Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer often frets about how to talk about the nation's highest court without putting his audience to sleep. He did fine with that last night before a Court-oriented audience at the Library of Congress, gathered to mark publication of C-SPAN's new book called The Supreme Court. Published by Public Affairs, the book gathers together the transcripts of the fascinating interviews with justices and others that were conducted for a special series on the Court that aired last year. C-SPAN president Susan Swain, an editor of the book, led the program, with founder Brian Lamb in the audience.
"I love this film -- it doesn't just have judges," Breyer said in his trademark rapid-fire rambling style (not an oxymoron.) "The film is fairly interesting," Breyer said -- about as strong an endorsement as justices give. He was referring to the film that became the book.
Some of the non-judges who appeared in the C-SPAN series and book spoke on a panel discussion about the Court and, inevitably, the forthcoming confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Latham & Watkins of counsel Maureen Mahoney said the confirmation process for Supreme Court and lower court judges has become "highly destructive" and has "caused extremely qualified candidates to withdraw." USA TODAY's Supreme Court correspondent Joan Biskupic spoke of the "canned atmosphere" of confirmation hearings since Robert Bork's in 1987, but said it's always exciting to cover a new Court.
The sharpest criticism of the confirmation process came from SCOTUSblog's Lyle Denniston, who has been covering the high court since 1958. Senators asking the questions of nominees are "empty vessels," Denniston said, adding that he wants to live to see the day when a nominee refuses to appear before the Senate. "The republic would be safer if we did away with" the hearings altogether, he said.
Denniston offered two other observations of note. Asked to explain the Court's shrinking docket of argued cases, Denniston said, "The Court's gotten lazy." He also described recently retired justice David Souter as "the smartest justice I've ever covered."
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