Senator Amy Klobuchar is expected to kick off a farm on legalic equality and principles. She is a member of the Judiciary Committee which is scheduled to hear from President Trump spec for the Supreme Court neil gorsuch next tuesday. The senate is scheduled to gavel in later today, 2 00 eastern ofe, debating the nomination the head of medicaid and are services. The house changing it scheduled for the week because of the snowstorm expected in washington, d. C. They gambled in for a brief pro forma session and they will be out tomorrow. Center forto the American Progress, i am the executive Vice President of external affairs. Im so delighted that you could join us today. In our recent report reviving it highlighted the idea that the economy has grown more consolidated with more power be good time concentrated in the largest firms in america. This is in no small part of the conservative assault on both government and the middle class. This assault has played out not just in the courts, but in antitrust enforcement practices of the department of justice, the federal trade commission, and at a wider range of federal regulators and in the halls of congress, where the view that , haseant more efficient dominated for far too long. Since the early 1980s, conservative legal thinking embodied in robert bork and antonin scalia, has sought to dismantle the ability of government to protect consumers, workers, Small Businesses, the environment, people of color, basically all of us ordinary folks, from the abuses of markets and large corporations. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration is going precisely in the wrong direction. Trump has appointed billionaires and ideologues to his cabinet that seek to strip the government of these tools to protect the public. He has appointed a chair of the federal Communications Commission that seems perfectly comfortable with rising industry consolidation and limited privacy protections. And he has nominated a Supreme Court justice promotes a legal philosophy aimed at enabling even greater concentration of economic power. So what does this mean for ordinary americans . Market consolidation means sky high drug prices and airline tickets. Small businesses shut out of markets. Lower wages. Less innovation and choice. An even broader trends like the deindustrialization of the midwest. Anfact, i dont think its exaggeration to say such concentration of economic power plays a big role in why conservatives in Congress Want to pass massive tax cuts for corporations and rolled black wall street reform while ignoring communities in need like flint, michigan. That is not something ordinary americans sitting around the Kitchen Table want to see more of. Given these threats, we need lawmakers like senator Amy Klobuchar, the senior senator from the state of minnesota who is speaking today, about a critical piece of this puzzle, the need for vigorous antitrust enforcement in an era of increasing market concentration. In a town like the seed that is not known for its friendliness, senator klobuchar brings a refreshing dash of minnesota nice. But do not mistake her collegiality for softness. [inaudible] [laughter] prosecutor county and the first female senator from minnesota, senator klobuchar also brings an i in range toughness to washington. The daughter of a journalist and Public School teacher, senator klobuchar is a fighter for middleclass families in minnesota and across the nation. As the Ranking Member of the subcommittee on antitrust competition, policy, and consumer rights, the senator has long been an advocate for competitive markets that promote sustainable and robust economic growth. From railroads to drug pricing, clinic senator klobuchar has been a fighter for lower prices, higher the quality and fairness for Small Businesses. We need more leaders like her in washington. Please join me in welcoming the honorable senator Amy Klobuchar. [applause] thank you. Uchar we were so excited to walk in and see the soldout crowd for antitrust discussion. My antitrust counsel said it was the best day of his life. It is wonderful to be here with all of you. Thank you for your leadership, center for American Progress, or all you are doing. Before i was a senator, before i was a prosecutor for eight years, i was a lawyer. At one point early on in my that did theent most work for over the years was mci. This was at a time when they were a scrappy company that was taking on the Bell Companies and. Etting into the market eventually, when i was representing them, trying to create competition in the local markets as well. It was truly an exciting time to be representing a young, hungry company. Mcis scrappy lawyers viewed themselves as cowboys of sorts, they were fighting for consumers and lower prices, they were taking on the local telephone monopolies across the country. One of the stories, i remember i told one of my opening arguments , at an exciting regulatory hearing, was recalling that when Alexander Graham bell developed the telephone, when the whole system started to work, he said those direct words. Come here, watson. I need you. This is like lore of telecommunications. And theward now to mci last few decades, and they were finally getting ready to connect the first communication between st. Louis and chicago. One of their main guys, when this great moment occurred, he said the words, the modern day ill be dammed, it actually works. Ok. But without antitrust law, mci would never have worked. Mci took on Bell Operating Company and at t and ultimately broke of that monopoly. Lowered longdistance prices for consumers across the country and revolutionized the telecom industry. Now i know that antitrust law may not make frontpage news or even capture the attention of all of our lawmakers at any one moment, but it is important stuff. It is consequential. Look at the newspaper over the weekend. South korea, the president there recently impeached, based in part on allegations she participated in a bribery scheme that ordered Government Support of a merger. Or here in the u. S. , the next and administration concluded during watergate that the best way to intimidate the nations three Major Television networks was to keep the constant threat of an antitrust suit hanging over them. We all know how that ended. I think the American People intuitively understand that there is too much concentration in this country, even if they dont always describe it that way. In fact, two thirds of americans, including a majority of republicans, have come to believe that the economy unfairly favors powerful interest. Even as our economy has ,tabilized and grown stronger it is easy to see why people feel that way. Every year i visit all 87. Ounties in my state this is something that i know Chuck Grassley does, and Chuck Schumer does it. Chuck schumer actually gave me the idea to start doing it. Although i later found out, after years of doing this, he had an election and he won every county except his smallest one. He went to his chief of staff and said, i dont understand, i practically met every person in that county. The chief of staff said, that was the problem. Is that i have found visiting all of these counties really gives me a sense of where people are in rural america, in a way that i dont think you can get by just looking at newspaper clips or talking to your staff. Just in the last month, i was in farms,l counties, at forything from a gathering a bunch of guys to a meeting in a township. Pay for internet, prescription drugs, hard to get that loan if they want to start something new. They want Common Sense Solutions. That is why, when you look at the rural economy, that income, 50 of what it was from a few years ago. That is from the farmers union. Poverty rate for kids in the rural areas is four Percentage Points higher than in urban areas. No one gets affected by the economic concentration more than if you are out in places that have less choices and less competition. So strengthening that rural economy, for me, needs not only doing something about prescription drugs, getting broadband out there, passing the farm bill, but its also making sure we have actual competition, and that we vigorously enforce our antitrust law. If you dont think that major mergers, whether it is ag or cable or health care, impact people, especially in places where there is a their margin on cost, i think those numbers i gave you is all the evidence you need. That is why this antitrust is so important. Some people may ask, what does a Strong Economy have to do with antitrust . The answer is everything. Antitrust has everything to do with our broader economy. You have heard much of this before. When companies are allowed to compete, businesses can offer the highest quality goods for the lowest possible price. That is capitalism. But what i want to emphasize is that talking only about antitrust in the way the price is is over civil side. Antitrust enforcement affects more than just the prices of people pay for the goods they