Larges and also by and they are some legal resource ability for causing the deaths, who is more legally liable for the deaths of romeo and juliet . Please vote. Blue for thee parents. Let me know introduced the participants for this evening. First, and a special thanks always to the help we get from the United StatesSupreme Court justices marshall, pamela token. [applause] and counsel for the defendant, elizabeth b. Prevager, assistant to solicitor general and debbie solicitor general michael j. Aden. [applause] plaintiff, for cue. And lady monta [applause] in the Supreme Court of the principality of verona, u. S. Supreme Court Justice send alito , presiding united court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit judge thomas griffith, judge kavanagh, judge robert wilkins, and from the District Court please welcome judge jackson. And now i turn it over to the marshall. All rise. The Supreme Court of the principality of verona is now in session. Please be seated. We will hear argument in the case of lord and Lady Montague and lord and lady capulet versus fire lawrence. Counsel, are you ready . Mr. Chief justice, and may it please the court, plaintiffs seek to hold Friar Lawrence liable for spiritual malpractice. With all the respect, the only answers to a higher authority. If the court finds this tasteless claim liable, the floodgates will the open. Sue if hecapulet spills or copy of the fast food drivethrough . Will lord montague seek damages it is right cleaner loses his favorite pair of pantaloons . As explained in the amicus brief filed by the tort reform association, this has to stop. [laughter] even the court could articulate duty and care in this context, the friar does not reject. Plaintiffs claim his way to help romeo and juliet was convoluted. It was a bit of a hail mary. [laughter] plaintiffs are wrong to say it was foreseeable that the plan would fail. In fact, friar looked at all the polls before implemented this plan and a uniformly showed the plan would succeed. [laughter] the New York Times had it at 99 . [laughter] this is just a case of massive polling failure. I can assure you that Friar Lawrence and 52 of corona are still smarting about it. Bear responsibility for the tragic fate of their children. At first by perpetuating this silly feud, they basically insured romeo and juliet would fall in love. Everyone knows teenagers do the first opposite of what their parents want them to do. And the psychological literature bears that out. Int im speaking about taylor swift. She wrote an amazing song about romeo and juliet called love ice that to open the nobel prize in literature next year. Her song replaced the tragic andng with a happy ending, this court cant rewrite history like that. We are not the ninth circuit. [laughter] i think it is fair to say maybe when she wrote that song, just as kavanagh. Is interesting you mentioned the prize. I am troubled by Friar Lawrences motives. Either very readily agrees to perform this marriage because he thinks it may bring about peace between these two warring families. I think he was really what he was interested in primarily was winning the novello depache. People will go to any end to do that. I dont think the record accords with that characterization, chief justice. I think its clear that friar confronted civil strife, people biting their thumbs at each other left and right. He just wanted to make verona great again. [laughter] [applause] that brings up an interesting question to me. Isnt there a jurisdictional question lurking here. Isnt the prince the real culprit . He allowed the feud to ruin verona. Couldnt he have solved the problem by building a wall . [laughter] the 20 capulets and montagues. He probably couldve persuaded manchua to pay for it. Its a real political question. Should the prince have built the wall . Your office argued for an extensive application of the political question doctrine. Perhaps we should follow that case and follow the panel of the d. C. Circuit, what say ye . I think the question is on point. What i would say is if it is a political question, those two should have never proceeded. We wouldve respected this courts decision. Isnt everything a political question . These days, yes. I would like to get back to Justice Alitos point. I think Friar Lawrence was in this for himself. He wanted to be the hero. You dont get many activities that opportunities to save the day and he was not going to throw away his shot. Tell me that isnt something we should take into consideration . I think his motives were entirely pure. Keep in mind romeo and juliet came to him. They dragged him into this mess. He would not be the one really instigating this for his own glory. I think that means the parents are the proper focal point of scrutiny. They are the ones who bear responsibility for what happened to romeo. You mentioned the taylor swift song. Yes, she wrote a song that you read another song called bad blood. Wasnt Friar Lawrence aware the fact we were in this situation . He certainly was, but again its not his fault the parents did not have channels of communication open with her children and were not able to communicate with them. All the parents had to do was friend their kids on facebook. Teenagers love