Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20131026

Of all, theres a couple of committees that have jurisdiction. Its not just us. Ways and means and you got icea and the government reform committee. I dont know what is precisely going on in the senate, but were going to continue our oversight role as we showl. We have two subcommittees. One is the subsubcommittee. A lot of questions relating to the security of the individuals information that they put into the system as well knowing that they are changing a number of the lines to try make it work. So theres a lot of issues that are out there, and i dont know that we will do a hearing every week just on this. We have a lot of other issues as well whether they be energy, telecommunications, trade, etc. , so theres only so much time in the day. Did the contract ost have an affirmative responsibility to warn c. M. S. That more testing was needed . We heard one say, its not our job. Im not sure they offered the response, remember, they are under oath so they were a little careful in terms of how they answered the question, but clearly there was a communication breakdown between the contractors and the administration in terms of where they were. So one of my questions and didnt really get a straight answer was did you just not know that it was going to work or did you know that it was working and worked and not tell them . I mean, what is the answer . And in essence they said we thought their section of it worked but no one was in charge of the whole stream. More of that interview with congressman upton tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan and cspan radio. Next, economic schuss important to women including health care costs, minimum wage and equal pay. It included House Minority and Donna Edwards. Wow. Good morning. Good morning. So im congresswoman Donna Edwards and i represent marylands fourth congressional district. Welcome to the fourth district. [applause] i am really delighted, one to see this packed house, and it wasnt really difficult to do would you like w all the work we do around the community and in this region. Senator d, some of the most fabulous women. So thank you for joining us today. Tiff privilege of representing this district and state that the center for American Progress has said is the number one state for women in the country. [applause] now, of course we take great flied that, but we still know we have a lot of work to do. I am honored to be here today with our senior senator, our mentor, our friend. Barbara barb are mckul ski. And most delighted to welcome somebody who is not a stranger either to Prince Georges County or maryland or the fourth district, our democratic leader nancy pelosi. [applause] i want to take a special moment to thank even in his absence pastor john jenkins senior and i i First Baptist church of glen arden and the sha bot christian academy. We had a chance to take a tour of the academy and see some of the amazing learning being done at the earliest age here at the academy, so its our delight to be able to be here and share that with First Baptist of glen arden. Truly that youre such a great partner in our community on a whole range of things and at this church you dont view just what you do inside the walls but you say your service is outside the walls of the church, and it really shows in the academy and in the faces and energy of those young people. I also want to acknowledge and i see them. So many of our elected officials from the region and i want to take a minute to acknowledge them and know that were really delighted that you could join us, because whether youre mayors or in our county representing our county or youre statewide, you understand the importance of the work that were engaged in. And together. So i want to recognize our states attorney in Prince Georges County, i probably should have said first my good friend, dear friend Carmen Walker brown who is representing Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown here today. Welcome carmen. [applause] delegate aisha who represents the 25th legislative district in the american maryland house of delegates and is the chifere the black caucus. Maryland, the clerk of the Circuit Court here in Prince Georges County, thank you, marilyn for joining us. Lets see, around we have i am going down list but i should just actually look at you. Delegate Arianna Kelly from monday night football county. Thank you for joining us, delegate aruin ray miller also from monday night football county. Y friend, sister and childhood pprehend the member of the monday night countdown sill. And and jacqueline goodall. And i dont think that ive missed anyone, because im looking around but thank youall for joining us. You know, when the leader pelosi got together with the Democratic Womens working roup, i chaired the Democratic Womens gruned the Democratic House of representatives. We talked among us and with a lot of our allies out in the community and running grassroots organizations about what was needed in this next step to really fulfill a true economic agenda for women and we decided and knew if we could formulate that agenda, we know when women succeed, america succeed and theres a dwhaurt think many of us worked on different pieces over the years but we wanted to together. So visiting these 4yearolds and 3yearolds here today and seeing their energy reminded all of us of the importance of investing in Early Learning and accessible child care. Theres probably not one of us in this room who doesnt have an sneerns we can recount about child care. Personly when i son he is now 25 but sometimes when you recount these stories it feels like yesterday. Yesterday of paying late fees when you show up late because youre rushing through rush hour traffic to pick up your child and seeing the look on his face but also the people who work at the child care facility, having made a bad choice like i did once about child care because it was all that i could afford and it turned out it was a safe that wasnt safe for him and he ended up with menen jithes and i almost lost him. So all of us strugglal with ways around this issue so we want an agenda that says if we invest in Early Learning and we invest in quality affordable accessible child care that it expands opportunities for women, opportunities for him to succeed in in success in business and aft home. We also know its important for us to have equal pay for equal work. Now leader pelosi and i know that in the house of representatives that we get the we get paid the same as our male counterparts but we also know oursters and women and our sisters and women around the world dont. When a family reduces 2r5 of their income because one Family Member is not paid equal to their counterparts at work. Then part of this agenda is when we struggle as care givers whether its caring for ousts and or for our Family Members and children and we may need to take a day off, if were not paid for our day off can you imagine the decision you have to make . I know i had to make it as a young mother to either go to work sick or take my kid with me sick, curl him up in a corner because i cant afford to take off and i couldnt afford to stay home with him. And these are the struggles that mothers and families face all around this country. So im glad that you have been able to join us today because we know if we make an investment in this agenda and thats an sthreament going to trier grars roots support of leaders like yourself all through our communities so we can make it a reality for women and families so i want to thank you again for being here, because this is about improving the lives of women and families and the health of our nations economy because when you doing vest in women in this kind of way then we invest in the Economic Health and success of our country. So id like to have you join me in welcoming some folks who are representatives frankly of a lot of stories that can be told really throughout our communities and i want to welcome to the microphone a good friend of ours and a real eader who is in Montgomery County, originally from egypt but she has been a resident of Montgomery County for several years and owns and operates three child care sners and what an amazing progressive woman. She provides paid sick leave for her employees. And id like for you to welcome her. [applause] so that she can tell us why and what it means. Imi . Good morning. Thank you very much. Thank you for that. Im aum about empowered women. Get our wings and fly. So yes my name is michigan and i do is mimi and i do own three child care and i have a story to share with you. It is an investment and youre right and afford nl child care can happen. I have in my child care i offer my staff sick days for leave. The reason i do that is because if that teacher who comes to my child care is sick, she is going to get the kids sick so its going to cost me money. If you think about business, its going to cost me more money that if i can get if i dont give her the sick day leave so i offer sick day leave for all my staff. Also what really breaks my heart and i have seen it on a daily basis. We have a policy in our day care. Children have to be free 24 hours of fever. So if