buy. We now have evidence that competition fosters Small Business growth. Have big people dominating, its hard to get into the market. It reduces inequality. By people most affected these high prices are the people at the bottom of the income scale. So they will be most affected if you have concentration. Also, you have a decrease in innovation when you have too much concentrated power. That is something i will come back to. I think its really important. What do we see coming from the courts . In the last few decades, the , maybe onert cases of our panelists can discuss that. Credit suisse, legion, among others, have actually raised barriers to the pursuit of antitrust cases. Asour Supreme Court nominee, you know, is an expert on antitrust. I think it is more than important to pursue this in the hearings coming up, what his views are on the trend of the court and what has been happening to antitrust law in recent decades. So lets go back to why this matters. Makes itted interest nearly impossible for entrepreneurs and Small Business owners to compete. Firms with fewer than 20 workers make up 90 of the businesses in this country. So you can imagine, if you start having all of this concentration , you will be taking a couch out of the american economy. When there are eight or 10 competitors, this gets to the innovation argument, they will compete to innovate. They will compete to offer the next fitbit or whatever else. When you only have one or two firms, that is not going to happen. Because they dont want to innovate, they are happy with the status quo. Why do they want innovation . Think of your Cable Company and the cable box. Nobody likes the cable box, but for years, the Cable Company made no modifications and continually increased rental rates. Recently, only recently, competition alike apple tv and roku have improved the viewing experience and expanded choice. Competition drives innovation. If that is too technical, how about beer . For years, there were a few dominant carriers, they sold a similar massmarket beer. We see it in the super bowl ads. By 1978 there were fewer than 50 breweries nationwide. That across the country entrepreneurs started what we call the craft brewing revolution. By the way, where were the jobs . Brewers, small craft they tended to use more american ingredients, they innovated, increased choices, and improve quality. Today in my state alone we have over 70 craft brewers, more than the entire country had back in 1978. I will not go into the dirty topic that some of the big guys are now trying to buy up the small guys and some of the antitrust concerns and why we hearing, which was the most widely attended antitrust hearing in the history of america a few years back. What did we call it . Emoth merger. We have to work hard to make this exciting. Trying to make the case for you today that this is not only important but cool to talk about , because it is all about what will happen with the economy. Research suggests, as i noted, concentration increases income inequality. Firms with monopolies raise prices, taking money from consumers and putting in the pockets of owners and employees. The consumers who spend the money far outnumbers the employees. So we have to recognize the broader benefits of antitrust enforcement, especially today. Now we are going to get to the facts of the current state. Since 2008, american firms have engaged in 10 trillion in acquisitions. Over the last five years, there was a 50 increase in mergers reviewed by the ftc and the department of justice antitrust division. There are signs of anticompetitive concentration everywhere. As former chair and Ranking Member of the antitrust subcommittee, i raised concerns of these my proposals during the last few years. Take for example comcasts failed merger with time warner. As we pointed out in our senate hearing, if the merger was approved, the combined company would have approved controlled 60 of the countrys highspeed content customers. Or the failed merger between Norfolk Southern railway and canadian pacific, something i took on immediately after it was announced. Even without the merger, 90 of freight traffic is handled only by four railroads. As i like to note on this topic, how many railroads are on the monopoly board . Four. No, coincidence. These examples are part of a larger pattern. Last year, the assistant attorney general for antitrust, a lifelong antitrust practitioner, said his agency such seriousith antitrust concerns, they should of never made it out of the corporate or groom. Board room. And there is more reason for concern. Own 25 ofanies profit or more in 2003 were still achieving those profit levels a decade level. Anhough firms may exploit advantage in the shortterm, winners and losers should change over time in a competitive market. Thehould be the case in american economy. Or the fact that prices in america should be lower than other countries because the market is so large. But in general, american prices are not lower than in countries with smaller markets. Moref this suggests that than ever we need vigorous antitrust enforcement, especially in light of the stakes. There are new types of activities to consider as well. Institutional investors own almost 70 of the stock market. For example, the largest shareholders of apple and microsoft are blackrock and vanguard. We see this pattern in pharmacies, soft drink producers, and the banks. It is easy to see how this crop ownership can hurt consumers even many are also rightfully concerned that conditions the agencys place on mergers often deals musthat more be blocked. I cannot tell you how many fake content providers in the media market and other things come to our offices. They dontally want to go public because they are afraid they will be screwed if they do it. But they tell us about what happens. A lot of these merger conditions are not being implemented. In fact, they are not getting a good deal, not able to move forward, despite the fact that some of these conditions were put on. So that isnt a concern. The ftc disagrees. Im just looking at what i see. If it is not a problem, great. But you will see the proposal i have in a little bit to create some kind of check and balance, promises made at mergers. As merger deals have grown, so often have the complexities of the settlements. We often talk about firms being too big to fail. A question from modern antitrust enforcement is whether some mergers are simply too big to fix. So here is the billiondollar question. And im not using that number loosely because so many of these mergers are billiondollar mergers. What are we going to do about this . One question is obvious. More aggressive antitrust enforcement to prevent concentration and monopolies. The good news, antitrust and are notion polities republican or democratic issues, they are consumer issues. They have tended to be more focused on by the democratic party. I think that is important to note. Mike lee and i, he is kind of a tea Party Background and have worked well on these issues together, painstakingly work on ideas and other things when we work with the antitrust division , and they have told us repeatedly how helpful it is for them. In fact, these are bipartisan suggestions, ideas for conditions and others. So we get down to the bad news. The federal governments commitment to antitrust enforcement has declined. Our economy, in terms of nominal gdp, has increased by over 20 between 2010 and 2016. Merger filings have increased by over 50 . At the same time, our antitrust Agency Budgets have been flat. Because antitrust agencies are only able to litigate cases involving the most highly concentrated markets, they often cannot deal with new issues, like the one i mentioned, Investment Fund cross ownership of competing firms within an industry. Still, these agencies are doing the best they can, and we have seen real results. In 2015, the department of justice obtained a record 3. 6 billion in criminal antitrust fines. That probably surprises you. 3. 