all three stooges. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch is that right . That is the truth. It is from the annenberg study. Very cogently about original is him and textualism in the book, so lets talk about regionalism. Originalism Justice Gorsuch maybe we ought to start with what the heck is originalism. A bowling term. The idea that judges should accordingwritten laws to their original public meeting. Meaning. That those terms on the page should be respected as meeting. It is a term that is ancient. If you look at the Supreme Courts jurisprudence, you will see that when it comes to a statute or contract, we interpret that document according to its original public meaning. Imposestion originally is why would it be any different when it comes to a written constitution. Ideaounders rejected the of an unwritten constitution. Well, and they came from an english system, no written constitution. Our framers decided instead to put certain things down, not many. There are not many things in the constitution, it is a short document, but they put down what they thought was vitally important and left the rest for us, we the people, to decide. And also left for us, we, the people, to amend. Originalism tries to honor the originalness of the constitution. Judges should not be in the business of making things up. Adding to our taking out things from the constitution. Ive not heard the phrase from law school when i was there. Isnt that shocking . The first time i heard originalism was when Justice Scalia came to visit my law school, when he was a young justice, about my tenure now, and he gave a speech that open my mind. Of course, the harvard law review did not publish the speech. Be published by another school. That is where we were 30 years ago, we have come some way. A long way. Why is originalism matter . It was one of those theories like separation of powers, sounded pretty dry and academic to me at the time. As a judge, i have come to see how it affects your rights. Let me give you examples. What happens when we depart from the original public meaning . The alternative is something people like to call a living constitution. That sounds pretty good, who wants a dead constitution . How about an enduring constitution . I like that. A lasting constitution. Constitution, not mine. Living, who does living . The judges do the living. Here is what happens when judges do the living, they evolve your rights. Some go away and some new ones appear. If you doubt me, here are the examples. It says 6th amendment, you have a right to a trial by the jury of your peers when you are accused of a crime. It says you have a right to confront the witnesses against you in that proceeding. The Supreme Court in the living constitution decisions has said, sometimes you do not have a right to a jury. Sometimes, other things are more important, we think, so we will give you a judge freed your rights a judge. Your rights are balanced. How about that right . Sometimes, it, but there are other business and we need to move on. Bythe piece of paper written a Police Officer outofcourt, you cannot crossexamine. It might be sufficient evidence to send you away for 20 years or more. Your rights, taken away. One of the most in the unitedions states Supreme Court, japaneseamerican citizens rounded up and detained. How do you square that with the original meaning of due process . Yours due process, before life, liberty, property will be taken, you get to go before a judge somewhere for somebody. None of that was provided. They thought Something Else more important. The war effort. Equal protection clause guarantee, we will ignore that, too in this case. To help the war effort. Something else we think is more important. Some of your rights getting taken away. Wait, there is more. They add stuff that is not there. Dred scott is my example for you there. Tore do you find the right own persons in the due process clause. It is not there. So, when it comes to originalism, it is not political, it is not conservative. Are any of those results conservative . Liberal . Think they are constitutional. Originalist, it is all about preserving the constitution that you have written. , youu want to change it can and we have, and i am hardly here to tell you that the constitution cannot stand improvement, all right weve had some terribly important improvements through the amendment process. We do not need the judges to make it up, you can fix it. And you have. You have given women the right to vote. You enacted the 13th and the 14th, and the 15th, and 16 commandments to the constitution, ending slavery. Judges did not do it. Why ask someone else to do what you can do for yourself . The constitution starts with three words, and they are not we, the judges. They are we, the people. Madison did not intend and you id not want nine older can say that, i just had a birthday [laughter] people sitting in washington dc trying to rule a continental country of 330 million people. So scalias lecture was the rule of law as a lot of rules. What is your assessment of the rule of law in this country . Am, if yousuch i cant tell, an optimist. I want to share a few figures. Bear with me. I meet to me pessimistic people and they say, oh, the courts this, the Supreme Court that. Quibble about can this or that case, but shouldnt we step back just a minute and look at the forest . Lets not focus just on the tree, i will get to the tree and a minute, i promise. But lets look at the tree first. In this country, every year, there are 50 million lawsuit filed. I am not counting your parking tickets. [laughter] i am not counting your traffic speeding tickets. That is another 50 million, ok . 