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good morning. i m wolf blitzer in washington, and this is special live coverage of the funeral of former supreme court justice sandra day o connor, the first woman to serve is on america s highest court. the service over at the washington national cathedral is set to start right at the top of the hour. president biden left delaware for washington, d.c., earlier this morning. he is set to arrive at the funeral any moment now, we are told. and he is going to be delivering a eulogy along with chief justice john roberts. o connor first met them in 1981, and roberts helped her to prepare for her confirmation where biden was the top person on the judiciary committee. and she earned in 1952 a law degree from stanford university in two years, but despite graduating top of the class, her gender kept her from joining a law firm, so she opened up her own law firm. she was mostly known for being appointed to the high court in 1981, but she is quickly one of the most influential j ....
served. with us to start off our coverage, nbc news white house correspondent, monica alba, at the washington national cathedral, melissa murray, a former law clerk to sotomayor, and laura jarrett, and presidential historian, michael beshlash. reporter: josé, we will hear from the late justice s son in addition to her biographer. as you will hear from president biden and chief justice john roberts, it s remarkable because both of them really first met her in 1981. john roberts was working in the reagan administration, in the white house, he was helping to prepare her for her confirmation hearing, and then, of course, senator biden was somebody questioning her as part of the process, and who engaged with her and even told her that she should use the fact that she was going to be this trailblazer, this first woman to serve as a supreme court justice as something she could use to go out and push the equal rights amendment forward, for instance, and that s something sand ....
what i want to do is start by telling you that we have been offering charty day activities for a long time and our speaker this evening, eve leplank is a veteran. in 2005 she spoke on the lawn of the state house in the 375th anniversary of boston s naming and she spoke about her ancestor ann hutchinson and that was also the year that first church in boston finally released her from the excommunication given so many centuries before. so let me tell you a little bit about our speaker. e eve leplank has published five nonfiction books. two of them are especially relevant to our period. one is american jezebel, which is for sale outside after the talk. and it tells the true story of eve s ancestor, the colonial heretic and founding mother, ann hutchinson. the one who was finally brought back into it church and the second ancestor who will be mentioned this evening is the salem witch judge, samuel sul and that book won the 2008mous ps book award for nonfiction. a critic note ....
the excommunication given so many centuries before. so let me tell you a little bit about our speaker. e eve leplank has published five nonfiction books. two of them are especially relevant to our period. one is american jezebel, which is for sale outside after the talk. and it tells the true story of eve s ancestor, the colonial heretic and founding mother, ann hutchinson. the one who was finally brought back into it church and the second ancestor who will be mentioned this evening is the salem witch judge, samuel sul and that book won the 2008mous ps book award for nonfiction. a critic noted recently or i don t know when it was that laplank sees ann hutchinson and samuel sual not as the dark puretens many believe them to be but living presences, even models of rectitude into the 21st century. so please, welcome eve for her remarks. [ applause ] thank you, rose. and thank you to the partnership and thank you all for coming tonight. before i start i wanted to think fo ....
the excommunication given so many centuries before. so let me tell you a little bit about our speaker. e eve leplank has published five nonfiction books. two of them are especially relevant to our period. one is american jezebel, which is for sale outside after the talk. and it tells the true story of eve s ancestor, the colonial heretic and founding mother, ann hutchinson. the one who was finally brought back into it church and the second ancestor who will be mentioned this evening is the salem witch judge, samuel sul and that book won the 2008mous ps book award for nonfiction. a critic noted recently or i don t know when it was that laplank sees ann hutchinson and samuel sual not as the dark puretens many believe them to be but living presences, even models of rectitude into the 21st century. so please, welcome eve for her remarks. [ applause ] thank you, rose. and thank you to the partnership and thank you all for coming tonight. before i start i wanted to think fo ....