Trump nominates his second Supreme Court judge, launching a vigorous national debate. How come Canadians don t get to do that? Ezra LeVant explains why the U.S. has its own version of the Canadian justice system, and why it's better than Canada's.
00:06:17.260And you can see Obama's other pick, Alana Kagan, another leftist, not even a liberal on there.
00:06:24.360And that other lady on the far, far left is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
00:06:28.380She was appointed in the early 90s by Bill Clinton, and she is now 85.
00:06:32.820Many people retire 20 years, even 30 years earlier than that.
00:06:37.880Plenty of people think Ginsburg should retire.
00:06:40.740She has trouble staying awake during her duties, as you can see in this unfortunate picture of a quick nap.
00:06:46.420I'm not just talking about conservatives.
00:06:49.020I mean, during Obama's term, liberals were begging her to retire under Obama
00:06:54.780so that Obama could nominate her replacement instead of risking, well, Trump.
00:06:59.400Trump getting her appointee successor.
00:07:02.060She responded to those clouds saying that she didn't think that even Obama had the political power to appoint someone as liberal as she is.
00:07:09.580So she was going to stay on as long as she possibly could.
00:07:12.560It's pretty unlikely that she'll be able to outlast Donald Trump, especially if he gets a second term.
00:07:18.080I mean, it's possible, but I'm not sure if America wants a 92-year-old judge.
00:07:23.820No disrespect to anyone's great-great-grandparents.
00:07:26.880But my point about that debate is at least, I mean, it's acutely political, right?
00:07:32.580But that's what's so great about the U.S. system as compared to ours.
00:07:35.080There is nothing more political than a Supreme Court judge in either country.
00:07:39.700Because unlike a four- or eight-year presidential term, a Supreme Court judge gets to rule for 30, 40 years.
00:07:45.880There's very little accountability once they're in.
00:07:47.800And they get to make all the heavy decisions, gay rights, abortion, censorship, immigration.
00:07:51.840That's why conservatives believe in a strong constitution, so the judges have to interpret the law, not write their own law.
00:07:56.860Well, here's Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2016 in the thick of the presidential election campaign.
00:08:04.420Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the court's most outspoken justice off the bench.
00:08:08.340But her biting remarks about Donald Trump have legal experts saying she went too far.
00:08:12.780To the New York Times, quote, I can't imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president.
00:08:18.640She said it reminded her of something her husband, Martin, who died in 2010, would have said.
00:08:23.200Now it's time for us to move to New Zealand.
00:08:25.840To author Joan Baskupic, he is a faker.
00:08:28.400He says whatever comes into his head at the moment, how has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns?
00:08:34.500Asked by the AP about a Trump victory, quote, I don't want to think about that possibility.
00:08:39.140Trump himself calls her remarks a disgrace and says she should apologize to her colleagues, adding,
00:08:44.640I would hope that she would get off the court as soon as possible.
00:08:47.920So don't pretend that Supreme Courts aren't political.
00:08:51.700And don't pretend that only Republicans appoint political judges.
00:08:54.980And don't pretend that judges suddenly turn off their partisan switch when they're appointed.
00:08:59.560I think Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed, but it's going to be a noisy fight.
00:09:04.020Trump is momentous, even a historic president, but it's quite possible that Kavanaugh and Trump's earlier appointing Neil Gorsuch will be just as momentous over the course of their careers.
00:09:13.540If Trump indeed replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg, too, that could be Trump's biggest impact on America.
00:09:19.000So, yeah, of course people want to talk about guns and abortion and things like that, because these people, these Supremes, are the deciders.
00:15:07.880It looks like he's pretty ideologically firm.
00:15:10.540Is that a general phenomenon, that judges move to the left over time and they become Washington-ified?
00:15:18.780What's your take on this guy's constancy?
00:15:23.040Well, it certainly has been a phenomenon in the past.
00:15:27.120Whether that continues, maybe in some doubt, the Republicans have gotten their act together and used a conservative legal organization, the Federalist Society, to vet their nominees.
00:15:37.720In fact, that's how Donald Trump secured the support of many conservatives in the Republican primary in 2016, was by striking a deal with the Federalist Society to appoint judges on their recommendation.
00:15:49.300And the Federalist Society has compiled this list of judges with the idea that these are the kind of people who would not become a Justice David Souter, who would not swing toward the middle like Justice Anthony Kennedy.
00:16:05.040These are people whose commitment to conservative legal principles is not in doubt.
00:16:09.660And so while the court does tend to pull justices in a leftward direction, the purpose of this list, compiled by Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, is to make sure that doesn't happen.