6 billion in fines. The antitrust divisions entire operating budget is roughly 5 of that figure. What is incredible is that the division is actually a moneymaker. If we have people that are interested in making money, this is one way to do it. The ftc has six antitrust cases in active litigation last year, including blocking staples proposed acquisition of office depot, and for hospital mergers. The antitrust division successfully litigated to the viewer maker mergers in the insurance industry, including anthem and cigna. The chairman and i held a subcommittee hearing on the effects of those murders on consumers. But we need the agencies to do more, and we need the new administration to take this seriously. Some might argue that President Trump, who has been both a plaintiff and a defendant in antitrust lawsuits, might be one that would champion increased enforcement efforts. We hope that will be true. So here is just a little fun fact for you to take away. He was both a plaintiff and defendant. He was a plaintiff in the United States football leagues case against the nfl. In that capacity, trump won damages. He won one dollar. It was triple to three dollars. There is even an espn documentary about it. In 1988, he was on the other side. He paid a 750,000 penalty to settle claims he had failed to make required filings with the ftc and doj in connection with an acquisition of stock in Holiday Court and valley manufacturing. Overall, he is in the red on antitrust litigation. During the campaign, as a candidate, his rhetoric actually echoed former president teddy roosevelt. He even talked about too much concentration of power in the hands of too few. Now, it looks like the president is speaking a different language. I will give you just a few examples. Early warning signs suggest the Trump Administration will appoint people who will scale back enforcement. Ther theil, one of president s close advisors, has marked free markets, saying competition is for losers. The acting chairwoman of the ftc says the Obama Administrations more aggressive approach to competition imposed a necessary cost on business. Another example. In a typical administration, the white house is typically not involved. But a meeting with the president elect that occurred recently where the ceos of bhae and monsanto discussed their 66 billion merger, which is currently being reviewed by the justice department. We had a hearing in judiciary on this merger ana lot of concerns were raised. After the meeting, the administration took credit for commitments the Companies Made to create new jobs and invest in research and development. This was an uncharacteristic discussion and raises concerns that the president may want to negotiate merger settlements himself. After that meeting, i specifically asked attorney general sessions if he would defend the integrity and independence of the antitrust division. He said he would and i will hold him to that commitment. That is just the beginning of congresss responsibility. Chairman lee and i have developed a strong bipartisan approach to the committee. This also means holding nominees to the antitrust division in the ftc to the same high standards. I want to make one thing very clear here. It is not enough to prevent the deterioration of enforcement. In light of the broader impact of competition, the stakes are too high to only play defense. That is why im announcing i will introduce in the coming weeks and months a package of bills with three goals. First is a check on merger conditions. The issue i raised earlier. Depends onnforcement feedback. Agencies can make better enforcement decisions if they understand what has worked in the past. This much is clear. We need to give the agencies the tools to check whether their efforts have been successful. Ftcse earlier about the recent merger retrospective study, but it only covers ftc settlement and it was the first study done since 1999. We have to do better. This is what i propose. A better approach would be to provide parties information on a yearly basis after a settlement has been reached. Review pasts to settlements which would informed of future decisions. I believe we can improve antitrust enforcement without duly burdening unduly burdening the companies that come before us for merger approval. The ftc or the department of justice should be required to gather information about how affectsnt ownership competition. Congress needs this information to understand whether there is a fundem and when investment ownership is anticompetitive or benign. Third, we need to of our game. Antitrust these that are paid when companies file proposed mergers for review and allow the government to exercise and pursue cases have not kept up with the times. In fact, the fee has not been adjusted since 2001. Parties involved in large deals are simply not paying their fair share. For example, each party is currently required to pay 280,000. For a deal valued at 807 million or more. Even a deal hundreds of times that size, i just used the monsanto example, are stuck at the same see. I propose to simple fixes. Into account take the burden on Smaller Companies by not increasing their fees, the fees should increase based on Gross National product for everyone that comes before the justice department. Second, in an era of megadeals that reach tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, we need a new category of fees that reflects the complexities of megamergers and their serious impact on consumers. As one potential model, president obamas 2017 budget would have doubled charges for deals over 1 billion. Even then, the changed amount would be less than 1 of the proposed value of the deal. These proposals are Common Sense Solutions that will improve the lives of people across the country and also improve capitalism. Capitalism is based on fairplay and equal competition. It is based on this idea that you want to have a vibrant system where Small Companies can continue to compete and come into the market. If that competition is stifled, it is not only bad for consumers and for america, it is also bad for business. So, if any of the other reasons dont work here, i hope that will. All of this can be done. It does not take a miracle, it just takes a will to support our so wellhat we have used in america, a system of free markets, of checks and balance is, a system where we put people first, protecting competition fixed to the basic rentable of Economic Opportunity and fairness. As i said at the beginning, our goal is to make antitrust cool again. If the administration wont do it, we will. Thank you. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you, senator, for your remarks. The American People certainly are lucky to have an advocate like her in the senate. Passionately about the growing concentration of economic power in our country and have robust antitrust enforcement can help strengthen our economy. The senator also walks the walk. It is a good reminder that we need to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions. One of the most important actions that trump has made so far has been to appoint judge gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Over the years, there has been a plan to target the Supreme Court and now those same people and organizations are spending millions of dollars to promote gorsuchs nomination. It is not hard to see why. His legal career consisted primarily of representing large corporations. He has publicly argued that it should be harder for regular people to band together to hold wall street and huge corporations accountable for fraud and other wrongdoing. The broad question presented by this nomination is will we allow the court to become a fullfledged promoter of ,rocorporate, anticonsumer antiSmall Business, for thedleclass future . The answer to that question is critical. Will it be everyone shut out from the halls of congress and the ballot box. We at the center for American Progress believe the senate should firmly reject judge gorsuchs nomination. We are fortunate to host a distinguished group of experts to discuss the way corporate and conservative assault on , administrative, civil rights and other laws impact the lives of Everyday Americans and what the Trump Administrations approach and the Gorsuch Nomination may mean for the future. To save time, im going to quickly introduce the panel now and encourage the moderator to jump right into questions. I would also like to acknowledge the leadership of andy green and michelle from our econ and Legal Process teams respectively for putting the panel together. The president of the Constitutional Accountability Center she brings a distinguished career as a Supreme Court litigator to broader questions of what the Supreme Court means. I guess he is a member of the cap family, he just is not working anymore. You are a member of our family. Deepak group the gupta is one of the go to can dust litigators for consumer workers litigators for consumer workers. Jonathan kantor is a partner in the antitrust group at paul weiss and a leading thinker on antitrust law and Lillian Solano , former deputy undersecretary for Rural Development and one of the leading voices in the Obama Administration for Rural Business and opportunity. Their discussion will begin momentarily. First, it is my pleasure to introduce our moderator, an assistant professor of brooklyn law school. ,is new book, there it is democracy against domination recently released by Oxford University press examines the tension between economic regulation and ideals of democratic accountability in the context of the Financial Regulation debate. Theould also note that Constitutional Accountability Center has a new report on gorsuch available at the door and later this week, the Legal Defense fund will release their report looking at his record. Caps legal Progress Team also has an issue brief. Ourse join me in welcoming distinguished panelists to the stage. [applause] great, thanks so much. This great discussion. We