your child have a fever, he cannot be attending the school for 24 hours. It breaks my heart when i see children come to me and say miss mimi can you please take care of me because my mom has to go to work and im sick. You know what these parents do . They give their children tylenol four hours so they can go to work and then they get a call hi mrs. So on your child is sick. You need to pick your child up. Well now the child is contagious so the germs spread and diseases infect and you hear about child care or schools close sometimes because child is sick and they go to school. So i am here to tell you it could be done. Im in business and nobody gets in business to lose money, is at right so even though i am oking sick day leave for my staff, i am still making money. So it could be done and happen so i wish we could work out together. Also when we have subsidize money i have parents who cannot afford to pay the copay because they cannot so i offer them a scholarship. Maybe im an exceptional maybe i just have a good heart but how can i have and get my message to every child care business so all the States Government and everybody who is involved in this to help this industry, to help those parents. We have all women working and remember we are going to be empowered and go so i am here to tell you please help us, everybody in this. It is an investment and you need invest money to get the results. Thank you very much and look forward to seeing you. [applause] thank you. I dont need this stool so im going to stand back a little bit. Senator mikulski, i heard that. I want to take a moment to introduce our next guest. Maureen evans arthur graduated in may from the university of maryland in Baltimore County with that b. A. In gender and womens studies and Political Science and was a First Generation College student then came back after being a stay at home mom but she had to engage in some important financial considerations. The tuition or fay day care so id like to welcome to the stage Maureen Evans arthur. [applause] good morning everyone. So yes my st. Maureen evans arthur and in may became the first northern my family to attend college. Thank you. But it wasnt necessarily easy and it almost didnt happen because of the extremely high cost of child care. So today i stand before you not only as a Research Fellow but also as the mother of a 7yearold boy named bello and the first two years of my life i was a stay at home mom and i loved it and when i decided it was time to go to school i played recommendation letters and essentially just went through a same process we all remember but then i had to look at child care and so i went to not one and not two but to eight day care providers where i live in howardld enough to at preschool that aligned with my schedule so i was able to pick him up and go to class when he didnt have to be in child care so if my son had been any younger i probably wouldnt have gone back to school so understanding the cost associated with child care remains one of the reasons why my husband and i will not be expanding our family which is unimportant to and too many smart and extremely motivated men end up having toeave a fulfilling career or end their hopes if they want a family so many need womens economic agenda to make sure these difficult choices become a thing of the past so thank you so much for having me. [applause] well, tuff very much maureen. I mean, you can see when you hear stories like that we just say we have to do it. We really do have to do it differently. And next to this stage i want to welcome danelle buckman. She is a 37year resident of clarksville, maryland after a pregnant nancyrelated incident bay small employer. She was not covered by the family medical leave act and studies show neither are 40 of the u. S. Workforce. Dinelle . [applause] thank you senator. Leader pelosi and the partners for inviting me to this inspiring event. Its a true honor to be here. My name is dinelle buckner. In june, 2010 i almost died during childbirth but the dangers surrounding pregnancy and childbirth still exist. Thanks to expert care and multiple blood transfusions survived and my daughter is well now. But it didnt come without significant costs it started when avery arrived unexpectedly a full eight weeks early, and i had to have an emergency csection and next a painful recovery for both of us. I was eventually discharged from the hospital but avery had to spend 28 days in i. C. U. Both my husband and i had jobs at the time and we planned for the child but the added and events pat tremendous financial and emotional burden on our family bringing me to the reason im speaking with you today because amid the chaos and challenges and repeated promises that my position was safe while i took job i lost the parttime loved and the fmla. The fmla was a groundbreaking and historic law when it went into effect 20 years ago and so thankful manyal fought for its passage because it meant tens of millions of families have been able to take time off ithout but a significant number of the workforce are not covered. A new proposal designed to support families when they are out of work for pregnancy or childbirth or to take care of Family Members. It can cause a huge financial strain for families and certainly did for my family even though i was ultimately able to find job after i lost mine. Ital resulted in we were important to to have family and friends support but many are not so lucky which is why i decided to speak up and tell my story to be a voice for women who may not have one. No woman or man should have the worry about Financial Security when serious medical issues or complications arrive for themselves or a member of the family that need their care. Stories like mine span the caund it just shouldnt be that way. Thanks so much. [applause] thank you very much. You know, i sat here and sometimes you can kind of skip lines but i didnt. I wanted to make sure we could hear from our guests here who really shared their stories and their own experiences which are repeated all across this country. Theres not been a greater fighter not just in maryland but all across the country for women. We get to call her our own. Senator Barbra Mikulski was elected to the United States senate in 1986 and she was the first democratic woman elected on her own rite and in her own rite. [applause] we had the great privilege of being able to celebrate senator mikulski as the longestserving woman elected in her own rite in the United States senate. These days we like to say that she is the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations committee. We like to say that in maryland. She is a champion of women. She is the dean of the women in the senate. She is a mentor for women in the senate a mentor for women in the house and she truly does nurture us. You can tell senator mikulski when i first met her, the first thing she shared with me was not all that other stuff. She shared with me that she was a social worker and i think thats so fundamental about the way she thinks about the needs of women and families across our country and thats the leadership she brings in the senate. She will tell you and i will do it too that when the lilly led better fair pay act was signed into law, the first signed by newly sworn president barack obama, it was senator mikulski who led the fight in the senate, our leader who led the fight in the house. [applause] and so please join me in welcoming our great favorite enator, senator bar. Good morning everybody. Im just delighted to be here that the forum on making sure that americas children are taken care of in the best Child Care Program that the world can offer and shouldnt a great country be able to do that . [applause] and you know what . For me its just a delight to get through the last 17 days that we have been through of slamdown, shutdown politics and to be here with this wonderful turbo team of Donna Edwards and Speaker Pelosi working on real issues that the American Families have that we can come up with real solutions. And this is what i am so delighted to be here, during the last several days theres been a lot of focus on obama care. Well obama does care and thats what were going to talk about here today. And then its going to be well, what can we afford . Well dear friends somehow or another we can always afford war. Now its time we start taking care of the needs of the American People and begin to build our country again. [applause] and i am so pleased to be the dean and honored to be and pleased to be the dean of the women in the United States senate. Now that means im the longestserving but friends its not how long you serve but its how well you serve that makes the difference. [applause] and now with 20 of us, 16 Democratic Women and four republicans, were working on real issues, and we want to extend our hand and our friendship and our craft and knowhow that every assignment and Committee Assignment to move an agenda forward to really help American Families. Now we the women of the senate joining with our colleagues, we work on the macro issues. Yes. Big budget. Big foreign policy. Big stuff. But you know what . We also work on the mack croney and cheese issues. What we bring to the table is