that. They if they had done so wouldve realized summit was up when they saw both romeo and juliet had listed the relationship status as its complicated. [laughter] doingt was Friar Lawrence growing these herbs . [laughter] is verona a jurisdiction where people are allowed to do that . For medicinal purposes like these, absolutely. [laughter] i think this court can take judicial notice of the decriminalization that is speaking at principalitys right now. A you call the friar blameless clergyman. Wasnt there a better way for him to pursue peace between the montagues and capulets . How about a sermon . Bingo at the parish . Or a potluck dinner . Why did he have to do this . He tried all the steps first and believe it or not none of them did the trick. This was the only thing that was left. It was not like it was so complicated. A simple four step plan makes juliet appeared debt and then get word to romeo and having come back it up in the crypt and live happily ever after. [laughter] he could have used a better means of communication, a security mail server or whatever. [laughter] save everyone a lot of hassle. He really regrets that choice. [laughter] you talk a lot about parents knowing their children. Ifseems like Friar Lawrence, he had waited two days before he executed this plan, romeo would have found another woman. He seemed like a nice guy. 24 hours later the whole thing would have blown over. Then it wouldnt be the greatest love story of all time. We have to resist that version of the facts. There was one thing that bothers me about your argument. You compare it to the hatfield and mccoys. How old are the hatfield mccoys when they were married . They were quite young as well. Maybe not quite as young. No, they were 18, 19. That is what is different about this case . She is 13. It is true juliet was a tender years, but i think that shows thats eighthgrade. [laughter] an eighth grader. Plaintiffsmind, the were trying to marry her off to paris. They wanted to do that to get her instant celebrity because he was a kinsman of the prince. History is a feat with examples of that kind of celebrity now working out for young women. Drew barrymore and Lindsay Lohan and miley cyrus invented twerking. I really hope i dont have to define that term for you. [laughter] thank you. After opposing counsel would do a demonstration. [laughter] it is my understanding that Friar Lawrence really wanted to get a reality show out of all of this. Doesnt the record reflect that is what his motive was . He is in negotiations for that now, but i think that has nothing to do with the events here. If anything it would only help them pay a judgment in this case. I think its important to keep in mind what kind of teenagers romeo and juliet were. That shows again the parents were not in sync with their kids. These were millennials. They were millennials of the 16th century. Everyone knows trying to marry juliet up to paris, you cant push millennials out of the house too soon. They are supposed to live at home until her 20s. They might go off to college but they come back home again. [laughter] they say other parentshealth insurance until they are 26. We will see what happens without one. [laughter] is it your argument it is not for seeable she might actually die during the plot in which she faked her death . That is exactly right. I think that is an airtight legal defense. It just was not for seeable that something could go wrong with this plan. [laughter] straight up. [laughter] well when youre looking at the parents culpability, romeo is frankly a pretty violent young man. It raises a lot of questions about what these parents did. Did they lot him watch too many episodes of game of thrones . Maybe he played too many violent video games. Do you think the friar was profile encouraged. He knows juliet has threatened to commit suicide if things did not work out with romeo, and that he sees her in the crypt and romeo is dead. He says well, im just leaving. I wouldnt say that shows consciousness of blame, maybe more cowardice. That does not make them liable in this case. Ifp in mind there is no aide you have to put yourself in a kind of grave danger. He thought maybe he would be tortured or put to death were banishment. It shows his life over hers . No one was to be banisheded [laughter] the plaintiffs have launched all these allegations about him and try to impugn his character. To that i would say when they go low, the friar goes high. [laughter] really, really high. Literally. [laughter] thats a spring feedback to my first point. Thiscourt cant find liable because it would not encroach on religious liberties. The friar testified in this case. What is the religious liberty interest here . The religious liberty interest of a cleric to marry off a 13yearold against her parents wishes . Isnt the nature of the claim . It doesnt sound so good when you put it that way. [laughter] im just looking for clarification. Let me reframe the claim slightly if i could. I think this is a claim of a religious counselor who is trying to aid with his Ecclesiastical Council was he involved a lot of weddings of 13yearolds . Was this part of his ministry . It seemed to accord with the period of the time. What you have to look at is that every sacred