50 million lawsuits every year. I am going to move to the federal court system because i know that system better, but the numbers in the state court system are more impressive. Of all those cases that wind up in the federal court system, 95 court, aved by a trial judge and a jury. Done. That is the end of the case. I represented many losing parties and anybody who is a lawyer for a a while and tell they were not happy always with the decision of the court. They were upset by it. But they accepted it 95 of the time. Because they were heard. They were heard. And they knew that it was reasonable. They could accept it. 95 of the time. That is pretty powerful. Evidence about the rule of law in this country. Lets talk about what goes out on appeal. I served on the 10th circuit which oversees 20 of the continental United States, two time zones, and i served with judges who were appointed by president obama back to president Lyndon Baines johnson. One of my colleagues was appointed the year after i was born. The 10th circuit is as diverse a group of judges as you will average encounter on whatever metric you wish to assess diversity. Court, a collegial model of collegiality and judiciary and across the country known for that. Three so wenels of have to convince our colleagues of the outcomes. We hear 5 of those cases. We managed to reach unanimous degree 95 of time agreement 95 of time on cases. Now we are moving from the forest to a little cove, so lets talk about the tree. The United States Supreme Court. Eight years, 70 cases a year. 70. I have colleagues out west who hear 70 cases in the morning. And another 70 after lunch. And that is an easy day for them. Inse are the hardest cases the country, the 70 the United States here is. United states hears. We only take cases when there has been disagreement. The idea is to ensure that the law is the same across the country. The same statute should not be interpreted and the same constitution should not be interpreted to provide different rights and responsibilities. That is what we do. 70 cases and theyre only 70 of those every year . Think about that. That is incredible. That is incredible. Only 70. Fine, you say what about those 70. Fine, now we are down to the branch and we are getting to the needle. 70 cases a year. There are nine of us. Not three of us, nine. Not talk to percent of the country, all of the country. Appointed by five different president s over the course of 25 years. Admit, new york city may be heavily represented amongst us. [laughter] that is a whole other discussion. I asked people, how do you think and 40 of the time in 70 cases, we reach unanimous agreement. On the cases are lower Court Colleagues have agreed on what atlee. That does not happen by magic. Thatis hard work for you is collegiality, and that is mutual respect. Try to get nine people to agree on where to go to lunch. All right, now we will get to the needle you all want me to talk about. The 54 decisions. Ok. They represent only about 25 to 33 of our docket. That is it. That is it. You will say, but there are more now than they are used no, no. Unanimousentages are those figures have remained the same since 1945. More or less. Then, you history buffs will remember, Franklin Delano roosevelt had appointed eight of the nine justices of the Supreme Court. If we are doing as well as they did, eight of them appointed by the same president , i think we are doing ok. The truth is, the only thing that has changed is that nothing has changed, david. In those 54 decisions in the do not tellhey you this either, there were 10 different combinations of 54ices for those judgments. It is the envy of much of the world. I am not here to tell you it is perfect. You, we have all wonderful inheritance. A blessing. We should appreciate that. David here, here. Over the Supreme Court are the law equal justice under and you say in your book, few americans could afford a lawyer, and i could not afford my own services when i was in private practice. Justice gorsuch and i really cant now. [laughter] david the comment on access to justice. Justice gorsuch i am not pollyanna polyanis about america. We have a lot of reason to be optimistic about america and i do have a discussion in the book about access to justice issues because i think we should look at areas where we can and proofread i worry where nobody can afford a lawyer. It takes way too long to get to trial. If you are lucky enough to get into court. When you get there, you do not get a jury, and look at how many things are now criminalized. How anymy law clerks, federal criminal laws are there. They came back and told me there are about 4000 4500 federal federal4500 criminal laws. How many of those criminal laws are there. They came back and they scratch their head, and they went to the library. I had to ask them for a few times for an answer. Boss, theyot this, stopped counting. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch they stopped counting. I think in the 1990s. Even academics cannot keep up. At that time, it was over 300,000 federal criminal laws. Created by agencies. Some of them are vitally important. I give athem couple of examples in the book. Ometer, ifck consist you do not label it as substandard, that is a problem. If you sell mattresses and you tear off that tag, oh you are a federal criminal. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch i have la cresta or friend to say literally, they think, probably everybody over the age of 18 has probably committed a federal crime. I worry about access to justice. I worry about overcoming was asian. Orry when the prosecutor over criminalization. I worry when the prosecutor can pick his victim rather than the crime. What do we do about it . Ah, that is a long discussion. Let me rattle through some ideas. I dont have all the answers, but these are things that we on the to think about. Do you need a lawyer to do every little thing . Ll, write a wi help you with an uncontested divorce . Lawyers are the only profession that gets to regulate themselves. To all of our rates only help our clients . Does it really take three years of law school to become competent to provide any legal advice . In england, you can get a law degree in three years as an undergraduate. One year and it converges conversion course as a grad student. Do we really need three years on top of four years of education . A lot of young people i know come out with debt so high, they cannot afford to be main street lawyers. They have to go work for big firms even if they do not want to. Other judges, we should look to ourselves, too. We have something called civil discovery. It is supposed to help people figure out what the case is about before trial. It turns out civil discovery often yields very little discovery and is sometimes anything but civil. It takes a long time and it cost a lot. I know people who call themselves trial lawyers who have not tried a case in 20 years, but they can write something called an interrogatory and iambic client to iambic pentameter. They are really good at it. Why cant you get to a trial of your peers without every six months . Those are some of the things i think about. David it sounds like it is a very serious environment that i know better, having read the book, you are going to have a lot of fun up there. Justice gorsuch i think people have i know we live in a world where everybody wants to andte enemies and divides we are all subject to look great. The supreme, that court like most courts in america, is a very collegial, warm and wonderful place to come to work. It is a tiny little place, only a couple hundred people work there. Maybe a few hundred, i dont know. You get to know people. Your kids trickortreat in the office. We flip hand burgers. At the cookout. We even let the lockharts make fun of us in a skit at the end of the year. [laughter] and boy, do they. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch that is a whole another story. Do we disagree, yes. You have given us the 70 hardest cases in america. Of course we are going to disagree sometimes. We do it civilly when we do. We do it collegially. And we have fun doing it. We sing happy birthday to one another. Corley and enthusiastically. Horally and enthusiastically we sing together at the holidays. We eat lunch together. Orry day we have conference argument, lunch is available. And then it is bring your own. We work for the government. [laughter] breyer,gorsuch justice we dont talk shop at lunch. Endlessdchildren are an knock knock jokes. There are practical jokes. One day, we are all lined up in our robes as we go out to the courtroom. We shake hands every time we gather. 36 hand shakes, no matter how tense and what is going on, 36 handshakes, has been going on 150 years. Lining up after handshakes and Justice Sotomayor comes in and she is not wearing her beautiful robe, but this one has pinstripes on it and the new york yankees emblem across her chest. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch i guess the yankees have done well recently, she was pretty excited. A few of my colleagues were nervous about this, and we are lining to go up into the courtroom and one of them says, are you really going to wear that on the bench . And she says, no, i was just waiting for someone to ask. [laughter] when a newsuch justice arrives, the most junior justice, everything is done by seniority in the courts. The most junior justice has to throw a party for the new justice. Justice kagan treated us to a wonderful evening in which she made sure we had indian food because she knew louise loves indian food and she got a chef she knew and washington to come and cook for us, and it was magnificent. Cavanaugh arrived, i knew he was a meat and potatoes guy. Dinner was going to be kind of boring and i had to come up with something to liven up the evening. I said after dinner, everybody follow me. We went down to the great hall of the Supreme Court of the United States, the big marble hall. I handed the chief justice a checkered flag. Went out, Justice Cavanaugh is a huge baseball fan and loves the nationals. Their mascots are the president s. They have giant foam heads and myy run around, and assistant in my ears is a dear friend and came up with the idea. She found out, you can rent them. [laughter] she went online and rented two of the president s and we had a race in the hall of the Supreme Court of the United States. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch that is one where i thought it would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission, but i think it went over pretty well. In thewe had them here rotunda running around. Justice gorsuch you did not . David yeah, we did. I have a wonderful photograph of Abraham Lincoln looking at his autopsy report. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch we are all just people. David for me, the most booktant part of the personally and professionally is your section on citizenship and civility. Talk to us about citizenship. Justice gorsuch so, civility and citizenship. I dont know when civility became a bad word. Or manners became a word that we dont even use anymore. Now, is our republic supposed to be a little ralkous . You betcha. You betcha. An elbow thrown here or there is part of the game. The whole point of a republic, everybody can feel free to speak his or her mind. And no confidently and know confidently that you can. That doesnt happen everywhere in the world. There is a marketplace of ideas and we hope in the republic, that the best ideas should emerge. It should be a little rocks. But we should not forget that everybody involved in the process is a human being, too. What is civility owner the other than the recognition of the person i am talking with. I do worry when i read and meet young people, the statistics are they are there, too. 60 to 70 says they dont want to get involved in Public Service because of the nature of our civic discourse today. Isial media, i think it really hard for you young people, much harder than when i was coming up. I read that 25 of parents move children from schools because of cyberbullying. I do think we have to talk about this and have to worry about this. America, and this goes with citizenship, too. What you know about it, you choose to become americans. And whats special about america is we are bound together by ideas. Most other countries in the world, there is a common culture, a shared history, sometimes quite ancient, here we have ideas to bind us together, about the equality of all persons, about the unalienable rights of individuals, where the government is to serve us and we are not there to serve the government. Those sorts of ideas, a limited government. Think we need to think about those things. George washington, when he was a young person, was given 110 rules of civility and decent behavior in company written by the jesuits in 1505. 1595. He had to copy them out. We used to teach civics and we used to teach civility. Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial conscience. Thats george washington. Justice gorsuch thats a good one. They are not all quite that good. Another one, i dont know the number. Something like, do not speak so vehemently or approach your opponent in the beto closely poacher up in debate so closely, that you do the other mans face with your spittle. My teenagers would say, say it, dont spray it. [laughter] Justice Gorsuch i dont know if we need those rules. But the rule that works for me is one louises grandmother taught us after a long and eventful life. She said, you are going to have many regrets in life. I guarantee it. Sorry. I hate to break it to you. There are things you say or do that you regret. Things that you left unsaid that you did not do, and you will really, really regret. But the one thing in life that you will never regret is being kind. David so you have a wonderful chapter on the art of judging in which you pay homage to your mentors. Talk a little bit of what it was like to clerk for and then be a peer of one of your mentors. Justice kennedy. Young people, we have a bunch of them in the audience, pick your mentors carefully. I used to teach ethics and one fact that struck me is that you will pattern your professionalism, your ethics on your first bosses. So pick them carefully. You have to find a job, i know. They choose you, but you choose them, too. Be careful who you choose. I was very blessed to have Justice Kennedy as one of my first mentors. Kid couldnt be luckier. Heres who Justice Kennedy is to me. First time a justice and his law clerk wound up sitting together. I got that for a year. That was really neat. When i wrote my first opinion for the Supreme Court in the United States in a nonvery important case, i will be honest, the new guy doesnt ,sually get anything but a 90 i circulated it probably late in the day, 5 00, 6 00, and the justice had gone home. He works from home late, but he likes to work from home. And he found out that i circulated my opinion and he knew because of the nature of the opinion, it was likely to be joined up pretty quickly by my colleagues. But he wanted to be the first. So he said to his law clerk, please, would you fax over, yes, fax over Justice Gorsuchs opinion. I remember that fax machine. When i was a law clerk, i think it was the same one because it was not working that day. He was in a conundrum, the fax machine was not working and he wanted to join quickly, so he had the law clerks drive it out to his house. He read it and sent back a hand signed joinder memo. Thats anthony kennedy. Thats who he is. He is a model of civility and decency and respect for each person. David and byron white . Justice gorsuch byron white was my other boss. He was the first justice from colorado. Ill always be the second. Byron white was for me my absolute childhood hero. He grew up on a sugar beet farm poor, in a small town in colorado, small town, worked hard as a kid. Went to the university of colorado and graduated first in his class. He also led the ncaa in rushing and took the buffalos, yes, the buffaloes, and yes, they have a live buffalo as a mascot to this day. Its pretty awesome. And only occasionally gets loose. He took the buffalos to the bowl game. After that, he served in the second world war, bronze star, south pacific, Rhodes Scholar to oxford, graduated top of his class and yell law school, and was the leading rusher in the nfl and is highest paid to that highestpaid player. Jack kennedys friend and helped Bobby Kennedy desegregate the south all before serving 31 years on the United States Supreme Court. Wow you can see why he was my hero. One day during our clerkship, we are walking along the hallways of the Supreme Court, down on the first floor but what really feels like the basement, and that is where the portraits of justices are hung. And Justice White leans over to me and he says, oh, Justice Gorsuch, he would like to have fun with his law clerks and called us Justice Gorsuch. Little did he know. [laughter] he said Justice Gorsuch, how many of these old dogs can you name . And in honesty i had to tell him about half. And he said to me something that really shocked me and depressed me a little bit at the time, and said, me too. He said, and thats pretty much how it should be and i will be forgotten soon enough. 