whats happening at the kitchen table. What are families talking about . What are they trying to sort snout the kinds of conversations these three wonderful women had. To go to school or not to go to school, the stresses on the families with danielle, she worked for me. She worked for many, many years ago. I was taller. She was shorter. [laughter] now, here she is the executive director of a Hospice Program and look at what she has been through. We have got to focus on the macaroni and cheese issues and thats how we will impact the macro issues of our country. We need to focus on our families. And thats why im so proud with this turbo team in the house, what they have done led by congresswoman edwards as chair of the democratic congresswomans caucus, the Speaker Pelosi at her back. Encouraging her and helping her in every way possible to come up with this agenda. And we know what the agenda is because we talk with you. Weve met with you. Weve listened to you and we know that for the american women and American Families, first of all, the most important thing in addition to love, you need an income. You need an income that is reliable, that is predictable and means that you can have a living wage, and that comes to why weve got to trays minimum wage in our country. And we have to make sure equal pay for equal work. And as many of you might say, well senator barb, didnt we take care of that with lilly led better . Well, lilly led better overturned a Supreme Court decision that had time limits on when you could bring the suits but we were afforded something called paycheck fairness which means when you bring a suit youre not going to be harassed and that you have the right to know what the person next to you is paid. Most women dont know what the guys are making and its not that they dont want to tell you, they will be fired if they try to be a pal and partner to you so we want to finish the job that began with lilly led better and we want to make sure we pass paycheck fairness so we truly have equal pay for equal work and you can pursue that agenda in your workplace. Thats number one. Number two we believe when you work you should also have the confidence that youre going to have health care and this is why we supported the Affordable Health care act because all of us know as we were out there in the communities listening to you, particularly listening to the stories like danielle that and maureen and mimi that the fact is that for just being a woman was seen a preexisting condition and they looked for every excuse they could find take your Health Care Away from you and we said hell no. Our mammograms wont go and Health Care Wont go and being a woman in america will no longer be counted as a preexisting condition. Did you . [applause] so in some states if you had a cri carin they dropped your insurance company. In eight states if you were a victim of Domestic Violence they counted it as a preexisting condition. So when that guy whose name i will not mention in the house that is trying to huff and puff and blow things, he says he wants to repeal it and replace it. I say we will never turn back that being a woman in the United States of america will no longer be regarded as a preexisting condition and if youve got your health care you get to keep it. And then theres the third issue which is education. Education is not only k12 which we see the Wonderful Academy we had here and in our Public Schools and Great Public School teachers but education begins from hour and day and week one. And thats where we come to child care thats available, affordable, safe and is also educational. We are not talking about aware housing our children. Were talking about taking care of our children. Its called child care. Child education. And thats why we want to really focus on expanding the opportunities to make child care more available. More affordable. Definitely safe and to have quality standards where those children have the opportunity to be able to learn and to be regular school ready. Thats what we are working on, and in the senate im taking the lead on child care. One of the very first things we want to do is make sure and we keep the child care tax credit. We need to keep the child care tax credit where you can take up to 3,000 a year as a tax break for child care. Now, if we can get tax breaks to send jobs overseas, we can get a tax break to American Families to be able to afford child care but keep that child care tax credit. And then for those women who are looking to move ahead in life that when we look there we also want to reauthorize the Community Development child care block grant. Thats where im taking the lead in the senate and forged bipartisan coalitions and we want to pick it up in the house. The child care block grant is the federal fram po provide child care assistance for working families. It was last reauthorized in 1996. And in fact every Major Program helping families and children was done under the Clinton Administration and nothing has had that since then and now its the barack obama with the new generation of women leaderships to make sure we move this forward. Nothing new has been done since 1996. No more. In maryland there are 14,000 14,700 families served by that program. In the whole country a million and a half children receive this help, so were putting together to refresh, to reform and to renew the Child Care Development block grant. Thats what was on the agenda in the senate. Weve already moved it through the Health Education committee. Ive the support of republicans. There are real republicans who are compassionate conservatives. Remember that phrase . There are those. I find them, seek and you shall find. [laughter] and so our agenda in the senate is to join with our sisters in the house to work with a common cause with their agenda with the agenda they put together and be able to move this forward so we want to be sure more ll is said and done, is said than gets done but now its time to do the job and you know when you have an easy job you know who to give it to, when you have a tough job give it to the women and well get it done, may the force be with us. [applause] thank you very much senator mikulski. Thats right when off tough job, give it to somebody who can get it done. You know as you can hear the idea of an economic agenda for women that really envisioned quality affordable and accessible child care that envisioned equal pay for equal work and raising the minimum wage and expanding opportunities for women and the idea of providing family and medical leave so women have the fleblingts they need to make sure they and their families succeed and theres been no of this agenda when women and sisters succeed after 25 years in the house just inducted into the womens hall of fame say congratulations our leader, former speaker going to be speaker again nancy pelosi. [applause] good morning everyone. I hasten to add when i was inducted into the hall of fame last weekend i was following the footsteps of the longest serving woman in congress senator Barbra Mikulski who preceded me and i was so honored, barbra, you know how it was to be joined by 19 house Democratic Women members and the people were thrilled when the women came to the stage all of those Women Joining us in seneca falls. So much has been said about when women succeed America Succeeds and an economic agenda for women and families. I want to put it in Historical Perspective and see where it goes from here. Want to thank mimi and maureen and did nell for giving us this we need, the personal stories are the strongest testimonies we can have and the evidence upon which we want to base our policy. To do so with all of you here under the auspices of congresswoman Donna Edwards is an honor indeed and to be joined by so many members of the official family of the region san honor as well, so thank you for honoring it with your presence and of course to be with senator barb, she and i went to the same high school some years ago and i have been following her career and been a big fan and admirer of hers and she is really a champion on all of these issues and she and i and donna predicate our priorities on the experience of the American People as has been said. I want to join others who i want to thank rev rend jenkins for providing these auspices and then to go to the academy was something quite remarkable to see the children and the attention, the quality affordable attention that they are receiving was quite remark. In the sha bawk christian academy, extraordinary. So theres a thing, at the beginning of this congress we now have passed the Affordable Care act and start to work on the imply menation of it going back to last january and we said what is it we can do to change the environment for women so its no longer a matter of implementalist that im doing something a little bit better. Doing something very powerful to unleash the power of women. When we first won the house in 2006 and 2007 we were thinking about survival of people because as congresswoman barb said so much had not been done for a number of years so that 16r8 and when president obama became president , that success, taking people to a higher level, and then we were on the mission to have it