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How is the Supreme Court Still Surprising Us?

How is the Supreme Court Still Surprising Us?

Released Tuesday, 26th March 2024
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How is the Supreme Court Still Surprising Us?

How is the Supreme Court Still Surprising Us?

How is the Supreme Court Still Surprising Us?

How is the Supreme Court Still Surprising Us?

Tuesday, 26th March 2024
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0:00

Hi, I'm Riley Fessler. I'm

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a podcast producer here at the DSR Network, which

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That's thedsrnetwork.com/buy.

0:47

Thank you very much for your support. This

0:54

is Words Matter with Norm

0:57

Ornstein. We've got the

0:59

votes, and screw the rest of you.

1:02

And Dr. Kavita Patel. These

1:04

might be some of the smaller moments, you know,

1:06

with all the bombshells. Didn't catch people's eyes. Welcome

1:22

to a special combo

1:24

episode of our members

1:26

only and what's

1:28

accessible to anybody who wants

1:30

to listen podcast called

1:32

Words Matter from the DSR Network. This

1:34

is a special edition

1:37

because Norm Ornstein and I are

1:39

discussing some of the very important

1:41

arguments that were made on

1:43

Tuesday, March 26th during

1:46

the Supreme Court hearing of

1:48

the plaintiffs' Hippocratic Alliance, the United

1:50

States v. or actually I've got it

1:53

the wrong way, I think, Norm, right?

1:55

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v.

1:57

the United States. the

2:00

correct order of plaintiff and defendant. And

2:03

it's such a special episode that we wanted to just

2:05

make sure, one, everyone could listen to it. And

2:07

two, we're going to try not to do

2:10

what's probably easy to find on your favorite

2:12

social media platform. But we want to try

2:14

to highlight some of the issues, as Norm

2:16

and I discussed them, around

2:19

topics that might not necessarily

2:22

come to the front of your Twitter

2:24

threads. And so Norm, I think, first

2:26

off, impressions that you had

2:29

from listening to the justices and

2:32

just the back and forth between the plaintiffs

2:34

and defendants and the source general, as well

2:37

as all three women, by the way, we

2:39

should point out, that

2:41

were representing the United

2:43

States Food and Drug Administration, the federal government's

2:46

point of view. And

2:48

then two, Danko, which is

2:50

the manufacturer of Niferprex and

2:52

Niferprestone till. And number three,

2:56

the lawyer who was representing the

2:58

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, in

3:00

this case, the plaintiffs, seven physicians

3:02

who cite standing

3:04

because of potential harm made

3:07

by the FDA's decision to approve

3:09

this and expand access to Niferprestone.

3:11

But all three women, so very

3:13

notable. Norm, your thoughts? Well, first,

3:16

Kavita, when I saw the name

3:18

of the plaintiff, I thought it must be

3:20

a typographical error, because it should be the

3:23

Society for Hippocratic Medicine. But

3:29

I thought the

3:31

Solicitor General was

3:33

brilliant. She had

3:36

such utter command, first

3:38

of all, of the

3:40

facts, including citing out

3:42

of memory footnotes and

3:44

passages. The

3:47

lawyer for Danko was fantastic, as

3:49

well. It's hard for

3:51

me to give any credit to the lawyer

3:53

on the other side, because she happens to

3:55

be married to Josh Hawley, who

3:58

is one of the best lawyers of

4:00

the worst of the worst in

4:04

the Senate right now. But

4:07

I really was first struck by

4:09

the fact that the stars across

4:11

the board, including the justices in

4:14

this oral argument, were

4:16

women, all of them. And

4:20

it took me back to

4:22

an earlier era. Sandra Day

4:24

O'Connor finished second in her

4:26

class at Stanford Law School

4:29

and was only offered jobs

4:31

as a secretary. My

4:34

wife's class, they came

4:36

in in 1970 into Yale Law School, had 28 women out of

4:38

170 plus enrollees.