counseling relationship. I dont think this court can craft or articulate a duty of care to governance. I think it is clear from the president , the lemon test, 11 by jurist around the world and commentators that this would be a clear entanglement with religious doctrine. It is something the court cant embark on. Parents get to tell their 13yearolds about their romantic life. How is that for a rule . I think teenagers can be very perceptive to that one. Receptive to that one. My instinct is there definitely that will be a go. We will let Friar Lawrence no that is something to do. Is part of your defense that juliet was going to kill herself anyway after being forced to marry paris . That is right. She told the friar if you did not do something, she would commit suicide. Everyone knew she was just blowing smoke. Its lifethreatening to move to new zealand. Like threatening to move to new zealand. History 13yearold girls can be unpredictable, but i think the fryer reasonably judged this one was a real threat. He took reasonable measures to try to forestall the harm. Even of his plan was unsuccessful and he did everything in his power to keep that from happening, it means he cannot be held liable in this case. Haved the sleeping potion a Clinical Trial before it was used . [laughter] it was in the luminary ges and has now been pulled from the market. [laughter] i reserve the rest of my time for rebuttal. [applause] may please the Honorable Court. Ed Friar Laurence [laughter] with his small hands [laughter] and by his negligent behavior, has created a sad winters tale. This negligent behavior clearly is not much ado about nothing. This is a tragedy of errors where measure for measure, the fault indisputably lies with Friar Laurence. Specifically, he was negligent oked in four respects. First, in the attempt to resolve a dispute between two gentleman, he married a volatile young romeo to a 13yearold juliet behind their parents back. Second, he gave a 13yearold weeds andotion of flowers from his mystical garden. Counsel, i am confused about why you are bringing this case. I thought the families were happy with what happened at the end. They put statues in the town square. Why is it not alls well that ends well . Why is it not that . It is about the money. [laughter] we are here because under the law, the wellrecognized tort law, negligence occurred. A breach of duty was in fact occurred, and we want to get paid. [laughter] does the church have deep pockets . [laughter] as i understand it, your honor, the churchs pockets are quite deep. With your honors ruling, we can go and find those pockets. [laughter] sadly, unlike anthony and cleopatra, these two starcrossed lovers never made it to their 12th night. All because of the secret marriage, a perilous potion, reckless planning, and as one of your honors indicated, cowardly abandonment. The responsibility for this tragedy falls squarely on one the man whoers, admitted the tragedy of romeo and juliets death was in his own words, miscarried by my fault. And as is the case of our countrys first treasury secretary, alexander hamilton, the world is going to know his name. [laughter] what is his name . Friar laurence. [laughter] do you think your clients have any responsibility here . To be honest with you, your honor, i dont particularly care for my clients. [laughter] possibly with good reason. That is why i am not arguing they dont have 30 responsibility. What would you say about the behavior of mr. Capulet when he finds out juliet will not go ahead with marriage to paris . I do nother words even know what they mean. [laughter] young baggage, disobedient wretch, that i understand, and a whining mammoth. What is a whining mammoth . Is that like a woolly mammoth . [laughter] your honor, i can submit a supplemental brief on the definition. But this is the point, your honor. It is that type of behavior on the part of father capulet and lady capulet that was in dire need of true Spiritual Counseling. Spiritual counseling that enceked lines laur refused to give. He said if you do not marry county paris is this guy a county . If you do not marry county paris, i will throw you out of the house and you can die in the streets. Is that the way parenting took placein verona . Your honor, we have come a long way in regards to our parenting. As i indicated to you, most important, had crooked laurence understood the gravity of the culture, the gravity of the circumstances, the strife that occurred, he would have called a timeout, not rushed to marry young juliet to romeo. And instead, sought to counsel the parents on the real meaning of love and how to love their children. Forces kind of family their daughter to marry a guy named paris . [laughter] they call those families francophonies. Thehy shouldnt we find montagues and capulets breached a duty to act as normal parents do when faced that something the teenagers want to the parents do not want . Every parent understands teenagers do exactly the opposite of what the parents tell them to do, so all they had to do in the situation was just tease juliet about liking romeo. The whole thing would have been over in 15 minutes. Right . They should have said to romeo, why dont you invite juliet over to dinner so we can get to