have heard a lot and we will hear a lot more. We had such a range of issues to get into. Let me start with just a couple of broad points i think we will see throughout the conversation. We have heard a little bit already today. And equitable economy does not just happen. It is a product of law and policy. When you have concentration of , a lot of the things we worry about it reproduced. Lack of accountability. These are themes that each of our speakers are going to raise in different ways. Jonathan, maybe we can start with you. We heard from the senator about merger enforcement. Maybe you can give us a look at antitrust law, the landscape, and how we got to this point of how we have this big problem of economic concentration. Sure. Thanks again for having me. I was extremely heartened by the comments from senator the senator bringing attention to this issue. Bringing it to a level that makes a lot of sense, common sense. Equatingteful for her antitrust to cool. Now i can go home and 12 might till my 12yearold and nineyearold, who equate me with noncool. [laughter] we really sought to some degree a revolution in the 1970s led by judge pose no posner and that was to take the antitrust and transform it. Transform it from a discipline that focused on addressing concentration of power, not just because it is good for prices, but because it is good for our economy and democracy more generally. And really transforming it into something that was almost singularly focused on what they call consumer price. Price being the only part of antitrust law. From the 1970s to the 1980s and today, we now have a world where antitrust has been narrowed substantially into what it considers. It is focused again on the singularly on price effects to the exclusion of competition, innovation, and the effects on our democracy more broadly. There is a lot of discussion around mergers. The antitrust laws come from railroads, oil companies, clogging the arteries with competition. And what that means for our society. The consequences for abusing that position once you achieve that dominance, the consequences are as low as we have ever seen that. The sherman cases, the root of that is a political agenda and a Supreme Court. The Supreme Court over the last whatars has really eroded is possible in terms of bringing cases against dominant companies that have used market power. A number of cases have really eroded what the courts and agencies consider when examining anticompetitive conduct or allegations of anticompetitive conduct. I cant tell you how many times i have been in front of the agencies and talk to them about when agencies might be abusing market power and there is this view of the world where so long as you have achieved that market power lawfully, you can use it anyway you want. This is an issue. When you go back, no single case has done more damage to this than the tranco case. Looking at judge gorsuchs opinions, he is an antitrust professor. Sometimes you look at opinions of justices who are nominated to try to read the tea leaves as to where they might come out and sometimes, there is an old temptation to over read. Especially if it was an issue they were not steeped in our they are trying to cut surface deep. Looking at just the small number by judge gorsuch, it is someone whoat just understands antitrust. The other pieces for me and trying to understand the tea leaves, he talks about aspects of Supreme Court cases and, in many cases, amplifies this sort of narrow scope of monopolization enforcement. There was a lot of debate in the antitrust communities about the impact of cases like tranco and what they mean legally. There is a lot of language there that is not necessarily binding. That you dont have to follow. Suggestions. Then there is the real legal holding. Then there are the dicta. They reaffirmed the is black letter law and back them up with bynciples that are embodied that frame from the 1970s. If you look at those opinions, it does not necessarily suggest that we are going to see a change in what is legally possible at the Supreme Court. They get a, reinforcing or doubling down of the precedents that has come down over the last 20 years. For somebody who might be proenforcement, that could be concerning. That is super helpful. You are getting a sense that one of the risks here is that judge gorsuch could, on the bench, continue to narrow the boundaries of what antitrust law toers, which makes it harder hold the market dominant players accountable. To get into the implications of that, lillian, i wonder if you could talk a little bit about how you see this problem of concentration and lack of marketability for large dominant corporate actors, how that effects Economic Opportunity as you have seen it in your experience. Sure and thank you. I think this is such an important opportunity. Im someone from rural america. Speciest endangered called a rural manufacturer. To putwhat it is like together a company and try to sell your products and get the investment to do that, hire the folks to do it, and then find out that there really is not an open market for the products that you sell. An many years before i was obama appointee, i used to come to washington in the 1990s and the early 2000s and go to the federal agencies and go up on the hill as a founder of a Small Manufacturing Company and i was always as a nonwashington, d. C. Person from rural texas surprised that there was there seemed like a morph of every time i would present a case or the obstacles, there was this idea of bigger and better pricing, it is all about pricing. If we can get the consumers pricing, that is what we are interested in. Im thinking to myself, what about innovation . What about opportunities for Small Business. There was always this i dont know what happened, im not the im certainly not antitrust, but what im is a Small Business advocate and a rural manufacturing advocate. There just seems to be some kind h that happens where there was this crazy idea that if you had it bigger, the prices would come down. Ithink it is just sort of did not have a great education in rural texas, but i knew one thing. Are one thing, price is another. When you do volumes, yes, your costs come down. That has nothing to do with price. We sold products in the marketplace. We were wholesale rejected in the industry we were in. When i got to have this opportunity to join the obama world,tration in the ag where we also have these huge concentrations of power in the hands of a few, i thought maybe it is different, maybe the agencies have the resources they need. Maybe there is an opportunity to talk about it. What i found after literally visiting hundreds of Small Farmers and Small Businesses across the country, mostly in rural areas, that they had the same problem. At first i thought, maybe im looking through my prism, maybe im listening to my own self and im not listening to them, but for sure when i heard the stories about folks trying to sell, when there was only one buyer, that is a problem. I heard stories of these unforgiving obstacles and anticompetitive logistics of distribution. Anticompetitive distribution and methodologies about pricing and bundling. Market manipulation. What people do in the trade association or trade group world where the little guys dont have a seat at the table, so the regulations are made by the big guys. Sometimes, many times, i checked myself and my five years thinking, maybe im not the best person to know this because i lived it. And the number two or the person in charge of Capital Markets who i had never met before, she and i happened to testify at a hearing for the Small Business committee on duplication or Something Like that, and after the hearing, she said, you overwrite usda, do you collect data that when businesses fail or when you cant get more loans , what the reason is . Formd we have some kind of for farmers and Small Businesses, but nobody has really tracked it. The default, we have a whole , nobody is really looking into it. Her name is annemarie mellon and she had been an independent banker in oregon and was head of Capital Markets and she said independent of me, what i saw for businesses trying to get loans and what i see in my role is that there is concentration of power, we cant give the money, we dont know where they are going to sell. When the default, it is because somebody bought and they have one buyer. She said, we really have to do something about it. I said, we should talk to the government and we both laughed and said we are the government. We looked at opportunities. This is on their watch. As a former obama official, i did go to the embassy, i did go to the sec, we did talk to the white house, we did talk to folks on the hill saying, we are the officials for the Small Business in this country where you would think of every day ways to increase competitiveness, increase entrepreneurship, all of this is going on and you are a 500 pound gorilla taking it down, we cant do anything about it. You have to