4:45

Now it's a majority, but you think

4:47

about what we lost. The

4:50

brilliance, of course it's not just the law,

4:52

but in earlier times it wasn't

4:55

as bad as the Taliban or

4:58

other countries like Saudi Arabia,

5:00

excluding all of that incredible

5:03

talent from helping to grow the country and

5:05

the economy. But

5:08

we lost an awful lot over decades

5:10

and centuries. The second

5:13

point is that Sam

5:16

Alito remains somebody

5:18

who I hold in the Senate.

5:22

I've been waiting for this. Okay, yes. You

5:24

know, not only is he corrupt, but

5:28

talk about somebody who comes to

5:30

a case with

5:33

his own preconceived conclusions

5:35

and his ideology and

5:38

then struggles to find a way to cloak

5:41

it in faux originalism

5:44

to justify the conclusion he's already come

5:46

to. This is the exact

5:48

opposite of what you want in a jurist,

5:50

whether it's the Supreme Court or any other

5:53

court. And he was schooled

5:55

today by the brilliant Katanji

5:57

Brown Jackson, among others. point,

6:00

and then I will leave it up to you, is I've

6:03

read the sigh of relief through this

6:05

hearing because a

6:07

good part of it was not about

6:10

the substance, but about the standing of

6:12

these plaintiffs, arguing not

6:14

that they'd suffered an injury, not

6:17

that they were on the verge of

6:19

suffering an injury, but that

6:21

it was all theoretical. And

6:24

I think there are at

6:26

least five and maybe seven

6:28

justices who will argue

6:31

in the end that they did

6:33

not have standing. And that's

6:35

for two reasons. One, I

6:37

think a lot of these justices

6:39

recognize full well the mess

6:41

that they've gotten them into with the Dobbs

6:44

decision, and that if they

6:46

keep doubling down on that, it will

6:48

take a court that is already reeling

6:50

from a lack of legitimacy and disapproval

6:53

by Americans, but

6:55

make it that much worse. And

6:58

the second is, there's no

7:00

doubt to me that down the road, five

7:03

justices or six are

7:05

going to move to undercut the

7:07

administrative state, do away

7:10

with Chevron and other doctrines that enable

7:12

agencies basically to act on behalf of

7:14

the public. The last

7:16

one they want to take on as

7:18

the lead in that is the FDA.

7:22

So I think they're going to punt

7:24

on this one. And frankly, I'm fine

7:26

with that, given the alternatives. So

7:29

just in your estimation, and let me

7:31

maybe it would be helpful since, you

7:34

know, Norm, I don't think we'll

7:37

blame people who are working and

7:39

have like real jobs to kind

7:41

of not necessarily pay attention to

7:43

these topics constantly. So let me let

7:45

me offer like what I would say is

7:47

my there's some beautiful threads you

7:49

tweeted about this, but I'm going to offer kind

7:51

of in the moment, a little bit of why

7:53

we think this is going to be maybe

7:56

I don't know, seven to maybe six

7:58

three, but still in favor. of

8:00

the administration kind of in favor of like

8:03

the FDA holding kind of the standard

8:05

around the FDA. But what I thought

8:07

was interesting is that several kind

8:10

of points that I'm going to give credit

8:12

to Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who

8:14

might, people might be sleeping on

8:16

and thinking she's just going to be kind of

8:18

off, you know, with Alito and others. But

8:21

there's a kind of a narrative that started where

8:25

when Holly, the lawyer for the

8:28

plaintiffs, for the Alliance, where

8:30

Barrett asked Holly how a doctor could

8:32

know that a woman seeking, that was

8:34

in the emergency room seeking kind of

8:37

a DNC had a viable embryo or

8:39

fetus. Couldn't it have

8:41

been a miscarriage? Could it have been

8:43

something else? Or how could that, the

8:45

conscience clause exemption not apply or what

8:47

would be the situation where it's such

8:49

a dire emergency and kind of all

8:52

these things had to come to bear.

8:54

Kagan also again, incredible

8:57

justice follows and says again, and

8:59

she kind of beats this point several times, by

9:01

the way. But in

9:03

this one particular narrative, Kagan kind of says the

9:05

two doctors of the seven

9:07

who are objecting because they were complicit

9:09

in abortions for having to have performed

9:11

a DNC after a woman used misopristone,

9:13

which is what two of the doctors

9:15

claim. And

9:17

Holly couldn't provide really any reason

9:20

why those two doctors with

9:22

their objections should then create

9:24

complete kind of national disruption.