00:16:20.000So there's more confidence now that whoever Trump picks will remain a conservative jurist for decades and not do as others have done and become more liberal as time goes by.
00:16:33.120Yeah. And even if they do, of course, you can't put that on Trump. I mean, Trump is the person who chooses them.
00:16:38.520It is remarkable. I mean, Trump has many things in his varied career that give him firsthand experience.
00:16:46.980But choosing judges is not one of them. For him to trust the Federalist Society, such a conservative group, is actually a bit of a miracle.
00:16:55.260Let me put a thesis to you and you tell me if you agree. I put it to you, Joel, that Donald Trump's two Supreme Court picks and many of his other lower court picks, and there's been a great number, have actually been more conservative than the judicial picks by George W. Bush or any that would likely have happened under John McCain or Mitt Romney, let alone Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush.
00:17:21.620I guess what I'm saying is because of this interesting deal with the Federalist Society, Trump's picks are more conservative than any president since Reagan.
00:17:32.740Yes, that's true. I think that Reagan certainly hit home runs with Scalia and with Sandra Day O'Connor, although she was a little bit more to the left.
00:17:43.120And Trump's exceeding that. I mean, Reagan also picked Kennedy, who became the swing vote and really on the liberal side of the spectrum on social issues.
00:17:49.600So Trump has been able to pick more conservative judges than Reagan has done.
00:17:55.700And he's had a sweeping impact on the federal judiciary beyond the Supreme Court, also at the appellate level, at the district court level.
00:18:01.780So we're going to be feeling the effects of the Trump nominees for quite some time.
00:18:05.620It's a reminder that what was at stake in 2016 was so much greater than the politics and policies of the moment,
00:18:11.760that that that victory in 2016 is going to resonate for generations, potentially, in the American political system,
00:18:19.580because those Trump appointees are going to be there for life.
00:18:23.480And in many cases, that's three or four decades.
00:18:25.860So it's really an achievement and not just the depth of conservative ideological thought on the bench,
00:18:35.580but the sheer number of judges he's appointed.
00:18:38.460Yeah. You know, Trump is in his early 70s.
00:18:42.400He will probably be with us for another 15 years, let's say.
00:18:45.980But these judges, I mean, this judge, Kavanaugh is in his early 50s.
00:18:50.940Another one of the contenders, Amy Barrett, I think is her name, is 46.
00:18:54.420These are people who could theoretically be on the bench past the year 2050.
00:18:59.520So it's it's an incredibly important thing.
00:19:01.680I can't help but think, Joel, and I bet you do, too.
00:19:04.060Imagine if Hillary Clinton were the president.
00:19:07.300Imagine the appointees we would be seeing now.
00:19:09.980And the exact opposite, the the politicization, the alt-left control of the judiciary would be complete.
00:19:17.580It's it's amazing how close things came to that, isn't it?
00:19:20.580I mean, imagine if Hillary was president.
00:19:22.520What kind of names would we be looking at now?
00:19:24.600Well, aside from thinking about names, I mean, they simply would have made sure that the judges that a Clinton administration would have appointed would have reshaped constitutional interpretation, perhaps irreversibly.
00:19:37.960The United States would have ceased to be unique.
00:19:40.000Our Constitution would have ceased to be a unique foundation.
00:19:43.620We would have basically gravitated toward the democratic socialism of Europe.
00:19:49.380We would have abandoned many of our liberties, many of our principles.
00:19:53.740The Second Amendment would have been in danger.
00:19:55.780The separation of powers would have faded in favor of executive control.
00:19:59.620So there's all sorts of things that we avoided as well as gained by voting for Donald Trump in 2016.
00:20:06.760Yeah, the Second Amendment, I put it to you, Joel.
00:20:08.540The First Amendment would be at risk also.
00:20:10.260I see the ACLU is basically walking away from the defense of free speech.
00:20:15.080I think that would be accelerated by Hillary Clinton.
00:21:17.580And they're under a lot of pressure from the left to stay in those seats as long as possible, at least for the next 18 months.
00:21:23.260Remember that when Trump runs for re-election in 2020, Democrats will insist that he not be able to appoint the Supreme Court justice following on the rule that Mitch McConnell followed in blocking Merrick Garland from being appointed in 2016.
00:21:35.660So unless she retires in the next 18 months, and I don't think she will, then I think Republicans are going to have to wait until a second Donald Trump term to see any change on the court that would shift it in a 6-3 or even 7-2 conservative direction.
00:21:51.840What could be interesting is to see the ideological splits that emerge within a conservative court.
00:21:56.920There's no guarantee that all of the justices in a conservative majority will always think the same way.