do something about it. We requested at least look at some data. Actions. Everyone is so worried. A host of other agencies looking at this problem. It just seems like there is this underlying deal that people think bigger is better. We have been cajoled into this idea that big is good for consumers and the government is here to protect consumers and the pricing piece is so important. While congress and agencies are trying everything they can do for entrepreneurship. This is not a republican or democrat problem, this inability to correct this causes a real problem. I talked to entrepreneurs in my private life and my work life every day. When i wake up, i think of myself as an entrepreneur, i think it is really scary right now. Weve got to make it an environment where people are out aere knowing that it is reasonable thing to go up there and start a Small Business. How can you possibly get capital when folks of treasure joseph a dont have to invest in marketing and you are supposed to compete with . If it was a competitive market, these big large institutions and monopolies would not have trillions of dollars in their coffers. They would be out there competing. Just let Small Business get on the track and we can compete, without fixing this problem, we are in a serious issue. The Ripple Effects of market concentration have an impact on consumers and prices. It is really effecting the viability of a whole range of businesses and Economic Activity and dynamism that we sort of expect from an inclusive and innovative economy. Jonathan and lillian giving us a sense of the implications of antitrust proper. Competition, policy, and market concentration. These same types of dynamics, deepak, you have written a lot and talked a lot about them, about how they effect the scope of redistribution, wealth transfer, and the difficulties of ordinary people, communities, Small Businesses to hold those private actors accountable and i was wondering if you could speak about this and about how difficult it has been to respond to these challenges that you have laid out. The centerlad that for American Progress is having this conversation. I think too often when people think about what the Supreme Court is up to or what the government is up to in general, we are focused on hot button social controversies. In my view, the effect the court really has that people should really be paying attention to is the way it effects Kitchen Table issues, their pocketbook. The questions they are talking about, they can seem very technical. If you stop someone on the street and you ask them their views on antitrust law, you may not think that they have used. I actually think that ordinary americans think the economy is increasingly stacked against them. They understand that they dont have a fair shot in the way that they had. What i would like to inject into the conversation is that the law is a part of that. The law both relies upon and facilitates these kinds of trends. People should be concerned about them. Both when they are thinking about who to vote for and what might happen with this next Supreme Court nomination. Is what i want to focus on how the law gets enforced. It does not matter what the law says if you cant enforce it. Congressman that famously said, you write the substance, i will write a procedure, and i will screw you every time. What he meant by that is that if the procedures of how you get to enforce the law, that is where the rubber meets the road. The conservatives on the Supreme Court and their allies in the chamber of commerce and other groups have recognized this and have pushed a radical agenda on the court that has limited the ability of ordinary americans to enforce their rights. Unfortunately, without people really noticing it, without them recognizing it because it relies on these sort of technical, legal concepts that dont get as much attention as cases about abortion or gay rights. I want to focus on this is a broad trend and it affects the way that people can get into court, plead their cases, whether they can band together. I just want to focus on two cases that ive worked on in the past. And that i think shining a light on this phenomenon. We all understand that there are these laws that say, for example, that companies cant cheat you when they sell you a product. That people cant charge women less than men in the workplace. That you cant have monopoly power, that can be challenged. There are only two there are two ways to do it either through public enforcement whether its the federal government or state private or through litigation. In the United States, we have a balance of both things. We dont have as much had he had a government regulation and we think there should be a Market Solution where people are incentivized to go into court and take care of those things. Modern life is complex. My Cable Company is ripping me off and lots of other companies are but i dont have time to look through the bills and figure out the many ways people are ripping me off. If you talk about discrimination the workplace whether its paid to Discrimination Company to run complex regression analysis to figure out whether women are being paid less than men. We have a system where lawyers can represent people and allow them to band together and go into court and bring these things called class actions. What the Supreme Court has done in a series of cases, these are the late4 cases where in,ice scalia weighed restrict people from doing it. People case where it was who alleged at t was ripping them off. The question was not whether they got ripped off, the question was do people get the right to go into court and banded together along with all the other people who allege they were ripped off in the same way and bring that case . Int the Supreme Court said that case is they dusted off a law from the 1920s called the federal arbitration act that was just intended to allow businesses that wanted to go outside of court to agree to do that. They allowed companies to insert into the fine print of their contracts with consumers and cell phone contracts, a clause that said you can invoke that federal arbitration act and you can say that people have to go into a private corporate Justice System and they can only ring these claims oneonone. If the claim is about getting ripped off by a phone company 30 at a time, no one in their right mind is going to bring that claimant. The effect of a decision like that is that all of those claims go away. Not so concerned as a customer. Im not concerned whether i get my 30 back. What i am concerned about is the deterrent effect, the fact that if a lawsuit like that cannot be brought, theres nothing to stop people from shooting people. You might not care as much about your phone bill. You might care more if it is a bank and were talking about mortgages and practices that nearly crippled the american economy. This is something that voters on the right and the left should be concerned about in this nomination. A case that followed on this case was a case called American Express versus italian colors further exacerbated the problem. It was an antitrust case and we represented italian colors restaurant. Its a small Italian Restaurant in oakland, california. Like many other Small Businesses, they were concerned about the ability of Credit Card Companies to write these terms into their contracts and force them into these arrangements that because the Credit Card Companies have so much monopoly power, the merchants dont have much say in what happens. These merchants wanted to challenge American Express monopoly power. What the Supreme Court said is you cannotmeans that bring a case like that, even if puteans no one rationally together the resources to bring the case, were still going to allow a claim like that to be sent out of the court system and into this one on one arbitration system. Kagan wrote a dissent to Justice Scalias opinion in this case and she explained what was going on. She said in this case, the monopolist gets to use its monopoly power to insist on a that deprives its victims of all rights to challenge that very monopoly power. Its crazy. You would not believe it if it were explained to you in that way. Could doSupreme Court this and the Supreme Court response was too darn bad. I think that is whats at stake in this nomination is whether or will be agorsuch justice who continues that trend. He has written some things about class actions that should give us reason to be concerned about that. He has described classaction does nothing but a free wide a free ride to fast riches for lawyers and he wrote an article in the National Review complaining about what he called liberals addiction to lawsuits. I think that is something we should be concerned about. Dont think people who voted for this president voted for that. I thought they would get i think they thought they would get somebody who would shake things up and work for the little guy, not large banks and companies. We got a lot on the table. The