Archives. ,. September 17th is the constitution, special welcome to our cspan audience. The National Archives we have celebrated the Constitution Day since 1956, four years after installing the original parchment document, in its place of honor. Over the decades weve celebrated the constitution in many ways. Tomorrow we host one of my favorite events naturalizations, of the United States. Its always a moving experience for people from all parts of the world, as they stand in front of a parchment signed by our founders, 232 years ago its word to support and defend the constitution. We also invite notable guest speakers to help us reflect on and understand the constitution in its Central Place in our nations history, and in present day. Today we are specially honored this evening, the sitting justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, neil gorsuch has recently brought together his reflections on the constitution and in separation of powers in the volume of a republican if you could keep, it quits to welcome here to the home of the United States constitution. He was born in Denver Colorado received a ba from columbia, agility from harvard law school, and a doctorate of philosophy from oxford, he served as a judge, they just so quarter appeals for the district of who olivia, and in kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1995 to 2005 he was in private practice, from 2005 to 2006 he was Principal Deputy associate general attorney general at the department of justice. He was appointed to the United States court of appeals through the tenth circuit in 2006. He served on the Standing Committee on rules a practice and procedure of the u. S. Tradition conference as chairman of the advisory committee. He taught at the university of colorado law school, and president Donald J Trump nominated him as an associate just it of the Supreme Court and he took a seat on april 12th, 2017. Listen gentlemen please welcome the honorable associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Its wonderful to have you, back here here just after you were seated, in may of 2017 to swear earn the National Counter intelligence and security, its nice to have you back with us. Its always nice to be, here its a wonderful place, i encourage all young people especially to come visit it is just across from the space museum, its not that far. Where everyone is. If youre really lucky i know kids get to spend a night, camping, out with the constitution. How cool is that . Ive had a lot of friends with kids who have done that, it really touched them. So thank you for doing that. So take us back to september of 2016, in colorado, as they do in the beginning of the book. What happened . My life more or less changed, in every conceivable way overnight. As living a quiet and very happy life, in a little town called now i walk outside of boulder colorado where he had been a judge for a decade. On the tenth circuit, all of a sudden everything change of yachtsman if you want story that is emblematic of that it would be this. We had to sneak out of our home, in boulder, and sneak into the white house. The president was very committed for it to be a surprise, that we wanted to honor his wishes, how do you get into the white house unnoticed . It turns out its pretty tricky. Weve got to go in through the kitchen. We went through the kitchen of the white house. That turned out to be really neat, because, i mean history buff, and down there, you can see there are still score marks, from the fires, in the war of 1812, there are still bullet indentations from bullets down there as, well so we snuck, in through the kitchen, and the president very graciously allowed me to use the lincoln bedroom, as an office for the day, thats where i promote my remarks were the evenings announcement. In the table, and desk, on which theres a copy of the gettysburg address. Written lincolns hand. Wow. The president knew that my wife luis is british originally, america now. And he gave her use of the queens bedroom for the day, right across the hall. Or churchill stayed, the queen stays, before the announcement, they asked us not to make any phone calls. But they no problem with louise calling her parents back in england. They figured, five hours ahead, its the middle of the night, theyll never tell anybody anyway. So louise calls her father, and she says dad, you are never going to believe, its going to be neil. My father in law had stayed up to watch the news, and he said, darling, and watching the american news, and theres another fellow, and hes driving this aghast a shun is driving on his way to washington, and im pretty sure its going to be him. In laws. The other fella is a dear friend of mine as, well louise says, yeah, im pretty sure its neal. Im sitting in the lincoln bedroom. And he quickly replied, yes honey, but president trump, the other guy might be down the hall. David, everything changed, everything. Thats a story in the book. The marshals who were guarding our home and family, iowa huge debt to, their wonderful people, who give their lives serving the country. And the courts, very briefly, one night, a truck apparently came up, it sped up to the, house and a man jumped, out and started running toward the house carrying containers with white substance inside of it. Louise got a call the next morning, it was the company that delivers our milk. They informed us, that our usual milk, men who have been serving us for years, would no longer be coming to the house. Somebody else would be doing the job, louise said, did something happen . She went out to the marshals asked, did something happen . To which there was the terse reply. There was an incident, maam. It took some cross examination before it had came out what had happened, in the final answer was yes, maam he ended in the prone position. Louise being luis