00:22:02.440So that could be another debate to have at a later time.
00:22:04.480But as far as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are concerned, they're going to be around for a while, as will Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, although they're much younger.
00:22:13.140The four liberal justices are going to cling to those seats with everything they have.
00:23:10.140I mean, in Canada, we have senators appointed to age 75, and there were some senators who were literally infirm, and their nurses were voting for them.
00:23:21.120Is there some mechanism that if these judges deteriorate, that they could be pulled out of the court just because they're not well?
00:23:34.040Constitutionally, they can stay in for life.
00:23:36.760And that's just true of the federal bench, by the way.
00:23:39.140There are states that have some limits.
00:23:42.400But look, it's going to be especially hard to remove justices on the Supreme Court where there are eight other justices who presumably could fill in and do the job.
00:23:54.280I think there are mechanisms to impeach a judge, but whether to remove them for infirmity, I don't think that's something that's likely to happen.
00:24:03.920It's not a question I believe we've faced in recent memory.
00:24:06.600Most judges would simply be encouraged to retire.
00:24:09.300But you ask a good question, and we may be debating that fairly soon.
00:24:13.100One last question, and thanks for your time.
00:24:15.660I think that one of the heroes of conservative court appointments, one of the heroes of all time is Justice Clarence Thomas, who was nominated and put through what he called a high-tech lynching.
00:24:29.280It was so clearly a smear attempt because to appoint a black Republican would break the logjam.
00:24:37.420He's been so consistently conservative, and he's been so maligned by the left.
00:24:44.200Give me a—I mean, I was just looking at the judges on the bench.
00:24:47.920Give me a few words before you go on Justice Clarence Thomas.
00:24:52.540Well, he remains one of the conservative standard-bearers on the Supreme Court and in America in general.
00:24:59.340It looks like Brett Kavanaugh is actually quite close to Justice Thomas in terms of his own legal philosophy based on his judicial record.
00:25:05.620There's an organization that actually measures the conservatism of judges, and I think Kavanaugh is actually second only to Thomas in the whole federal judiciary.
00:25:13.240So Thomas has continued to have a strong impact.
00:25:16.680He's openly opposed to Roe v. Wade, the decision that granted a federal right to an abortion.
00:25:31.720No one expects him to retire soon, but should he do so under a Trump presidency, he would probably be replaced by someone just as conservative.
00:25:39.620Well, Joel, it's great to talk to you.
00:25:41.100It's very exciting to watch the American process of selecting judges, and as a Canadian who has to abide by the unilateral appointments done by our prime minister in secret,
00:25:53.180I've got to say we're a little bit jealous of your process and the checks and balances, and that's one of the reasons why America is such a strong country.
00:26:00.420So thanks for joining us today to talk about it.
00:26:41.540That is a song by Shakira, a Latin American dancing and singing sensation, but the dancer there was a Persian girl in Iran, a teenager named Maedeh Hojabari.
00:27:03.420If I'm pronouncing her name correctly, she's a bit of a star on Instagram.
00:27:07.700It would be unremarkable in America where thousands, hundreds, millions of young girls take selfies, and in this case, a little dancing selfie video.
00:27:19.020But in Iran, that's against the law, and Maedeh has been arrested and forced to make a confession.
00:27:27.840Joining us now via Skype from Washington, D.C., is an Iranian democracy activist we've spoken to on several occasions, Erika Kassreyi.
00:27:47.200You know, we're happy to do it because we cover the news.
00:27:50.220We care about Iranian democracy for Persian people.
00:27:54.440And what's interesting about this is that young lady there, I mean, she puts a real human face—a teenager dancing and having some fun in her own bedroom, a little bit of belly dancing or whatever.
00:28:17.080Well, unfortunately, this is how the Islamic justice system deals with the youth.
00:28:23.060Well, with anyone who, you know, goes against Islamic law, a Sharia law.
00:28:29.160So, let me start by saying that the youth are online, and this is the only place where they're able to be self-expressive.
00:28:40.340Instagram and Telegram are two of the major platforms that young Iranians are using today to communicate with each other and to communicate with the outside world.
00:28:49.780Because, as you know, in the streets, they have to be covered.
00:28:56.540So, Maedeh is an Instagram, I guess you can say, kind of star.
00:29:02.760She is a gymnast and a dancer, and she used a software called Musical.ly to dance and make videos of herself dancing in her bedroom to be self-expressive.
00:29:14.820And the regime has been cracking down on, you know, young people who seem to be getting a lot of traction and have a lot of followers.
00:29:26.460If you go to her IG page, she has almost, I think it's 600,000 followers.