Common Threads between the three of your comments so far is the problem of concentrated economic power, economic influence that skews how we expect a fair market and a fair economy to work and then the in which the consumers, Small Businesses, and government actors are all limited in their ability to respond to that, to hold those actors accountable. What we are really dealing with is the legal and policy construction or construction of the of exclusion of the opportunity. Worked on these issues intersecting with questions of Racial Justice and civil rights. Can you give us a sense from that Vantage Point how these thees are animating challenges for Racial Justice. For also want to thank cap inviting all of us to this conversation. Defensend the legal fund, its impossible to talk about economic exclusion without talking about the role that discrimination, particularly race dissemination, in fostering that conclusion. Its discrimination across a number of different areas like sex, sexual orientation, people with disabilities and the like. At it from that Vantage Point but also the tools that have been developed over time that allow us to attack that discrimination. Any scotus nominee or judicial nominee should be asked a lot about the role of class actions and the role of access to justice. We think its important to respect the intersection that you discussed. We look at this from a standpoint of Economic Justice which respects the intersection of poverty and race. These are ordinary folks being impacted across a number of areas. Our clients dont spur his life in silence. In silos. We established the National Organization for the rights of the indigent that deals with criminalization of the poor, bail reform, issues around fees and fines. This is at the intersection of race and poverty. In the 1970 we brought grigs which set the framework for desperate impact which is spread across a number of civil rights areas. Are whatese frameworks is at stake when we discuss judge gorsuch or any judicial nominee and this administration in general. There are serious concerns about access to justice and classaction and serious concerns regarding judge gorsuchs record looking at class certification but also his motions toto grant some to dismiss and prevent people from getting to jury. On the employment discrimination we see some of the same things, erecting barriers to access to justice but also being skeptical about claims of defendants in this regard and siding with employers. Fund, thisal defense is about law and policy. Economic mobility touched on issues of infrastructure and laws to seeisting if we can make sure our afrastructure is operating in way thats not discriminatory. Its how federal funds are used to impact transportation, all of these things are on the table when you talk about this administration but also when you talk about how this might end up in court and how this particular nominee will address these issues. A bunch of the panelists have talked about the stakes of the Gorsuch Nomination. These are issues that go far weond the headline topics tend to focus on in a confirmation hearing. Elizabeth, your group has done a lot of great work on situating the Current Court in context of all of these issues which involve, in different ways, the balance of power between business on one side and everybody else on the other. Maybe you could give us a sense of where the trend has been on the court and where gorsuch fits into that. Thank you so much. I think this discussion shows the courtays in which affects the daily lives of all of us. Breathe ande air we the food we eat and whether you have a roof over your head and how much you pay for it and whether when you go to work, you can have a workplace that is safe and free from dissemination on the basis of color of your skin or gender or who you love. These are incredibly important issues even when they involve technical issues of arbitration and preemption or antitrust. I thought this was a great phrase, the court both participates and facilitates the trend of probusiness environment at the expense of everyday working americans. One thing that the has doneional center is look at the way that trend has appeared in the Supreme Court. We looked at the chamber of commerce, the voice of business. The u. S. Chamber of commerce, not your local chamber of commerce. There are important differences. You look back at this memo that lewis powell wrote to the u. S. Chamber of commerce. This was in 1971 and he notes what he calls neglected opportunity in the court. He says we have seen groups like anddf using course to pursue justice for their constituents and for our country overall. He said the Business Community should be harnessing the court. As anuld be using them agent of economic and political change. In pointing out the neglected opportunity, he urges the chamber of commerce to come up with this strategy to get the courts to be more probusiness and put the interest of business at the top. Cac looked at how successful that attempt was and we did studies going back to the burger court. Nd to the roberts we have some here in the room and you can find it on our website. I am at the end so i brought little charts. We saw a vast increase in support for the business, big business viewpoint on the Supreme Court. You go back to the burger court starting in 1981, you have about an even split with the chamber only winning 43 of the time. You look in the Roberts Court now which is the most probusiness court of the modern era and the chamber of commerce wins 69 of the time. Change in thed business dominance of the Supreme Court. The other thing that is important is not just that they are winning, its the way they are winning. There is a sharp ideological divide that you did not see back when you were on the burger court. What the more liberal justice and youre more conservative justice voting for big business about the same amount of the time. Now we have the most probusiness justice, justice alito, voting for the chamber 74 of the time. The once voted for the least, justice ginsburg, 44 of the time. That is a vast ideological divide on whether you are probusiness or not. What i think is important and one thing that has been brought out by discussion is that its not result oriented. We have to do that a little bit to get the numbers but its the way in which business is winning. There are certainly cases where the business side of the argument should win. We are not saying that should never happen. The problem that the Roberts Court is that they bend over backwards to accommodate the interests of big business at the expense of the little guy. They dont seem to show that same solicitude when youre justiceat assets to cases for those of us who are individual americans as opposed to access to justice cases when youre a big business that wants justice in an arbitration proceeding. Its a vast over reading of the arbitration case. When we look at judge gorsuchs record, obviously its a very important question of whether he will further entrench that ability of the Supreme Court to bend over backwards for big business or whether he will apply the law fairly for all people no matter how much money you have in your bank account and whether you sit in the Corner Office or not. Has put out this report that raises concerns and we dont take a position until after the hearings. We have some concerns. Its precisely on the over statutory or regulatory language to favor the business. Workingxpense of the american. There is a case with trans am trucking which is a great example which is gotten some press were gorsuch dissented from the majority ruling and said the trucker who was on the side of the road and in freezing conditions faced with the question whether my brakes failed, i have his load of goods in my truck, its freezing cold, the Company Tells me to stay here with the goods in the back of the truck but i am literally freezing to death. I cannot operate my truck safely. And drives the cab of the truck to safety into warmth. He was fired. The majority says he is protected under the federal safety lock for whistleblowers and people who refuse to operate who failed to operate equipment in an unsafe manner. In ach engages in dissent cramped reading of the statute to say the statutes as failure to operate but he did not fail to operate because he drove the truck. He refused to operate in an unsafe manner that his employer directed him to do so we would not give that Worker Protection under the law. Its not that he would have voted for business, its that he engaged in this cramped interpretation of the law that i think even chief Justice Roberts, when he looks at the case, i dont aca think chief Justice Roberts would have voted with gorsuch in that case. Going into the hearings for judge gorsuch, we have concerns that he has a burden to show he will be truly independent of big business interests. There are concerns about independence overall given the context in which donald trump with litmus tests