transferred not only to be survival success but to be about transformation to take people to another height and anything that you dyeded to do, mimi, the women that you see and did nell, the things that you decide to do and i harken back to our founders and forbearers 165 years ago so we decided what would the particular issues be . So we had a series of meetings around the country, east coast, west coast and everything in in between. What would it be. We had the hearing as senator barb said, remarkable. Then the violence against women act was accomplished in a bipartisan way eventually findly and that was important but we were just focusing on the rourke workplace, there are many items on the agenda we wanted to prioritize and what could transform the respect for working women in the workplace . And we developed associations like fair pay coalition. Aa you name it. Ywca, and have been working on these issues for a while and came up with these three things that had been em says toed. Patience 62 of the people who get the minimum wage are women. We must increase the minimum wage. We did it when we had the House Majority in the house and senate and its time to raise it again and its long overdue. Senator mikulski said, its about paycheck fairness. Imagine we make in many parts of the country women make 77 of what men make for the same job and same time worked. Thats like saying youre going to work from january to march for free compared to what your male counterparts were doing for the same job. Thats not right. So thats one point. To go back to some of what was said but to reemphasize as we o forward, this was about we passed lilly led better. We finally had a president to sign it and a beautiful accomplishment and he wanted that to be a signature issue for him and that was great but as the senator said its about what recourse you have not that you should by law have to pay then check fairness. Congresswoman has been our leader on this subject and senator mikulski has said the sponsor in theous and senate, not sponsor but champion. Then we talk about paid leave. Its been said that family medical leave was a great thing 20 years ago senator bar, it was one of the first bills president clinton signed and we now had a president to sign it and he signed it. We was 20 years ago and as said many women dont qualify or not that they dont qualify but businesses are not large enough to cover but by and large its unpaid. You have to have paid leave. Some, make not the full length of the time but some paid leave and we have that legislation, Healthy Families act so these are all possible. Its just a decision and our maneuvering inside and outside mobileization. Thats why were so glad to see the issues here today. The third is the child care. Now this child care issue in my view is the most transformative. We talk about seneca false and being inducted into the hall of fame and stuff but 165 years ago these women, imagine the courage they had to claire declare that all men and women are created equal and as such we demand to have equal station to which we are entitled they said were stanleding on their shoulders. Got the right to vote came and decades later when it came they side women given the right to vote. Women werent given the right to vote, they marched and demanded and struggled and the rest. Thats what its going to take with this. [applause] then you had that and rosy ri69or women in the workplace their share for the war effort putting in their fair share and then you had now women in the workforce and women in the profession and women having the choice to stay home or be in the workplace at whatever level but the missing link throughout whole time was affordable quality child care really enable twosome unleash their power for thepses for their families and economy and as mimi said its about making our economy grow. If we unthrashers full power of women in the economy two to three points our g. D. P. Will increase two to three points. It just will. Its really important. Now senator mikulski on this subject and talked about the grant and tax credit and its all important but we also have to go and use that as a basis and go foote. Family medical leave, we have to go foote. Child block grantsd tax, we have to go foote. It was on president nixons desk when he was president and he vetoed it for social around cultural reasons whatever that means and some guy probably decided that whatever their social and cultural reasons were but that was a long time ago. This is our mission. This is the most transformative thing we can do for not only women and their families but men and their families and our economy. Now, this is just to say a couple things, first of all, we have been listening to stories across the country and you heard some eloquent ones today, what mimi said about kids going to school sick, its we hear it all over the country. One woman we invited to speak, she got up and was telling her story about how she went from a single mom to a job and her own Success Story and said let me tell you what i see in my job. Im a School Bus Driver and i see kids. I pull up to the stops and i know exactly whats going to happen. There will be a mom with tears in her eyes and putting her child on the bus and knowing he is sick but she has no alternative if she calls in sick and says she cannot go to work she be docked a day of pay. You do that more than a couple times, pretty soon you dont have a job. You cant be counted on then if she cant afford the child care, she has no paid sick leave, she has no alternative, the child gets on sick and throws up or has a bad cold, you can just, you know the story. You know the story. And then you hear stories of my mom a young woman pregnant and working and cant do heavy lifting but pulls a muscle and the doctor says ask your boss if you can do some other work for the next few months because you shouldnt be lifting things and the boss says you dont have to lift anything anymore because you dont have a job so here and now in the greatest country that ever existed. But you know what . Were going to change that. Were going to change that because were going to mobilize and bond across the country and citizenship late some facts senator mckulal ski referenced. When you educate children youre doing so much. This is the key to everything for our country so head start our motto in San Francisco on head start, children learning parents earning. So when you cut head start in order to reduce the deficit you are children are losing, the teachers of the children are losing, the parents of the children are losing. Some of them can no longer work and remember, this nothing brings more money to the treasury than the education of the person people whether its Early Childhood k12, higher education, post grad, lifetime learning for our workers so when somebody says im cutting head start to reduce the deficit thats one of the dumbest with this competition mind you one of the dumbest suggestions they can make. [applause] so well talk some more about some of these things as we go along but understanding that these are not, these are increasing the definite. Increasing the deficit. Ill close by saying this one story i heard a couple weeks ago in new york when we had another gathering such as this. A mom one story barbra then we have to go. Ok . A young woman gets up there and has five kids. Hispanic woman and english second language and every challenge and beautiful resource. Someone considers talent we thought they were resources but tells this story finally got job and now supervisor of her region and she was coming to give testimony at the hearing as we heard from mimi and maureen and danielle and said im so confident now but i wasnt confident about coming before this audience and making this speech so i practiced it on my children last night and the 4yearold who was in head start and she was making the pitch for head start she said after i gave my speech i said to the children what do you think do you have any questions . And my 4yearold who was in head start i have one question, mom, who gave you permission to use my name in your speech . You go, girl. Its about selfesteem and children learning and about being ready for the future. Its about the children as senator mikulski began her remarks. Thank you all very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] i know senator mikulski has to leave but i wanted to make sure we said a special thank you for your leadership and for being here today. Thank you. [applause] and just as senator mikulski makes her way out of the room, grin they were any questions. What i want to hear from everybody is that youre ready to work on this. Are we ready to work on this . [applause] and leader pelosi, it couldnt be more Perfect Timing because on saturday here in Prince Georges County, the Womens Commission, i know there are representatives here. Weaver going to have how many, 500 women . Right 700 women who are going to be at our Womens Commission meeting talking about these issues on saturday and so the women that are here in this room eget to take this message out the sthome thank you already out to them im looking because i know thats going to happen, right . Excellent. So we have a chance for