know her . Right . Hindsight is 2020 indeed. The reality is the only person who knew all of the facts, knew about the love of romeo for juliet, knew about juliets love for romeo, knew that both romeo and juliet were suicidal, was not the parents. Butas instead my friend was instead my friend. Derek jeter problems with your attempt to evade responsibility there are two problems with your attempt to evade responsibility. You are being nice. There are two i want to mention now. The first is your client capulet concedes romeo and juliet were sacrifices of their families. But more than that, more important than that, the prince blames the families. What deference do we owe the executive in its analysis of the causes of this social unrest . Well, i dont think the prince deserves any deference. All, who prince, after was not elected. Right . No poll put him in office. And this was a prince who had done nothing but sat on the throne while there was strife and violence in verona over generations. With respect, your honor, the prince has not learned any difference. Cant we just take judicial notice the parents of romeo and juliet messed up bigly . [laughter] we may, your honor. Up. bigly mess i dont think 30 is bigly. [laughter] maybe you can give us a brief on that. [laughter] what is your email address . [laughter] honors, as i listen to my exceptional opposing counsel argue this is a case that involves some sort of Spiritual Counseling privilege, please, i ask you to go through those papers. And when opposing counsel gets back up to the podium, ask her to give you examples where crooked Friar Laurence actually rendered Spiritual Counseling. You will find none. The reason you will find none is because there was no Spiritual Counseling going on. There was an attempt by Friar Laurence instead to become the , sacrifices saga young people, also he could be the person who would have solved the problems of verona. Dont you have another significant problem that shakespeare himself assigned the blame for the deaths of romeo and juliet to the parents . Friarrgument against the relies entirely on snippets of the text and overlooks shakespeares purpose. After king versus burwell, dont we have to look at the purpose of the text . Do you think the d. C. Circuit i . It right i know you are more of an originalist than i am. But in reality, here with respect to shakespeare, shakespeares judgment that the parents are liable would be correct if you believe that shakespeare wrote the bible. [laughter] im not exactly certain what that means. [laughter] it has a certain air of authority to it. I like it. [laughter] what about the liability of the capulets and the montagues for perpetuating this fued . Deal even know what the feud was about . With respect, i believe it was more about their servants who sought to climb up society. The way they thought they could get up to the level of the capulets and montagues was to war with each other in the streets. There was a rumor that it dated back to a bitter election. There were allegations of the use of private Carrier Pigeons and that mantua interfered with the election. That is when they got rid of the idea of elections and brought in the prince. Is that true . There is authority in the record for that proposition, particularly if you put a little dab of that poison in your pipe. [laughter] has that been decriminalized . [laughter] in the district of columbia and the state of verona, it is perfectly legal to grow up to three mature plants of the poison in ones house. Yes, your honor. What about the parents reaction when they discover their children are dead . In about 60 seconds, they say, oh, well, the kids are dead, but we will build nice statues of them. [laughter] your honor, i must say i was the second lawyer they contacted. [laughter] a gentleman named abby lau was the prior and i have since advised them otherwise. Your honors, i think the record is clear. What the record demonstrates is that crooked Friar Laurence, only after his own desire to be the hero of verona, put the lives of two young people at great risk. He knew that they were dangerous. He knew that they were suicidal. He came up with a half cocked plan, did not fulfill it, and allowed this tragedy to occur. But the plan was good, except that friar john was low energy. [laughter] and he did not make the delivery. Indeed. How can we blame Friar Laurence for that . I think that is a fair question. And to be sure, father john should have been properly benched that night. The reality is of course Friar Laurence knew of friar johns fallibilitys. And that is why Friar Laurence should have moved heaven and earth to have an alternative plan where he would have his guard weight at the family crypt so as to warn romeo wasnt there an issue with the bridge going to mantua . He wanted to go there but it was closed that night. [laughter] know. Ont i thought the problem was friar john lived on the red line. [laughter] that is what it was. Indeed, the same track safe track program persists. That is not a matter for the office of attorney general. [laughter] i see that my time is almost up. I hope it is. [laughter] again thatou once when my talented opposing counsel comes up here, if she cannot belt out her favorite line, ask