00:29:32.900So, they arrested her, and they forced her into a confession.
00:29:41.060I don't know if you have a clip of that.
00:31:23.760And arresting her, seizing her, making her do a forced, tearful confession, that is the handmaid's tale in real life.
00:31:33.880Erica, has this, has any leading figure in the West, any leading politician, any leading celebrity, any leading musician stood up for Maede?
00:31:42.700No, as a matter of fact, I think that the reason for that is because mainstream media is just not giving enough attention to cases like Maede.
00:31:54.620Because we don't we don't have I don't think we really have journalists who are able to not only, you know, sort of cover the social media platforms and read Farsi or be able to really understand what's going on.
00:32:10.180And I think there should be a great shift in that.
00:32:11.980I mean, I would love to see women's rights activists coming forward and standing up for the women of the Middle East.
00:32:19.140I mean, frankly, right now, there's been a backlash.
00:32:22.520You're seeing this great unity among women in Iran, greater unity among women because of cases like Maede and others who've been arrested.
00:32:33.380I mean, Maede was was sentenced to four years in prison and 80 lashes for dancing.
00:33:54.660So Shaparak is one of many women who've been arrested for waving their hijab in public because of a campaign called White Wednesdays.
00:34:08.180And on every Wednesday, a woman will go into the street, remove a white hair headscarf and wave it in public, in public defiance of forced hijab.
00:34:20.380As you know, in an Islamic country, under Sharia law, a woman is to cover her hair as to not arouse the eyes of a man that is not her husband.
00:34:29.560And Shaparak was one of the women who was arrested on Revolutionary Street in Tehran for doing that.
00:34:39.620She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for this act.
00:35:01.360We don't know exactly of her whereabouts, but she's posted a video online right now that's circulating, basically saying that she's left the country because she feared for her life.
00:35:10.540Now, mind you, she was arrested with her two-year-old son when she was arrested.
00:35:17.140So, yeah, there's absolutely zero mercy in this regime.
00:35:21.080I think I hear we have a copy of her video.
00:37:27.940I know that Amnesty has, and I believe Human Rights Watch has, but I'm not aware of any other NGOs right now that have made any public statements.
00:37:37.920Unfortunately, it's very hard to confirm, you know, the facts because obviously, as you know, there's no free speech.
00:37:49.200There's no credible journalism inside the country.
00:37:52.200So a lot of the information that's coming out is coming out through social media and, you know, sources that are inside the country that are not, you know, actual reporters.
00:38:02.280Let me ask you one last question, and I don't want to be partisan because this is a nonpartisan issue.
00:38:07.540Whether you're on the left or on the right, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, a conservative or a liberal, we can all stand behind the Democratic activists.
00:38:16.980And I'm sure they're on the spectrum, too, from socialist to conservative, too.
00:38:21.980But let me ask about Donald Trump, not because he's a Republican, but because he's the president of the United States.
00:38:27.580And he has criticized Iran in various ways, including on the nuclear deal.
00:38:32.280Do you see any indication that under Donald Trump, the United States is more seized with the issue of democracy and this democratic rebellion in Iran?
00:38:43.200Has there been any activity from the State Department that would give you hope?
00:38:58.760I mean, I have been watching, you know, Iran for almost a decade.
00:39:02.600And, you know, profiling these various social media websites.
00:39:08.340You know, I think that a lot of the empowerment and the activities, the protest movements that you're seeing today is an actual direct result of the words of Donald Trump supporting and empowering the Iranian people.
00:39:47.680I can tell you that that the people of Iran are looking to the United States as the you know, as the beacon of freedom to pave the way.
00:39:59.400And I know that that the policy of the United States right now is not for regime change.
00:40:05.540But I know that because of the words of Secretary Pompeo and Donald Trump, whether it's their tweeting, whether it's their interviews, you know, they're they're not addressing the regime.
00:40:17.520They're addressing the people and encouraging and empowering them.
00:40:20.080And I, you know, I would say that I would I would caution I would caution any policymaker, you know, that wants to take a particular position.
00:40:31.520But I think that when you know, when you are speaking directly to the Iranian people, encouraging them, that speaks louder than words.
00:40:47.400And I hope that the cases of especially of Moada, who is such an innocent young girl who has nothing to do with politics, to be arrested, tried convicted sentence for dancing, forced to make a tearful televised apology.
00:41:04.760And if there's any genuine, authentic love for freedom and human rights in the expressive communities in Hollywood, in New York, in London, I hope that that pricks them to action.
00:41:18.040And we'll do our small part and spread the word about this.
00:41:21.080Eric, it's a pleasure to talk with you.