took over one of those chocolate, towers as an apology, and not sure he ever totally got over it. So just in the vein of the station identification, let me remind, you about the role, in your confirmation process, we were asked by the Senate Judiciary committee, to deliver, everything we could, that we had, about you. Which turned out to be, 13, 000, 285 electronic assets, that were responsive to the request, of, these 2700, related specifically to your nomination from the tenth Circuit Court of appeals. And those records contain, 19,438 pages, 522 microsoft excel spreadsheets, and eight microsoft access databases. Alone 156 to ten shipments. My apologies. And my apologies told my friends and families, and coworkers for this process. It was my law form had to produce every document, as a lawyer, i think i had signed, or filed, my eighth grade teacher got assaulted by press corps, coming out of school, on and on it wont, hit you gather here tonight thank you. My friends and my family, just emerged from the, woodwork. You talk about your loss of anonymity. It was something, want to have a living quietly in colorado, the next day everyone in america knows who am, i think those photographs more and about one minute than i had been in my whole life. Its a little disconcerting at first you are celebrating your noodles, in a restaurant, and somebody at the other end of the restaurant, is videoing you. That takes some getting used to, within i realized that when god takes something away, he usually gives you something in return, if you just look for it hard enough, when 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, the deep reservoir of goodness, in American People. I got letters of support from all across the country, and even a package of socks. From someone who had seen me on television, and saw that my socks had followed down too often. People come up to me, in a coffee, shop early in the morning, and say i think you need a joke, and they just tell me a joke, people came up and say im a huge supporter of this president. Well i dont support this president , but i wish you well, and im praying for your family. During that crazy process, i was on a flights, between denver and washington, it was one of those moments rose feeling a little frazzled from it all. I was seated next to a little, girl who was probably, six. The plane started doing some turbulence along the, way she leaned over to me and she said would you mind if i hold your hand . And so we held hands for about 20 minutes, through the turbulence, and at the end of, it she said, now would you like to draw . And we spent the next two and a half hours, with your coloring book. And that was a wonderful moment for me, of just being normal. Of course, at the edge of the flight, her mother, who was seated behind us, recognized me, two weeks later, i got my favorite thank you note ever. It was a drawing, the little girl had done, on the airplane, with to stick figures, standing in front, saying thank you for holding my hand, and the stuff stick figures are holding hands. Thats the American People to, me thats what i got to see, and i get to see day in and day out, and its a privilege. So tell us about the inspiration. Came during the confirmation process, my predecessor, smoked a pipe at his confirmation hearing, i dont think we are likely to see that again. My old boss barr and wanted, to his confirmation hearing lasted 15 minutes. So did mine, for the tenth circuit. Things were little different the next time around. During the confirmation process, i was truly surprised at how many people thought that a judge, is really just a politician, who wears a rogue. And should promised to do certain things, and roll certain ways in cases they havent heard. Everybodys got their favorite, oh they tell me, youve got to follow precedent, and they tell you their favorite precedent, and then they tell me, i must overrule this other thing, than any one person this is, that i meet with another hisses exact opposite, came to, think its one thing to think, the judges occasionally, mistakenly humanly air. And follow their personal preferences, over their honest views of the laws demands. Its another thing entirely, to think thats the way it should be. And thats the way it is routinely, and that there is no difference between politician and a judge. And then i got to learning, and thinking about the subject more, where our way on separation of powers, the constitution, civics education, it was truly shocked, only about a third of americans can named three branches of our government. Another third can only name one branch of government. 10 of americans, apparently, believe that serves on the american Supreme Court, those of you chuckling know she is judged duty, i happen to like judge duty, but she is not one of my colleagues. The archives does wonderful work, they do wonderful work, the constitution has all sorts of wonderful organizations working in this area, but i thought, i owed something back, and i want to put down a few thoughts on paper about this. So lets get to the meat of the book, you describe it as this is so well written, new data terrific job with talk about separations of powers, where are we . Separation of powers, it can sound pretty dry. Everybody understands, the the First Amendment contributes to your liberty, they all get that. We understand that, but i dont think we understand or appreciate may review every day, maybe as much as we might, how the separation of powers contributes to our liberty. And the genius of it. Madison wrote the constitution, didnt want to write a bill of rights, if we got the structure right, we would need a bill of rights. And he thought that it deliverances really, at the end of the day, a list of promises, and promises are only go to see enforcement mechanism behind them. Heres how to test madison in the