her to at least point out specifically where in the record there is evidence of Spiritual Counseling. There is none. And that is why i asked the court to affirm the jurys finding that liability rests with Friar Laurence. Thank you. [applause] mr. Chief justice, i will be brief because i understand our drinks after this. I have just two points and one sonnet i would like to make in rebuttal. [laughter] first, it is a little hard to tell which way the court is leaning from the questions tonight. Although i firmly believe Friar Laurence did nothing wrong in this case and the plaintiffs are entirely to blame, and i hope this court agrees with me when it retires to deliberate, it is my understanding the audience also gets to vote tonight. Im just going to put it out there. Whatever happens, i hope i win the popular vote. [applause] [laughter] it is a small consolation prize these days, but i will take it. I would also like to respond to opposing counsels point that the friar is the only one that knew about all of the elements of this plan. I think that shows there was a total absence of parental supervision in this case. Juliet theand original free range kids . Where were the parents during the infamous balcony scene . Where were they during romeos sleepover . Did they really think the kids were going to pop in a moving and relax movie and relax . I dont think so. I have a hodgepodge of concluding thoughts i did put in sonnet form. No one denies the tragedy for sure. Two lives too short before their final breath. But moneygrubbing parents are not a care, nor specious trumped up claims of wrongful death. The friar tried to help every turn with guidance drawn from sources high above. His selfless, blameless acts should not be spurned for there is no stopping passionate young love. The plaintiffs are the cause of these events. Their foolish, reckless rivalry, their feud, a textbook case of parents negligence resulted in their childrens morbid mood. The jury verdict swerved so far off course. Respectfully, i ask that you reverse. [applause] all rise. The Honorable Court will now deliberate. Please be seated. As the honorable bench the rates deliberates, our audience will cast their vote by placing a red or blue token in the basket circulating. The question is, assuming the parents and the friar each bear some legal responsibility for causing the suicides here, who should be held legally more liable for the deaths of romeo and juliet . Friar laurence, red. Or the parents, blue. Please vote red if you believe Friar Laurence holds more liability. Please vote blue if you believe the parents hold more liability. Now again, only vote once. [laughter] remember it is red if you believe Friar Laurence holds more liability and blue if you believe the parents do. Now ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back and below abbe lowell for tonights discussion. Thank you. I am pleased to be part of this. One of the things i am pleased about is to have a small part in this entire theater company. One of the things about it is that there are so many people that do so much that we never get a chance to see. I am now going to introduce two of those people. I would like to bring to the stage two of my friends and the people that make this theater possible. First, the director opera theater, including romeo and juliet, allen paul. ,nd the other, our job expert mr. Drew liston berg. I welcome them onto the stage. [applause] i know you know allens work. He has been responsible for a great deal of our successful plays and especially our musicals. And a very musically oriented romeo and juliet. I do not know if you know what we do. He is our resident drama torgue, the person who knows the history and background of what we do. I would tell you he is the guy that makes sure we get it right. Would be a special night to not only introduce two people that make this place happened but also to take the theme of our play and see where we go with it while the judges deliberate. My first question is obviously to you. How do you and your colleagues take on the challenge of putting on and making fresh a play that everybody who sits in the audience knows and knows well and probably have seen in theater, film, or in any other way will double times . It is because of a huge amount of my own jewish neuroses. What do you do with this play . Every time i talked about it, someone would say you should change the ending so that they live. But then we would not have a mock trial. For a truth is shakespeare director, when everyone in the audience the house knows how the play ends, what do you do . I realize the journey of how you get to the end of the play was the interesting part and how to put in as many unexpected twists and turns as possible. The thing i learned is that we know romeo and juliet is a tragedy. The characters in the play do not know they are in a tragedy. The violent surroundings, they are in love as the play begins. What we know about is when things begin to happen, they do everything they can to hang on to what they can do to get themselves out of a terrible situation. So it is not a tragedy until the end. It was interesting to me and freed me from my own straitjacket neuroses about how to do it. At a certain