9:28

Then you had Katanji Brown Jackson, Justice Jackson,

9:30

who kind of went on

9:32

to say like, look, DNC's are rarely used.

9:35

There are additional things that are done. Like

9:37

it's not always like a DNC. So she

9:39

wanted numbers and data. Holly kind of sidestep

9:41

that. And then you get

9:43

Clarence Thomas who basically invites Holly to say,

9:45

well, what about the Comstock Act objecting to

9:47

kind of mailing quote, lewd materials that

9:50

are the words used in

9:52

the form of misopristone. Let's be clear,

9:54

an FDA approved abortion drug. So Thomas

9:57

kind of going back to that Comstock

9:59

Act. and then Kagan constantly kind

10:01

of bringing up the very valid point

10:04

about traceability. You have to show in

10:06

order to claim that the FDA kind

10:08

of overstepped, you have to show that

10:10

the injury is traceable to

10:12

this 2016 and 2021 decision

10:15

where the FDA allowed for

10:18

pharmacies to provide these medications with

10:20

their doctor's prescription and then eventually moving

10:22

to telehealth because of the pandemic. Holly

10:25

basically said, I don't need to show

10:27

this direct traceability. We just need to

10:29

show increased harm. We think

10:32

traceability is satisfied by the FDA's own

10:34

words. So I think that this

10:36

is like, and then when she asked to kind

10:38

of Kagan again, what is the harm? What is

10:40

that additional harm? Holly goes

10:42

on to cite studies that have

10:44

been retracted, norm, never peer reviewed,

10:47

and have actually by the publication,

10:49

SAGE publications, been publicized

10:52

and kind of apologies put

10:54

out for these publications not meeting

10:56

standards. And in some cases, the

10:58

studies she's citing are like random

11:01

physician blogs, like just random blog

11:03

posts about how there were these like

11:05

increased ER visits, et cetera. So

11:07

nothing specific, nothing peer

11:09

reviewed, nothing citable. And the reason I

11:12

think that thread of kind of here,

11:14

here, here, here is important. And I

11:16

started with Komi Barrett is because it's

11:18

very clear, like the justices are like, you

11:21

need to show us this link for standing. And then

11:24

you have this random like gas, like

11:26

this kind of bomb of Alito and

11:28

Thomas throwing in Comstock, which I

11:31

had to look up again, because I forgot it's like from

11:33

what, dorm 18, 1890, something like that. And

11:37

never ever been enforced. Never been enforced.

11:39

And again, it was applied not for what

11:42

we're talking about here, but around like

11:44

pornography. Anyway, just you can maybe talk about Comstock

11:46

and what it was meant to be used for, I guess,

11:48

when it passed in the 19th century, I

11:51

can't believe I'm saying that. But how,

11:53

how let's, let's actually connect this for

11:56

listeners, something that I haven't seen any

11:58

commentary today, John. Let's. connect this

12:00

for listeners to the election. Because here's my thought,

12:02

Norman, I want to hear your thoughts. I

12:05

think that if Trump wins, all he has to

12:07

do is put in an FDA commissioner that can

12:09

easily kind of come in and put in back

12:12

incredibly restrictive measures. You can keep

12:14

a drug approved that you can put

12:16

in back incredibly restrictive measures.

12:18

You can paper this to

12:21

essentially make any Supreme court ruling moot

12:23

and accomplish almost the same effect. Right. And my,

12:25

I mean, Norm, I don't see anybody drawing that

12:28

argument and distinction. To me, everything

12:30

that happened today, it felt like one step

12:32

forward. We put Donald Trump in place and

12:34

he put some lunat, you know, lunatunes

12:36

show, which is what will happen in

12:38

charge of the FDA. Guess what happens?

12:40

Not just to mr. Hearthstone. He'll put

12:42

every key. It'll be a he, he'll

12:45

put every drug that deals with choice and

12:47

reproductive freedom under some severe

12:49

REMS kind of risk.

