Thank you, thank you. Well, its a really great honor to be here and to be back in new york. We are on a 100 city tour for the 20th anniversary for democracy now . I also want to shout out to my colleagues over there in the back, and the volunteers and interns who are helping out. Democracy now is a joint effort, a joint project, a brain trust of Remarkable Group of reporters and producers and videographers for the last 20 years. We never thought it was going to go beyond nine months. It was the only data election show a public broadcasting in 1996. Account the call to do the show when i was in a safe house in haiti, and to cover that critical time by after the first coup. People who announced for office could be gunned down. People who would go to the polls could be gunned down. And still the overwhelming number of people voted. But in our country when its asked to do a daily election show sitting there from that vantage point, most people didnt vote facing nothing like the adversity t
Hillary does not have a progressive agenda. Bernie is dragging hillary to the left. This is not in the center. The republicans have destroyed the middle. Noticed, ifve hillary gets in office and starts capitulating to the republicans, she will be a one term president. This is what i think she plans doing. Bernie will not cut social security. He will strengthen them. He will not agree in compromise with the republicans. That is not the compromise we want. He does faced a high bar to achieving the nomination. Would you support hillary in the general election . Guest if her Platform Supports what i want. She has to bring the public. She has to convince us voters to vote for her because she is going to do what we want. Host heres a clip of Bernie Sanders after he won the West Virginia primary earlier this week. Let me be as clear as i can be, we are in this campaign to win the democratic nomination. [applause] we are going to fight for every kentucky,in oregon, california, the dakotas. We
Michael obviously there is a lot of political intrigue in the Supreme Court. A lot of powerful people are interested in the decisions that you come to any effects that they have on Public Policy and commerce. My question is, what if any effect is that political interests have on the court decisionmaking process, and what steps do you take to maybe isolate yourself from that political interest . Is it just something that you and the other justices get used to overtime . Justice sotomayor you do not get on the court unless you are a concerned citizen. Every single justice has had a career in which they have devoted their lives, in some form or a the other or the other to the public view. Even any private practice they have been involved in activities that do public service. We are, by nature, citizen lawyers. You do not work as hard as we work, reach where we have reached, unless we have shown that to the powers that be. We get selected because we are the very best at some aspect of the
That do public service. We are, by nature, citizen lawyers. You do not work as hard as we work, reach where we have reached, unless we have shown that to the powers that be. We get selected because we are the very best at some aspect of the work that we have done. That work often includes public service. It means that there is not one of us who was unaware is unaware of political rights. We are aware. We read the newspapers. We listen to the news. Some of us are political junkies. Others are not. Being an informed citizen does not get translated into, now i am going to vote the way the public wants me to. The gift the Founding Fathers gave us is they gave us a lifetime job so that we would not feel pressure to do a decision based on Public Opinion from fear that somehow we would be driven from our work. So were not thinking about Public Opinion in terms of reaching the answer that we believe the law compels. Every year if you read the most sensitive decisions, you will see us recognizi
Was founded on. Was founded on it was founded on a deep and profound belief from people that brought a great these areo people all arguable and debatable points today, but in many ways benefited from that tradition. So, i want to talk about citizenship, which is an interesting concept because in the islamic tradition, citizenship, the actual word in is thefor citizenship place you were born. Historically, it is conferred upon people based on birth. You can be naturalized, but it is a birthright if you are born in a place, historically you are a citizen of that place. One of the interesting verses in the koran the koran swears by the city of mecca and it says the prophet was a lawful citizen of the country and had a birthright of being born into that city, he had a right to be there, and he had a right to think freely. And he was being wronged and oppressed. Is a birthright, but it is also related to the idea of suffrage and enfranchisement. The idea we can participate in our government