point, you give up the idea of everyones expectation of what it is and say there is no way i can please everyone. And you do the version of it you feel passionate about. For an audience filled with a number of lawyers, tell us the basic judicial role at the time in verona. And did the prints have as much absolute power as portrayed in the play . [laughter] recount. Hold on. We need a recount. Gofundmeing to start a to investigate. I want 7 million. [laughter] question, did the prince and the church have that role . Talking about that, given the nature of shakespeares believes, was this play a little bit of a knock on the Catholic Church . To me what is interesting about the italian setting for shakespeares audience is everyone in the outings would have known this is a catholic country. A generation after henry viii had converted all of england forcibly to protestantism. Shakespeares father we believe was a catholic. Friar laurence, as soon as he appears, he swears by holy st. Francis, who was a catholic saint. He is probably the most unambiguously catholic saint in the whole cannon. Right away, there is a person of danger, for hidden fruit. I suspect shakespeares audiences would have looked at Friar Laurence more skeptically than modern audiences who see dowling,jovial, father only cares about the wellbeing of the two young. Shakespeare put this in the nature of the Catholic Church. Did the prince have the ability to have that role . Given the power of the families, did they own him . Excess politics has always existed to a certain extent access politics has always existed to a certain extent. Theres a lot shakespeare got wrong about italy. I think he said you could go to milan by way of the ocean even though they are both landlocked cities. There were no princes in shakespeares day. There were dukes. Isn he gets right and what in the sources of the play is that italy at the time was a bunch of independent city states with warring families. Was in a state of constant civil war with these powerful families duking it out, pun intended. Princing it out. I think people know this because you have read and studied. So many of shakespeares plays take place outside of england. Especially italy. I never went to any of these places. How did he figure that out . There was a craze in shakespeares life for stories set in italy. I think part of it was the for bidden fruit of the catholic italy. Machiavelli was a big thing in shakespeares day so there were all of these characters, his villainous machiavellian characters. Shakespeares audience, like us, had stereotypes that we associated with italian people. We thought they were really passionate, had a lot of romantic ardor. Romeo and juliet are the first two stereotypical passionate italians in the english tradition. Argument you the heard about what i am going to ask you and what you said you had to figure out in terms of a fresh approach, there are so many parts of the play that are out of sync with us and our time. Parental decisions on marriage, classical roles of women and men, that are not easy for us to understand given the time passage. With that in mind, what were the parts of the play that you felt he wanted to present that were most relevant to our era and what would take from the play as we saw it . Is aboututh is it teenagers who feel disconnected from everyone around them. It is shocking to look back at it and to know that teenagers have felt that way for 400 years. Juliet is living in a house where her father bosses her around. Not out of meanness, out of his own narcissism, his own belief in what she should do. She has a mother who has a hard time connecting with her. Anyone who has been in a house with a teenager knows that even the best of parents can have a very difficult time connecting with their children. And so, i think what you are seeing is an extreme where something was going very wrong with juliet and she did not have anyone to reach out to. So i think that theme is unfortunately going on now. I think there is also the theme of suicide. Any teenager you talk to today will probably have known someone who suicide has affected. There is an interesting thing about the play. The characters friend is romeo, who i think he suspects may be suicidal. There is a big question of if you have a friend who you believe is suicidal, is it your responsibility to Say Something . A lot of the experts i spoke to said i asked them if someone informed on a suicidal friend, with they lose the trust of them . Most studies show, no. The suicidal friend was grateful to have the help. So this was something shakespeare was on to 400 years ago. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with it. Those are things you did emphasize in a number of ways. When you say them that way, it does appear become apparent they last beyond the other anachronisms. I want to go back to the issue of the portrayal of the power of church,ch, the catholic and also of the nonelected leader. Accurate depictions of the era of the time . As i said before, shakespeare fastd asset and lose and loose, especially when it comes to italy. The observation about the internal suicidal nature of the teens is that the church in the s cellriar laurence forms a quasilegal place of its own. It is where romeo goes when he wants advice. Where they both go to get married to seek legal sanctuary. It is a privileged place in the world of the play away from the outside world of the prince and one families. There is a lot of responsible invested in Friar Laurence. I think shakespeare is asking the audience if this is an ok thing. Should a priest, should somebody have essentially the power of playing god with these teenaged lives . He is a very fallible human being. It is not an accident he discovers juliet alive in the tomb, and he has a very human reaction. He freaks out and runs away. After telling her, come with me and i will bring you to safety. In the original version, juliet goes back and dies in a convent. There is catholic stuff throughout the history of this play. Back to you. We are obviously on the verge of a new administration. It always underscores that washington is such a you unique place in the country with politics and journalism. You have grown up here. You have perfected your art here. You have presented many different works on this stage. Unique being ang director about the audiences in washington you have to keep in mind, that you have to play two, or avoid playing to, that he would not have to do in other places . Look at this room. We are so attuned to everything that it is impossible to produce a play and not know who the audience is going to be. I have been thinking about that also because i was thinking about what you might see on our stages and how politics might affect us. And what they our surprised to think about was that shakespeare was, in many ways, one of the most political and least political writers. When shakespeare was writing he took all of these characters in that thend plays audience wouldnt know, richard the third, and instead of talking about their politics he talked about the human decisions that went on behind who they were. And i think the audience he wrote for was acutely aware of their history. A way touse them as discuss current events. But a lot of times he wanted to move beyond politics and he wanted to see with the basic human decision that go on for macbeth r. It is going to be an interesting time to do shakespeare on the stage and see how political or human it actually is. Before you go, you can reserve the ability to come back and watch the performance that they will put out in the spring of macbeth itself. A little plug. With that let me tell and ask you all to do what i did when i started, which is the people behind the stage and give thanks to the people on the mock trial community that write the scenarios. You have made this very special and they make it special every week. Thank you very much. [applause] all arise. Please be seated. Well we have deliberated and we have reached a decision. That, let meunce just say i do speak for everybody when i say this, that the attorneys tonight were absolutely tremendous. [applause] and from now on im going to expect other briefs from the Solicitor Generals Office to be in iambic and timid or. Pentameter. [laughter] fortunately a majority of this evolvingieves in the standards of parenting that marked the progress of a maturing society. [laughter] even though two of us are back in the 16th century. [laughter] so the judgment is reversed. [applause] and since this is a principality, it doesnt really matter how the people voted. [laughter] i would like to read my dissent. [laughter] i must confess i struggled with a jurisdictional issue but my colleagues persuaded me it was not a political question. And to me it came down to an claimof religious liberty versus parental rights. And in my view, and Justice Wilkins joins me in this, just religiousaims liberty claims cannot defeat parental rights. [applause] parents come out there. Parents, out there. [laughter] back abby tocome read the juries decision. [laughter] i want to think ill the participants at the judges who gave their time. Ist you see them do on stage because they too have read the briefs, taken the time, studied the law of verona, and we owe them a special thanks once again. [applause] this is my favorite part, i always hope i can bring this with me to the courtroom. They say i cant. I want to thank you all the members of the jury for participating tonight. And i know youre just dying to know how it turns out, so lets not hesitate any longer. You remember the friend trips the red trips that thought Friar Lawrence was more reliable and the blue chips were those that that the families were. [applause] with that verdict, i have heard that Friar Lawrence is considered to be appointed as the head of the fda. [laughter] [applause] this concludes the presentation of the mock trial. We hope you have enjoyed the evening. Enjoy the rest of your evening and there will be baskets at the door to place your unused tokens. Or you can wait until next year. [applause] [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] is one of therces things that i think the American Public is impatient about, because they believe they have this trump card, this great military that can defeat anyone. What it is not true. It is an extraordinary military, it is powerful, but it can only win in certain situations, and it can only really destroy things. It cannot