and whether he will take each case as a times a look at the facts and be the independent check that the constitution and American People demand. I am delighted that senator klobuchar is committed to asking these questions of him. I hope we will get a robust and clarifying answers from the nominee. The American People really should be watching this just as closely on these issues as they do on some of these highprofile issues that all of his care deeply about like Marriage Equality from the past couple of terms, the abortion cases, the Affordable Care act. These are important cases but the little ones are important and we should be watching them as well. We have covered a ton of ground. A strong lesson coming from all of you on the panel. The law in general but then the Supreme Court of particular, at the center of our Legal Development has a huge Ripple Effect on the degree to which our economy is inclusion or exclusionary, a fair room for opportunity and engagement or not and it manifests in some of these nooks and crannies of the law that may not be front and center for a lot of folks but really have huge effects. To leave a little bit of time for questions but maybe we anddo a lightning round from each of your Vantage Points, is there a particular upcoming case or policy dispute that touches on the issue we have been talking about that you are seeing coming down the pike. Looking ahead, what are some of the things as a community should be particularly focused on over the next few months . For me, thet real question is going to be with the new court, how many antitrust cases they take. And whether they can start clarifying aspects of the law that need clarification. Decisionsence of more on a lot of these antitrust issues, lower courts and agencies are left to interpret them in narrow ways. That can be very limiting and result in some of the concerns we have discussed here. I would not say there is anyone case for me to question. Will the Supreme Court start granting more antitrust cases . My concern is with all of the chaos happening that we are all collectively distracted by something new every day and we dont notice that the agenda i have been talking about is about limiting access to the court which is part of a broader deregulatory agenda is just taking place every day. The house of representatives just passed sweeping legislation to limit access to the courts through classaction. As far as i can tell, nobody is noticing this. Before the Supreme Court, there are cases where the National LaborRelations Board has concluded that exactly the kind of clause i was talking about, a clause in the fine print that seeks to stop workers from being able to bring class actions where they have no choice. The National LaborRelations Board has said thats an unfair labor practice. The question before the supreme does the view when or the federal arbitration act when question mark the Supreme Court decided to kick that case until the next term to wait until judge gorsuch arrives. The troubling thing is that judge gorsuch has made his views known on deference to agencies. He said he does not believe in deferring to the extent current Supreme Court law allows. Verynk we should be concerned about what he would do in that case. Pointhink thats a great that while these things are ,appening that distract us rightfully take up our attention every day, but the Supreme Court is continuing to operate even though they only have eight justices. They are hearing important cases and theres a important case this term that has to do with the ability of the city of miami but cities in general to hold big banks like wells fargo, bank of america, accountable when they engage in racially discriminatory, predatory mortgage lending practices that and, in many cases, you this are rated communities of color. Its an important case about whether the Supreme Court is biging to hold accountable corporations when they engage in wrongdoing. Me, its the context within which all of this is happening. Real life does not operate in buts but concern conservatives dont either. They are dismantling our civil rights. Congress is operating under the cra to undermine our civil rights, moving regulations and administrative rules that went us to get put in place. The other context which goes to the access to justice team is the fact that the attorney general may not be the partner he once was. Or the position was. In the past, advocates like me regardless of party were Standing Shoulder to shoulder in our litigation with the attorney general. This time around, it seems that you will learn they have switched sides. With regard to Economic Justice, this is critical. The attorney general oversees the Civil Rights Division which has important Law Enforcement responsibilities regarding employment discrimination. We need to be very careful about access to justice and intervening in this in these cases so we can actually make up for the lack of partnership. Think the executive branch itself has demonstrated a frankly open hostility to the courts. How independent will any nominee be to this administration . Be acting very bullishly to undermine our rights. Messagingit more as a , a part of the movement to make sure that inclusion and Small Businesses and entrepreneurs have access. We have an opportunity to when you say antitrust, people spin turn it into and not addon to the messaging of Economic Opportunity but as a central plank of any message about how those of us who care about this country want fairness. When you talk about this, whether youre talking politics were switching agencies or lobbying or advocacy, has to be that this part has to be fixed. That should be the plank of the economic populist and we use as progressives. I believe we have a couple of minutes for q a. The gentleman in the back, please. Thank you, im a private practitioner in washington and a professor at georgetown law school. I have fought just about every paytv merger that has come up for the fcc and doj. Ive got fellow warriors in the room who remember this. When senator klobuchar said lets make antitrust cool again, amen. Inherent in that is politics. The point is to make something that can be very esoteric more tangible to the public. Moreannot think of a important intersection of law and politics than the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice. That is how the constitution brought politics into this conversation in the first place. If we as progressives want to if we as progressives want to see a higher profile for any trust enforcement and if we understand this to be a political and legal question, wouldnt it make sense to start with the things that people understand the most. Your words ive heard today beer, pharmaceuticals, i would add gasoline. In other words, there are parts of the Economy Today were people hate the provider or love the product. Its not a hard sell to say to them, you are being screwed. Doesnt it make sense to start there before we get to the esoterica . Lets take this question as well. We can do them in batches. In terms of a candid president naming people to the Supreme Court, we have seen this not just on the right but on the left as well with sandra saying i will only appoint justices who will overturn citizens united. Whoever most of us would like to see however most of us would like to see the overturn, just in that compromise doesnt that come from eyes any candidate named by either party . For orve pledged to vote overturn or uphold a controversial decision. Shouldnt any intelligent candidate say it would depend on the particular circumstances of a case that is likely to go before the court and therefore i cannot make any commitment to overturn or affirm . Those two questions are on the table. With the last question, i think any good candidate will say that i cannot speak to any specifics or comment on any case but i think its the job of our United States senator like senator klobuchar to ask probing questions that go to the fundamental thinking of people who will have such a major impact on our society. Like gorsuchjudge and thinking about antitrust, he knows the subject very well. Shouldely, the senator ask them questions about antitrust and what he teaches and his philosophy in the subject and they should listen to his answers carefully. They should use that as the basis to determine how they will vote. I agree with you that the litmus test is problematic. That is part of the reason why gorsuch goes into this hearing with such a high burden. We normally have a little bit of theater where the senators ask questions on the nominees give no answer basically. It is problematic you have had a clear application of litmus tests in this case. Donald trump said a lot of things in a lot of different ways in the campaign trouble one thing he was consistent on was his language about litmus test and the willing to overturn roe versus wade. While you certainly want a nominee who will come out and i will take each case as it comes, when you have