a couple questions . Yes, maam. Why dont you use the microphone right here. Hanks. Good afternoon. My name is simone gregs and the president and founder of all the love which seeks to raise aware necessary about autism and the importance of early detection, in the africanamerican and hispanic communities africanamerican and hispanic children have the highest number of autism cases related in the United States so as you move forward in your agenda i hope you dont forget about the mom that has a child with special needs because most of the time they are all issues that are important but the mother who has a child with a disability is left out. They are discriminated against because the day cares cant accommodate im sorry. They cant accommodate the children who have the disability. So i dont know what can be done, and im determined not to give up the fight. And i dont mean to hog up the time, but i just want to say that i had an opportunity to travel to new york this past weekend to go and sthaupt mom ho is missing the nonverbal autistic child Vanessa Fontaine so i cant in good conscience say im all about the love and not help a person or woman in need so please keep that family in your prayers and let me know if theres anything i can do, because im committed to helping women and empowering women. Thank you. [applause] thank you very much for sharing that and i think part of what you hear as well is the importance of having, you know, when we say quality and affordable and accessible child care that has to mean for all children and i think all of us here in this room have to embrace that those so that we understand what it is were fighting for and in one case it may be the autistic child but in another case it may be a child with other kinds of needs, and it doesnt mean that those children cant learn and that that parent cant be supported but we have to make sure that when we understand what we mean by affordable, accessible child care that thats what it is. And on that subject, my daughter, her passion in life, she is a teacher of children with special needs and lives in houston, texas, my son a teacher of children with special needs and amazes me that they never burn out. Its a blessing so our conversations whether its at the dinner table when were together or on the phone when were not its all about what are you doing for children and the autism issue has expanded the number of children but we always want to put them in the forefront because they fall into a couple categories, child care but also Affordable Care act so no longer will these children with their preexisting medical conditions be a barrier to them receiving the Health Care Assistance they need. We have to respect the special needs they have and for who they are and what they can do not judge them for what they cannot and this is the spirit we bring to that and thank you for sharing your passion and love and spirit on this. There are tens of millions of families that are affected this way and most of them feel its a blessing from god and this is their challenge in life but its to our country as well and our judgment on us will be how we meet that challenge. So thank you. [applause] we probably have time for one or two more questions. Yes, maam. Thank you again congresswoman Donna Edwards and ur leader, ms. Pelosi, we know that our wonderful president had a global, if you will, town hall meeting where people logged in and it was an effort that allowed many groups such as this organized event to log in and have a discussion which included across our wonderful United States. I was wondering if in terms of trying to move this forward and to allow others who may not have been present here today obviously to engage in this and allow this movement to grow across our wonderful United States if we can take a look see how we can put together a forum of events that would take place i had an include everyone throughout the United States, log in and we can all engage and we can move in a very powerful way forward. Well, originally, we had a childrens summit a few years ago, and we tried to address some of the issues that sprang from that. Hundreds of people came to d. C. That had constituency. In other words, they headed up an organization or this or that. We talked about some of the things that sprang from that. We are now, after having plenty of these around the country and more on the schedule, i just have one in sacramento. I went home for a day to sacramento to do that. About either putting something together in but the white house is going to be putting some of this together. If they take the lead, it is a higher platform, a bigger soap box, and the rest. But we intend to be moving in a forward direction. One of the reasons to do this is we want to save policy. The other reason is to give people hope. Most women struggling, making the minimum wage, have no idea anyone is fighting for them in washington, d. C. They think no one is paying attention. Reading the policy pages. When they do, they are not hearing people talk a whole lot about this. This is really central, goes to the core and strength of our country. This is something that sprang from the conversation. Thats why knees hearings are so important. We have not even heard about the people taking out student loans. There is a whole different take ann on that. We will see what the timing is on that. But understand, the role that edwards plays in all this. I thank you for sending here to the congress. Shes been pivotal in all of this. You know what, she hears an idea, she acts upon it. [applause] you know, she comes with great values and is concerned about everyone in our community. You know she has a vision about a fair merks, which is really where people have opportunities, and that has been part of her lifes work. You also know that shes smart. She knows these issues, and she will either confirm or not deny, but enhance whatever it is. And she has plans to get things done. I know pretty soon well have a list of a time table and all the rest of what were going to do about it. You know what . Because she is the way she is, as a Leader People are drawn to her. Donna has a plan, its going to work. Its going to make a difference, its going to make progress. Thats, as i say, leadership. I want you to know the confidence. I know you all respect her and hold her in high esteem here. I want you to know that esteem is shared by you on both sides of the aisle. [applause] thank you, leader pelosi. You remind me as we are closing up, and we will take more questions. Earlier on we began to launch we were using some of our allied organizations to get the word out. So weve done google chats and weve done twitter conversations and things like that, and i think that what you shared with us is an idea of even our community here how we can take it more broadly. So i think you are right. Im as you were talking, ticking off ways we can actually act on the suggestion, because i think it is i really good one. And now that we have this room gathered here. Which one of you knows another 20 people . We have thousands out there. This is a method that really can be spread broadly so that we cant just talk about it, but we actually get something done. And working with our state and local officials. And working with our state and local officials to be able to do that. We can take one last person. Thank you so much. Many per of the house. Ill getting ahead of myself. Thank you congresswoman pelosi and congresswoman edwards. We will be at prince Georges Community college. We will be hosting a forum to deal with all the issues you highlighted today. We are excited about it. The goal of the forum is to engage women in the legislative to connect with the issues on safety and education. It is called women engaged, empowered, and educated. We are excited about it. There are fliers out on the table. Please join us as we really do bring awareness to the issues you guys have been discussing. Thank you so much. That is so wonderful. That combination of that interaction that you will have there. We were talking about technology. Week on the phone about a ago before we took the vote, and we had 26,000 people on the phone. So to thank them for what they were doing to try to end the shutdown. But that was only our east coast hub. Hen we had the west coast. We had 10s of thousands of people. Children learning, parents learning. Each person being ready. Donna talks about how different it is when they have a head start with a preschool and going on. This is about the competitiveness of the United States economy, the investment n education. Investing reduces the deficit, grows our economy. All although we are doing it because it has individual aspirations, and because it is for women, the ramifications are more so. E were in texas,and we were in church. Full packed house, Catholic Church sunday mourning, 9 00. The priest said, what i want you to take from today is it is just not necessary for you to come here. It is not all right for you to come here and pray on sunday and leave here and prey on other people during the week. I thought, wow, come to our food stamps and the rest of that. There is a debate going on that we want to fully engage in to bring their