build a new order in its place. About his, talking career and the challenges facing the u. S. War on terrorism in his spiral, trapped in a forever warp your co forever war. They want us to overreact. Occupy muslimo countries they can build their recruitment. They want us to torture people. It want us to do things that will allow them to make their case against us. Tonight at eight eastern, on cspans q and a. Week, washington journal will to vote the entire program facingy to key issues the Trump Administration in the new congress. Starting monday morning we will take a look at National Security and defense issues, including challenges facing president elect trumps National Security team, and a close look at the career of james madison. On Tuesday Morning it is trade and job issues. Efforts to either create or save jobs. I was the morning, our topic is energy and environmental policy. We will discuss how energy and climate issues may be impacted by the new congress and the incoming Trump Administration. Thursday we will talk about immigration and how president elect trump and the new congress may change immigration policy. And on friday morning we will take a look at the future of the Affordable Care act and how congress and the truck of menstruation will repeal and replace the aca and the key place to watch. Be sure to watch washington journal at 7 a. M. Eastern. And 2015, cspan conducted a series of interviews with new members of 114th congress. Following the 2016 election, we met up with some of the same theakers to talk about first term and reaction to the president ial election. We also take a look back at their interviews. I usually go to sleep around 1201 and back up at five or six. Where you stay, where do you live . It works out well, its a big closet. Housecamaraderie at the gym, because there is so many of us. Is that because it is expensive to live in washington . For me, i remember a few chris gibson was one of my battalion commanders. I remember 2010, that class coming in. I remember if i was elected part of that class i would he doing that same thing. It might still be the army in i have an air mattress the town and it is all good. With congressman lee zelman. We asked you about your sleeping accommodations area he said you were sleeping on an air mattress in your office. Is that still the case and are you planning to upgrade . I have upgraded to a rollaway. A longer an air mattress. But still one of many members who stay in our office here. Home for me is back on long island. From the moment i wake up to the moment i go to sleep, just nonstop working. Besides your personal comfort, what is the biggest lesson you have learned in the first two years . There is a lot that gets done, where republicans and democrats, liberals and conservatives work together. But there seems to be no room for a lot of the National Media to talk about whenever anything positive gets done. It tells people when their government is actually works for them. You go home and asked people what their thoughts and perspectives are on their government. They are pessimistic when things dont get done that should. That they should be upset. But they are not getting it in contact with enough good news. Almost 250 times the Republican Congress and democratic president worked on something to get it across the finish line. You said you are district had the secondhighest population of thats in the country. How do you think the past two years have fared for vets . There have been a lot of bills passed by the house to help our veterans on so many different fronts. Donetter how much has been the fact is there will always be more that can and should be done for our veterans. As a new administration comes in a new secretary is picked. More with the way hospital budgets can be redone, over medicating patients, employers, supervisors, will accountability accountability, the culture can be changed. Theres a lot that can be dumb with the next congress and new administration. The new administration already laying out a very aggressive platform for the first 100 days. Leader mccarthy laying out a busy schedule for the house. What are your hopes and expectations for the first part of 150 . I expect it to be actionpacked and very busy. Senate side, on top of all the legislation and ,ppropriation work confirmations of cabinets members, a new Supreme Court justice, on the appropriation obamacare to Border Security, tax reform, Infrastructure Spending, improving our v. A. , there is a lot of work to get done within the first 100 days. Have you mapped out for yourself how you are going to balance all that work and balance the needs of your constituents back home . The good news is a lot of what i just described is not just for our country but for my constituents back home. On thefirst content first Congressional District we have heard from any constituents who are deeply concerned with the way obamacare has impacted. Heir families, their employers they care deeply about these Border Security issues, Infrastructure Spending that need to improve our tax policy. Fortunately while we have some local specific priorities we are going to be focused on, at the same time a lot of the Border National topics that are being debated and set up for