10 years, nobody will know who i am, Something Like that. And that shocked me down to my socks. I thought nobody would ever forget byron white. I wonder how many of you remember him . And i know that visitors to the often look pretty quizzically at his portrait now hung in that hallway. And what i realize now and i didnt realize then is the boss is trying to tell me something really important and quite joyful, not at all depressing, the happiness in life has nothing to do with being remembered. That we will all be soon forgotten, and what really matters is this great country and our constitution. Those things indoor. The joy in life comes from serving something greater than yourself. That is what he was trying to teach me. David which is why in your ethics course, you had a very interesting assignment that you gave your students to write their own obituaries . Justice gorsuch yes. Yeah. Before ice white, leave him, he was try to tell me what webster said. Miracles dont come in clusters and that what happened here for the first time in 6,000 years of human civilized history, the written constitution, by the people, of the people, for the people isnt something we can take for granted will happen very often. The obituary. Of theoward the end semester in my professionalism in ethics class, i would ask students to spend five minutes writing their obituary and they usually start off snickering. What a corny exercise. And maybe it was a little bit. But after about five minutes, things got pretty quiet in that room, always. They got pretty serious about it. And then i would ask a few brave souls if they would not mind reading out what they had written. I tell you, not once did they ever write about how much money they made, what car they drove, how many clients they brought in or that they were a rainmaker in their law firm. What their hourly rate was as a lawyer. They always wrote about being kind to their family, their friends, and maybe leaving the place a little better or at least no worse off than they found it. And i tell them of the end of the semester, do me a favor. Do me one favor. Keep that document. Stick it in your desk drawer, and every so often when you are wondering what its all about or feeling a little blue, take that out and assess how you are doing on the metrics that really matter. I do something similar. Obituary, and after taft an epitaph from a lawyer that i found in law school in a burial ground. Us . D would you read it to [laughter] Justice Gorsuch what at least it isnt big enough print that i can. Thank you. He was forgotten. Be and should be, as a judge. That was another thing he was trying to tell me. President s should be remembered. Maybe even the occasional senator, congressman. Judges, our job is to make sure the rule of law is passed down from one generation to the next. Hand you your constitution. Carry the baton for the day. As a lawyer, he was faithful and able. As a judge, patient and impartial and decisive. As a chief magistrate, accessible, frank and decisive. In private life, he was affectionate and mild. In public life, he was dignified and firm. Party feuds were laid by the correctness of his conduct. Calumny was silenced by the weight of his virtues and rankor softened by the amenity of his manners. David thank you very much for being on our stage this evening. [applause] on saturday, 2020 democratic candidate tosi Tulsi Gabbard speaks to voters in new hampshire. Watch live on cspan, cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Hi, everyone, my name is adam cook, and i am a 2018 studentcam winter. I am here to encourage you to continue to wrap up the competition as the deadline gets close. You will still have time. This is about the time that i started filming my documentary the first year i entered. I am in the d. C. Offices right now and i will tell you that cspan studentcam was an Incredible Opportunity for me to express my thoughts and views about the Political Climate in the current day as well as connect with locals and state leaders, and political office. I am externally excited that you all are interested in this and pursuing this because it is a onceinalifetime opportunity and i am so excited that you are taking it. There is still time for you to enter the cspan studentcam video competition. You have until january 20 to create a five to six minute documentary that explores an issue that you want the president ial candidates to address. We are giving away a total of 100,000 of cash prizes with a grand prize of 5,000. For more information, go to our website at studentcam. Org. Tonight on cspan, a conversation about life at the u. S. Mexico border amid todays Political Climate. We will hear from journalists from the york times, the dallas morning news, and albuquerque journal. That is in los angeles at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Supreme Court Justice elena kagan recently told a law school audience that the Supreme Court is not partisan, despite the current Political Climate. Johnelivered the annual paul stevens lecture at the university of colorado loss goal University Colorado law school in boulder and answered student questions. The John Paul Stevens lecture is named for another Supreme Court justice. Justice stevens regrettably passed away just a few months ago and this lecture series is a tribute to his exemplary and Courageous Service on the bench and stature at as one of the gems of american justice. Tobring distinguished jurors contribute to the life of our community. We are fortunate to have welcomed andre