interintellectual and intellectual and Public Service experience to, but also to give hope to so many women in this struggle, to raise their families, reach their own as prations. It goes back again i always go back to the founders. Life this is about the Affordable Care act, too. A healthy life, liberty, and a pursuit of your happiness, in a way that is good for you and good for america. When women succeed, America Succeeds. [applause] [applause] lets give our leader nancy pelosi a big round of applause. [applause] thank you for being here told. In her absence, nor mikulski, and all our elected officials because it is going to take all our elected officials doing this to make this happen. Im going to put the microphone down. Thank you. Out to the national mall. A rally to protest the u. S. Surveillance programs that are conducted by the National Security agency. Now, this rally has been organized by a coalition of groups that are calling themselves stop watching us. This coincides with the fwelfth anniversary of the pit rot act being signed into law which gave federal Law Enforcement Additional Authority to track and interseptember communications. This week the guard yaven newman said the n. S. A. Had been monitoring the phone calls of foreign leaders, including angela merckel. A number of signs that protesters are holding here with pictures of edward snowden. The n. S. A. Accident posed those programs earlier this year. Lets loork at the activity going on as the rally gets started. Many we say right now they say fight now. We say fight back. And of course some of the speakers are expected at this will antiscurl rally. Well here from former defmentl congressman dennis cuse niche kusinich swells gary johnson. Things are scheduled to get nderway in about four minutes. You can watch all the events streaming live on cspan. Org. Again, the rally against the n. S. A. s Surveillance Program with speakers throughout the afternoon. We say fight back make a five to sevenminute drumettri that will includes cspan video for your chance to win the grand prize of 5,000 dollars. This year we have doubled the number of winners. Entries must be in by january 20, 2014. Need more information . Go to student cam. Org. Judge durmid oscanlon. He served on the court since 1986. He was appointed by ronald reagan. The discussion about to start is part of the Heritage Foundation legal lecturest series. It ran about more than an hour. The welcome you to Heritage Foundation. Please turn your cell phones off. Email us at speaker heritage. Org. Hosting our discussion and introducing our special guest today is the ronl reagan distinguished fellow emeritous here at the hair didge foundation, alsoed 5th attorney general of the United States, edwin meese. Mr. Meese . [applause] thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I join john in welcoming you here to this lecture this evening, which, as you know, the joseph story lecture, as those who are familiar with request legal history know, is named in honor of a distinguished judge who epitomized faithfulness to the constitution. This lecture is part of a series in preserving the constitution series. This lecture is an important part of that series, obviously. In november of 1811, the age of 32, joseph story became the youngest justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He served in that capacity from 811 to 1845. He is perhaps best remembered or his l publishing of 1833. This work is meant by many experts in the field as the cornerstone of early american jurisprudence. It was the First Comprehensive treatice on the United States constitution and it remains a critical source of historical material about the forming of the american republic, and particularly that novel idea that the founders put together in our constitution, and that was an independent judiciary, and particularly the Supreme Court. He was known as a statesman of the old republic in that he did much to shape the concepts, the ideas in accordance with the deas of the founders as they looked for our constitution and how it should be utilized and interpreted and how it should be become the foremost basis upon which the courts should. Ke their decisions of course, that continues to be something important to us at he was not only a justice, but he became a professor of law at harvard. He also was a proliphic writer, writing many law reviews. In those days, law reviews and the like. He also ways frequent oriter on patriotic owe indication and other public events, and he also published a variety of books on a whole series of subjects elated to the law. Like his story, our justice has demonstrated thout throughout his career his fidelity to the constitution. I might say, in a circuit that has frequently had need for such uidance. He has participated in over 10,000 federal cases and participated on a broad range of subjects in writing. One of his particular subjects on which i he is expert is constitutional law, which makes him a logical speaker at the story lecture. Hes worked in a number of ways o improve justice. Chief Justice Roberts has recently appointed him to the International Judicial Relations Committee of the United States judicial conference and subsequently appointed him as chairman of that body, which is very critical in bridging the gap between the United States and other countries between the judiciary and other onstitutional matters. He has been chair of the judicial American People bar association. He has chaired the abas appellate judge conference and their committee on appellate practice. Hes an adjunct professor at the Lewis Clark Law School and he has been throughout the country in a number of distinguished law schools. He served for 23 years in the j. A. G. Corps, and worked in both the army reserve and the ational guard. Nlin and his wife have eight children and 18 grandchildren, so he is working to continue the spirit of fidelity. So a speaker truly worthy for his fine work as a judge and a defender of the constitution, judge oscanlin. [applause] thank you for that kind introduction, ed. It is a singular honor to be delivering the joseph story lecture here at the l Heritage Foundation, and your presence tonight makes this all more meaningful to me. For those that believe that justices are required to enforce the original l meaning of the constitution, general meese is a real hero. Not only did he appoint judges that value the original meaning of the constitution, but he also made this case in highprofile speach speeches during his time as attorney general of the United States. Those speeches had a tremendous impact on the american culture, and it is fair to say, without him, the intention to restore the law to the original meaning of the constitution would not have been as l meaningful as it has been. For all of for that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. [applause] the name of this carries with a great legacy. Stories continue to resound through american legal thought. And rightly so. His bredth of knowledge was extraordinary, things such as promise ri notes, constitutional law, and even natural law. It was once said, stories on natural law stand out like a ray of light in the midnight hour of american political theory. Indeed it is storys natural law theory i want to focus on this evening. A constitutional analysis of jurisprudence is of course far beyond the scope of this lecture. Rather, i offer a scope of his views on the natural l law with the modest coal of showing how some of his insights might bar on a few of todays most hotly ontested legal disputes. We must begin by acknowledging he limits of my inquiry. To speak of storys philosophy is to imply he had a consistent, coherent understanding of natural law. But the truth is, there was a good deal of confusion about natural law in the late 18 and the naturalenturies rights theory of john locke is inflated by ngly mixing it with tomas aquinas. Story was guilty of this, also, on occasion. We need not distinguish between natural law and natural right, because the as expects of storys philosophy that i wish to examine tend to parallel fairly well, albeit imperfectly, those of the classic natural law tradition. Let us begin by seeing his understanding of the law, the law that exists without any human author, and positive law. The kind of man made law that Congress Passes and that i interpret in my everyday role as a judge. Supreme n to being a courlt it was as a professor that story produced his famous commentary on the constitution which served as the textbook for his course on constitutional law. Give yeven storys extensive body of scholarship, it is surprising that he penned an encyclopedia on natural law, encyclopedia in americana. It is appropriate that we focus our examination of storys philosophy there. Storys essay hopes by defining natural law as that system of prince pls which human reason has scuffered to regulate the conduct of man in all his various relations. Natural law is that system of principles which human reason has discovered to regulate the conduct of man in all his various relations. L immediately we should notice that story seasonal law as something pertaining to reason to use the words of aquinas. It is all something we