someone who is has promised to people who in many cases have the Supreme Court is one of their most Important Reasons to vote for donald trump, he promised to who that i will get someone will automatically overturn roe versus wade. You naturally have the question of did you make that promise . Did someone on your behalf guarantee you would vote in a certain way this particular case many people that said Justice Gorsuch is not the kind of person and he is independent. We need that to be proven perhaps even more than the normal course of things in this particular hearing because of thes what is at stake. Its on it or of the ideological spectrum. Connect the two questions quickly, i agree with what has been said. Even though we have this kabuki dance were people ask these questions and the candidates dont answer, i want to make an argument in favor of the value of that process even if it does not yield specific answers. This is a teaching moment. The reason folks are in the room now to talk about these issues and here is talk about what the court has been up to is because there is a nomination. The it comes to constitution, its very difficult and frustrating because there is not much an that we as citizens can do. Where the court is interpreting what commerce is done, there is a fix. It matters to have that conversation not only because of the outcome of the nomination but forgetting people energized and mobilized about these issues. That weld like to add spoke about pharmaceutical and this is what i talk about to anybody who will listen is our messaging problem. We have a messaging problem when we say antitrust for most americans, it means something along standard oil or something they learned about. We have to put into things like others wherest and you are frustrated because the system seems rigged. One thing i will add to that is it is not just the industries that people can identify with. One of the takeaways from me for hearing this discussion is that the problem of private power manifests in many things, not just consumer products. Is racial inequality, inequality in the workplace, things that i people do not live their lives in silos. There is a lot more scope to connect the themes of this panel to the lived experience of inequality and exclusion that people experience. Lets take one more round of questions. Thehe back and then gentleman appear. We will take both questions and then answer is a group. As a group. In 1938, roosevelt gave a speech a monopoly power and said private concentrations of power taking over government is the definition of fascism. I think its pretty obvious we are seeing similar trends today. You see it in the political dialogue but also in forums were we talk about the Supreme Court. It would be too polite to mention it so i will mention it. Thats what president roosevelt said. Court and gets on the the concentration of power will be toward conservatives, the strategy to avoid concentrations of power taking over the government cannot be to wait 20 or 30 years. Until you get the court back. It has to be to change her interracial our institutional relationship to the court. What is that look like . What does that look like . You, my question is for those who have extensively looked at judge gorsuchs body of work, do you find somebody who you conclude is result oriented and is seeking some legal way to reach a probusiness decision in every case or do you find somebody that is primarily Legal Process driven and its because he is a strong believer in textualism and original as him that he tends to graduate to decisions which have the effect of empowering business at the expense of other groups . I can take the first question. I think i said the context is important. Or appointee has to be considered within the context of whats happening with this administration. You talk about concentration of power, this administration has had over reach on the executive order side of things. Can andban a not i consulted with the experts, career or otherwise before making a decision. That was not a mistake. There is a desire to run things in a way that excludes transparency. The content i talked about before needs to be on the table when youre asking someone what you would agree to be partners with this administration or agree to an appointment. How independent will you be in evaluating the administrations decision on any particular matter . Question, the answer is yes. From the record we have seen, focusing on employment discrimination, as originalists, he argues that he is, we have seen that he tends to side with the employers and read the process and procedures in a way more often than not result in the employers being victorious and even skeptical to the claims of plaintiffs. Philosophy about using the court to advance claims, may be a philosophy around that, but i am looking at his record. Number ofking at the type of cases he has decided. We see someone who is skeptical plaintiffs claims in the employment context and someone who is really to breathe new hobby lobbys case to side with employers. That brings up an important look inough which to his record. Gorsuch claims to be an original list. I will say right here as a progressive, there is nothing about original as him despite what conservatives will tell you, that necessitates conservatism. With a lot we have of conservative deliver journalists is they think the constitution ended with the Second Amendment or maybe the 10th amendment. When you are an original list with respect to the whole constitution the way that we the people have amended over time to remove the stain of slavery, right into the constitution Peoples Protection for all pollns, to ensure that the tax was eradicated so your ability to be a citizen did not depend on your ability to a when you came to the ballot box. When we look at the constitution as it has been amended over time to be more equal and just and more inclusive and free, that does not lead to conservative results. It leads to progressive results. Us concern when you look at these cases like employment dissemination cases and you see gorsuch as original as him coming through in these anservative cases but not ringing endorsement of history on equality for all people of all colors or genders, that raises a question mark. Together theng results with the methodology, the philosophy and thats something that needs to be explored at the hearing. I think thats a very good point. Very few justices would say brown versus board of education was wrongly decided. Becomes, what difference between brown which contained many features were talking about ike access to justice and classaction types of processes as well as using experts to examine facts, what ut brown separates it from what about brown separates it from other plaintiff cases . Those are valid questions. That brown wasay wrong is anathema or are the why he seems to be siding more with employers . Jumping in on the first urgency, if you have and you believe that change is necessary now and at the same time you juxtapose that against the Supreme Court that can take 30 years to really shift, how do you deal with those problems . That is hard. The answer starts with creating an ideological movement. Its creating principle that people can move education forward, bring cases, if its academia, new blood, new ideas from professors. Over time, you influence the way the American Public thinks about certain issues so that you can place people on the court to reflect those values. It starts with a movement. Whatever you want to rally behind, that is what is necessary and i think a lot of the themes and what we saw in the selection as a country buterate for a movement perhaps not getting everything a bargain for. Real question is, what will fill the void . I think part of the reason for panels like these is that we need to have a strong message, one that is positive for the American People to fill that void and create a movement and socialot be just around issues. It has to be around Economic Issues as well. Thats a good place to pause. We are time but thanks to everyone. [applause] host caller [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] \ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] again with remarks from minnesota senator senator glover chart and you can go to www. Cspan. Org to see her comments. Taking you live to the White House Daily briefing with press Secretary Sean Spicer underway. Its a much more accurate understanding whats happening in the economy. I want to clarify your answer doj and or the administration comply with the deadline . The request was made of the doj. Its the proper venue to ask that question. Surely the white house knows whether you cant in the past, when we have had these conversations with another agency, the accusation from the press corps is that we are interfering in something. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot say we are interfering with someone when i talks the more we dont talk them. Surely you must know