Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rare interview: 'It's not the best of times' - BBC Newsnight

I am i optimistic long run it was a great man a once said that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle it is the pendulum and when the pendulum swings too far in one direction it will go back some terrible things have happened in the United States but was one can only hope that we learn from those bad things think of when I grew up at the time of World War two the irony was we were fighting a war against racism and yet by an executive order of President Roosevelt people who had done nothing wrong except they were of Japanese ancestry what in turn in camps far from their homes that was a dreadful mistake it took a long time for the United States to realize how dreadful it was but ultimately the president acknowledged that there was no reason to intern people of Japanese ancestry and Congress passed a bill providing compensation for the people who were interned or their survivors but DC echoes in that kind of historical story in the present day well I would say that we are not experiencing the best of times but there's hope and seeing how the public is reacting to it the women's March I've never seen such a demonstration both the numbers and the rapport of the people in that crowd there was no violence it was orderly so yes we are not experiencing the best of times but there's there is reason to hope that that we will see a better day what is it about the current climate that most concerns you our legislature which is the first branch of government is right now not functioning but I can think back to 1993 the that President Clinton nominated me for a vacancy on the Supreme Court I had spent 10 years of my life litigating gender discrimination cases I was one of four general counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union and yet the vote to confirm me was 96 to three no one raised the question about my affiliation with the American Civil Liberties Union that kind of rapport doesn't exist now but my dream is that we will get back to it one day I think it will take strong people on from both parties to say let's get together and work for the good of the country I mean you mentioned the legislature but I'm I'm thinking of you specifically as a judge at this point there's in a lot of quite outspoken criticism of those individual judges and the judiciary as a whole one thing called a so-called judge you know if someone who served a lifetime in the courts how do you feel about the new administration's quite public criticism I don't want to comment on that you're 83 you're the oldest serving member on the Supreme Court how long do you think you can do this at my age you have to take it year by year I know I'm okay what will be next year I'm hopeful however because my most senior colleague the one who most recently retired Justice John Paul Stevens stepped down at age 90 so I have a way to go since youth you were made a Supreme Court judge how do you feel women's equality and women's rights have changed just look at the numbers when I became a Supreme Court justice there were six women in the Senate now there are 20 I was a second woman on the Supreme Court and when justice O'Connor left I was all alone now I have two colleagues Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice an occasion people ask me but when do you think there will be enough and say well when there are nine and people are aghast we've had nine men for most of the country's history and no one thought strapless it was anything wrong with that I didn't return to something that we talked about at the beginning just to do is the sort of erosion of of facts and truth it just feels like there's less and less that one can be sure of I wandered both in sort of not just in the news but in all sorts of ways I wonder if that's something that strikes you as you look around and what is important is that we have a free press which many countries don't have think of what the press has done in the United States I live in the famous Watergate that story might never have come out if we didn't have the free press that we do why do you mention that do you feel it fine that may be forgotten I read The Washington Post in the New York Times every day and I think today the reporters are trying to tell the public the way things are

Channel: BBC Newsnight

Views: 239,093

Rating: 4.4825816 out of 5

Keywords: bbc, newsnight, news, interview, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, supreme court, united states, justice, donald trump, Neil Gorsuch, women's march, japanese internment

Id: UQzClRA2QLM

Length: 7min 18sec (438 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 23 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

great interview.

[u/peenpolice]

adopt me, ruthy.