can access through reason rather than something known by revelation. Unlike the laws passed by not ss, natural law does change. Story says that god has fixed the laws of mankinds being and has the supreme right to prescribe the rules to which man shall regulate his conduct. Again, we see the agreement between story and aquineyass who wrote that the natural law is all together unchangeable in its first principle. It is important for us to pause here and to understand that the natural law applies to man ecause of the nature of man. And that natural law thinkers believe that mans nature is, in important respects, inherent and nchangeable. This is critical to why it has been said that the natural law is binding on mankind. Indeed, our declaration of ippedence assumes a fixed nature from which we can derrive certain principles. We arelaration says that ento youed by our creator endowed which our creator with certain inalienabl rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those rights derrive from the premis that all men are created equal. In other words, it is only because of the nature of man our fundamental equal dignity that certain principles are binding upon all mankind. These conclusions lead directly into storys accounts of manmade law, sometimes called positive law. In classic natural law theory, positive law is derived from and implements the natural law. As the ref yendrend Martin Luther king jr. Explained in his letter from a birming hasm ajail, to the extent that a positive law conflicts with natural law, there is no obligation to obey such a law, of augusta,he words it is no law at all. Now, story was in agreement with dr. Kings description of the relationship between natural and positive law, and uses the to le of marriage illustrate his view. He says that marriage arises from the law of nature because it channels otherwise dangerous sexual appetites toward the mute twal good of the spouses, and the responsible cocreation and rearing of children. In from these premsiss story concludes, if marriage be a part of the natural law derived from nature, then whatever has a natural tendency to destroy it or discourage its value is by the same law prohibited. In other words, story believed that positive law must conform o natural law. Remarkably for Justice Joseph story, positive law that conflicts with natural law is ot law at all. Having examined storys philosophical statement, let us see how he applied his view. Case, an admiralty American Public armed vessel seized an allegedly french ship suspected of engaging in the trafficking of slaves. The american captain saw the trafficking of slaves from africa to a foreign port violated the laws of nations, and therefore the confiscation of the ship was the appropriate penalty. Story began that the law of nations rests on the law of nature. The law of nature, he said, is tee deuced by correct reasoning from the rights and duties of nations and the nature of moral obligation. Natural law for story is the basis for the law of nature. However, story is careful that he as a judge only has the authority to enforce the law of nations if it has not been relaxed by the consent of nations as seen in their general practices and customs. Indeed, story was willing to force the fugitive slave act in pennsylvania despite his strong view that slavery was inherently unjust. Thus even story, a proponent of the natural law, recognized the Judicial Office placed limits on his ability to apply natural law. In another setting, i have expressed a similar view about the power of the authority to enforce natural law, but i will leave that aside for our purposes this evening. Turning to the practice of slave practicing, story wrote it cannot admit that such exp. L. O. Ation is founded in violation of some of the First Principles which ought to govern nations. It is repugnant to the great principles of christian duty, the dictates of natural redge,the obligations of good faith and morality, and the eternal maxims of social justice. Here is the key line. When any trade is said to have these true ingredients, it is impossible that it can be consistent with any law which purports to rest on the authority of reason or revelation. End quote. Remember story believes that natural law is the only law that agrees and natural law is derived from reason. And having concluded natural law prohibits slave trafficking, story explains that no system of law that purchase porlts to be based on reason can sanction such activity. Therefore, story writes, it is sufficient to stamp any trade as by public law when it can be afirmed it is repugnant to the general rules of justice and humanity. So the court hled in that admiralty case, that slave trafficking violated the law of nations and it refused to order return of the vessel to its wners. Nevertheless, the american trip did hand the ship over to the french, despite question of the true nagsality of the ship. Stories in application and interpretation of the natural law was thus decisive to the utcome of that case. Several salient features stand out in the opinion. In the primesy of natural law over positive law, it is prominent, as is the idea that the natural law is rooted in the common nature of man. Such that the natural law is niversal to all mankind. We will revisit these themes story was a selfproclaimed disciple of burke. He emphasized experience in the formulation of positive law. It was burk who said we are afraid to put men to live and trade on his own private stock of reason because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the victim would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of ages. S and of en he surveyed the list of revolutions, burke observed the best were only men of fear, lacking in all practical experience. As burke put it, from the moment i read the list, i was dimpingly and very nearly as it actually happened, all that was to ollow. Example of dickens a tale of two cities was an his interpretation derived from his understanding of human nature. He believed that the nature of man is intricate and that no simple dis disposition nor direction of power can be suitable to mans nature or to he quality of his affairs. Therefore, a deep knowledge of human nature is required of statesmen, and history and traditions are the best way of nowing what institutions and laws are best suited to human nature. Now, joseph story was of the same mind. In the introduction of his commentary to the constitution, he wrote, a constitution of government is a direct to the common sense of the people and never was designed for trials of logical skill or visionary speculation. He believed it was essential for any public official to distress the theory and cling to practical good. To rely more on experience than reasoning, more on institutions an laws, more upon checks to vice than upon motives to irtue. His theory this law making theory concurred with storys view of natural law. As professors Robert George and Russell Hittinger have reminded us, natural law theory distinguishes between two kinds of positive law. Those that follow as logical conclusions from natural law, such as the laws against homicide, and those that are not required by natural law, but are onsistent with it. These latter types of law are called deteminaciones. They are laws that require drivers to drive often the right ide of the road. Ettinger estimates that the jority of laws are determinaciones. They require lawmakers to make practical judgments to achieve some end rather than deducing these laws directly from natural law principles. Their bonding nature from the fact that they were from a competent Legal Authority rather than being compelled by the natural law. Quinas says in the creation of determinaciones lawmakers should follow aristotles advice and pay as much attention to the undemonstrated opinions of sagse who surpass us in experience, age, and prunes as to their demonstrations. Air stotl aristotle argued that law has no power commando eedence command obedience, so laws should not be changed. There was a caution that new laws must have some clear advantage in view, such as to justify departing from a rule of law which has seemed fair since time immamorial. So then, storys natural law philosophy fits comfortably with his burkian approach to positive law. The Crucial Point of similarity between these two theories is this both assume that mankind has a fixed nature. The modern idea of a maleable and socially constructed human ture is alien to burke and aquinas and therefore is alien to story. Storyswe will now see, few of human nature was cast aside by our own Supreme Court as it exited the 20th century and exited the 21st. How different our constitution would have been today if this were not so. In the 1992 Abortion Case planned parenthood vs. Casey, the pluarity of the case asserted the following. At the meart of liberty is the right to define ones own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood where they con formed under the compulsion of the state. This statement, which justice scliia scalia has called caseys sweet mystery of life passage has been much criticized. Indeed, professor hittinger has said, this right socalled to ean virtually anything. Whether one