real world, bills of rights. Which one is your favorite the United States bill rights is pretty good. My favorite, is north koreas, yes i said north korea, it promises everything our beloved right promises, and more. Get a Free Education free health care, my favorite, the right to relaxation, it sounds pretty good doesnt . Im not sure how that fares, but there you are. The truth is that bill of rights is it worth the paper its written on because all power is concentrated in the hands of one person. A tyrant. That was madisons genius, he recognized, that so what im . I i am, one ninth, of one third, of our federal government, which is one half, of the government in our federal system. Divide, power that was the wisdom of medicine, that all sounds pretty academic, maybe a little walk, ish i confessed when i learned all of that, which yes, im old enough that i had to take, it sounded pretty dry, but as a judge, i came to realize, and see, in the real world, impact, muddying up the separation of powers has on your liberty, let me give you just a few examples, what happens when judges, actives legislators . And instead of following the law, faithfully . Begin to make things up,. Maybe the first real departure of the United StatesSupreme Court, from the constitution, as it was originally written, was dred scott, internet scott the Supreme Court of the United States held the white persons, had the right to own black persons, in the territories of the United States. And they said that right could be found in the fifth amendments to process cause. Which guarantees you, due process, before your life liberty. Nascar the fifth amendment as long as he want, its 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 overt a civil war. And that making it up was worthwhile. They acted as legislators. Judges make rotten politicians. They guessed wrong. And instead of overdoing the civil war, they helped contribute to it. Thats one. Angle separation of powers. What happens when, the legislature gives up its power to make the laws, and signs it instead, to the executive branch . Madison knew that legislation, lawmaking, would be the greatest potential threat to liberty. And so he wanted it to be hard. And deliberative, and slow, and careful, and evolve all the people. Two houses of congress, arduous process, the president must sign or there must be a veto override. Demanding public involvement of the peoples representatives, selected by two different constituencies at different times. Its supposed to be hard. Its supposed to involve everybody. Modern Political Science is establish that it puts minorities at the fulcrum of power. Because their votes are often essential that process to get legislation enacted weve effectively a super majority requirement thats what matters and thought would protect their rights. We are minority, and unpopular, what happens when you take that process, and stick it in the executive branch. President selected once, maybe twice, a dozen app to be very public, its going to be a lot faster, isnt it. Youre going to get a lot more of it, arent you . And youre going to have less say in the process. Minorities, are going to play a very small role, the president just needs to win the majority. Youve elected yourself a king, for four years. Or maybe, even worse, some of the agencies, dont even much respond to the president , so you are having law made by bureaucracy. Lest you think im exaggerating, let me give you a case, this is the sort of thing that persuaded me, rather than academic theory, real facts with real people. A Company Called carry hearts, located in my home state of colorado, i saw this, all this stuff is in the book, they provided home nursing care, for medicare and they are accused of Medicare Fraud by the government and find 800,000 dollars, as you know, being accused of fraud, by the government, is a pretty serious thing, it can be a business ending proposition, life ending proposition for people and their livelihoods. Years of litigation go by, what do we find out . Karen heart should abide by all the rules. All of them. With the executive branch agency. For them to abide. At the time they run to their services, and the government was accusing them of violating rules that it hadnt even yet created at the time. It was making up rules so fast that even the government became confused. Second branch, what happens when the executive branch placed judge. Icy cases in which veterans, and immigrants, are all in the book. Veterans and immigrants, have a winning legal argument, veteran seeking benefits for ptsd, immigrants seeking lawful admission in this country. And i as, an independent, judge think they should win. They have a winning argument. We have doctrines now. The same independent judges dont get to interpret the law. A bureaucrat does, and i, Supreme Court justice, have to defer, to the borough cats interpretation of the law, you are supposed to ever right for an independent judge, thats lost, separation of power, i think its vital, those are free examples, lets the boat constitution, it is only as good as the people, the people often want, it the people have to protect it, think reagan used to say, so would you say that they are equal . Are they in balance . I would like to say yes. Theyre supposed to be. I think some of the examples they gave you make you wonder, and they are transferring a lot of legislative and judicial power, whether its running to the executive. I worry about that. Im familiar with a data point about the people who dont, or cant identify the three branches of government, but to add to that, three quarters of americans, can name the three stooges. Is that right it talk about originalism intellectualism, so lets talk about originalism. Me we have to start with what the heck that is, originalism, its a boring term. All it is though is the idea tha