believes the process enal, the process is the sasme same. E gun a cannot assume that humanity has an objective human nature. It cannot reflect a particular onception of human nature. Each of us was to despise our goals which defines our existence and the mystery of ife. Story believed that mans nature gave rise to duties and principles of morality that can e embodied in law. Views that als to transcend the individual, caseys case many proves an autonomy of self that makes the individual the sole arbiter of what is true. More over, it is important to understand that this passage makes a claim about the nature of liberty and rights. It purports to be construing Supreme Court precedence, but its language is far broader, and its theoretical implications is far more ambitious than the courts descriptions of liberty had been prior to casey. Its implications are profound. If the law cannot protect an individuals view of human nature, it necessarily protects a subjective one. Maleable places conception of human nature at the heart of the liberty protected by our constitution. This view of liberty is also case in ourts 2003 lawrence vs. Texas. It struck down a law against homosexual sodomy. The case was that it cannot set boundaries absent injuries to a person or an abuse of an constitution the law protects. In doing so, it discounted the significance of history predating the sexual revolution as when the court says, we think that our laws and traditions in the past half century are of the ost relevant here. All this is quite consistent with caseys relativism. After all, human nature seves as the basis of human relationships and sexuality, and a subjecttive view of the former will lead inexorably to a subjective view of the latter. It is no accident that the example story chose to illustrate the connection between natural law and positive aw was marriage. Story believed there was a fixed idea of marriage. He has a relativistic conception of sexuality. Now comes the United States vs. Windsor this past term. Windsor validated the defense of marriage act that defined marriage as a union between a man and woman under federal law. A definition of what i would gugal view of marriage. Congress has determined it is impossible to determine the precise rationale between chief Justice Roberts character zation of windsor as a federal decision and Justice Scalias few that windsor inevitable will lead to the end of state ongugal marriage laws. Notable scholars have said the common definition of marriage is irrationale. In ustice alitos dissent that case, supporters of d. O. M. A. , who sound very much ike josephs story, said there are implications for human beings that have sexuality and mandate the congress jew gallon definition of marriage. This has been supported in the book what is marriage . Ow, if windsor rejects the congugal definition and im not saying that it does, as a legal matter. Thats a separate issue. Then it does so on the basis that there is no objective reality to what will marriage s. The opinion repeatedly implies that marriage is not an institution arising from the law of nature. To use storys words, but is is instead d but subject to the change of the state. A new perspective, a new insight, and that these states have enlarged the definition of arriage. This idea cannot be enlarged. Our constitution of jurisprudence not only protects e relativistic idea of marriage, but it affirmatively declares there is no objective reality to marriage, and that any contrary view is irrationale. This goes a long way toward viewing that the objective nature itself is devoid of eason. By now it should be quite parent to all of us that there is a justice t casm twep storys philosophy and that of recent Supreme Court cases. Before i elaborate on this to know that my discussion note that my discussion of these cases has focused on their philosophical assumptions, not on their holdings. I take no position here about the scope of those cases nor their application to furte future ones. I onl only wish to describe the deep tension that exists between he philosophy undergirding decisions like lawrence and windsor on the one hand and ustice storys on the other. That tension is manifested in numerous ways. With would have disagreed lawrence and casey and windsor, because it is plesicely mans frixed nature that makes the natural law universally applicable, as our own declaration of ippedence makes clear. Independence makes clear. Go back to the decision in l jean gio which he declares slavery to be repugnant based on the natural laws of facility if i philosophy. If there are universal principles of justice, as story believed there were, then thopes universal principles must exist by virtue of what it means to be a human being. If there is no such thing as a stable human nature, there can be no such universal principles. And without universal principles, it makes no sense to speak, as windsor does, of the need to protect personhood and dignity, since these words appeal to concepts inherent in ll humans. From storys perspective, the current courts reasoned jursprunes is at war with itself. It purports justice but its assumptions undercut the very dea of universal principles. Story would also object to parting from history and tradition, which he regarded as guides for law. You recall that lawrence was content to minimize presexual revolution history. Wind sore, after acknowledging that the conjugal definition of marriage existed throughout the history of civilization minimizes this highly significant fact in order to discuss the new perspective of samesex marriage. When one reads these panls passages, story is confident i quote, the rage of theorists to make conscience a vehicle for their own crude aparations of government requires to be guarded against with the most unceasing individual lens. Unceasing vigilence. Story might say this is abstract theory detached from experience, tradition, and the very nature f man. As a burkian, story would not be surprised by the court falling into what he believed to be grave error. But from storys perspective, the gg damage these cases have done to the law, however predictable, is compounded by heir source. Common elief that the law tradition was the just application of principles to the actual concerns of life. It is one phone for a legislator by the buffeted tumultuous winds to thwart a positive law, it is quite another for a judge who is deliberately insulated from such concerns to break the union of atural and positive law. The former is an example of a reason obscured, the latter an example of reason ignored. Emi would like to conclude with this thought. In one of the most powerful passages in burkes reflections, he assails the french revolutionaries for their disregard of their own history. He sketches for them an image of he future they might have had. Harvesting the wisdom of their an seftors. As burke said, respecting your forefathers, you would have been aught to respect yourselves. But they have not chosen their path. Instead, their prumenttwuss views, in burkes words, led them to despise all their predecessors and all their contemporaries and even to despise themselves until the moment in which they became truly dispickable. Burke believed by destroying their past, the french had estroyed themselves. Justice joseph story proposes a similar question to ourselves. We must ask if a denial of the past is a denial of ourselves. We must ask whether the abolition of nature is the bolition of man. I believe the answers to these questions to your own reflection. Thank you very much. [applause] judge, i think that reflection of the audience here reflects the quality of that excellent talk, what i would compr a critical part of the kinds of things that the freedombased legal scholars that are here for their conference at the present time have been fighting for, and which gives us a firm basis to look at the constitutional history in the future, and the hope that this will perhaps be persuasive to more of your colleagues than the judiciary in the United States. Its now time to turn to the audience and to open it up to your questions. If you will resume the platform here, well ask for the first uestion. My question for the junl is, in judge is, in looking back, are there any decisions you take greatest pride in, any that you would like to call to our attention tonight . I suppose the first opinion that would come to mind would be coalition of equality versus wilson. That was the prop 209 case in which the voters of the state of california voted by a very eliminate margin to preference he ises in state employment based on race and other considerations. That case came up through my court, the ninth Circuit Court of appeals, and we determined complication of the equal protection laws. There is some interesting language in that case. Manny, you can probably recite certain parts of it. Remember that case very well. Specific about cases because there is a lot of collateral decisions around it. Thank you so much for a brilliant talk. Youtioned a story couldnt enforce the natural law at times the times he used it to apply how did he negotiate that line . That passage he identifies that the law of nations is built upon the natural