12:52

Um, it's the REMS

12:54

protocol, which is called risk evaluation mitigation strategy,

12:56

which is what's in place for mr. Hearthstone

12:58

in about seven or eight other

13:00

drugs and, and he'll put, he'll

13:03

put that in place. Am I wrong? What

13:05

am I missing? I mean, you're absolutely

13:07

right. Uh, and that, uh,

13:09

underscores the stakes of this, uh,

13:11

election again. I have

13:14

to say watching Holly, uh,

13:16

do all of that made me

13:19

think, well, she probably is the

13:21

ideal partner for her husband, Josh

13:23

Holly, because they both have a

13:25

level of mendacity that is off

13:27

the charts. Um, and

13:29

you know, the other thing that struck me

13:32

is that, uh, the rigorous studies

13:34

about mecca for stone and the,

13:36

uh, getting it by mail show

13:39

that adverse effects are something like 0.3%. Not

13:43

even 1%. My guess

13:45

is that a whole lot of other

13:48

drugs that you and

13:50

I and others get through the

13:52

mail from our pharmacy benefits managers

13:54

have significantly higher rates of adverse

13:57

effects and all you have to

13:59

do. is listen to

14:01

any of the TV commercials about

14:04

these popular drugs, which explain the

14:06

adverse effects. You're not explaining them

14:08

because they only affect 0.3%. So,

14:14

you know, this thing is

14:16

absurd. Fortunately,

14:20

I think Barrett,

14:22

who is showing to me signs

14:24

that she, more than any of

14:26

the other conservative justices, including

14:30

the Chief Justice, is growing

14:32

more and more sensitive to the

14:34

damage to the integrity of the

14:37

court that comes from

14:39

these radical decisions and

14:41

is trying to find a way

14:44

to create a different balance. I

14:46

hope I'm right about that because

14:48

on the whole, she aligns with

14:50

the rest of the radical justices.

14:52

But I'm hoping that increasingly, we're

14:55

gonna see the two worst,

14:57

Thomas and Alito, end up

15:00

on the wrong side of

15:02

many seven-two decisions, further

15:04

discrediting them as if we needed any further

15:06

evidence. I also was impressed with Gorsuch. I

15:08

mean, he didn't speak much, but I don't

15:11

know if you agree, Norm,

15:13

but I thought that Gorsuch and Comey,

15:15

which we kind of knew about Gorsuch,

15:17

right? Like we didn't, and

15:20

by, oh, now I'm thinking in real time. Where

15:22

was Kavanaugh? Was he not, what happened to Kavanaugh?

15:24

I didn't hear a word from Kavanaugh. Was

15:26

he there? He must've been there, right? To

15:29

be sure, I was

15:31

mostly listening on cable news where they went

15:33

in and out and parked. No, I listened

15:35

to the whole thing. Because I

15:37

had to cover it, like, well, one, I was

15:40

interested in, too. I had the time. I listened

15:42

to the entire thing. I

15:44

don't remember Kavanaugh speaking. No,

15:46

I didn't see Kavanaugh at all. I will

15:48

say with regard to Gorsuch, one

15:50

of the real strong principles

15:53

of the more conservative justices

15:56

has been to use standing

15:58

to greatly... limit the

16:01

access to the Supreme

16:03

Court of a whole

16:05

host of cases. Now, for the most part,

16:07

those have been cases that

16:09

benefit corporations and rich

16:11

people, but I

16:14

think Gorsuch, at least in this case, is

16:16

being a little bit more true to

16:19

the principle that you have to show

16:21

real direct harm to

16:24

have standing. So

16:27

I'll take that for now as

16:30

a way out of this. But the

16:32

other thing we ought to mention, Kavita, is, okay,

16:35

we have this case in front of the court.

16:37

We know that when they brought it up in

16:39

the Fifth Circuit, that the radical

16:42

judges there jumped all

16:44

over it to try and achieve

16:47

their goal. But we also know

16:49

that Project 2025 run

16:51

out of heritage with

16:53

the direct involvement of the Trump campaign

16:56

sees a path where

16:58

you start with abortion. It'll move to

17:01

a national abortion ban. It

17:03

will include doing just as you say,

17:06

making sure that Meffa-Pristone is not

17:08

available except under onerous

17:11

conditions, and then move on

17:13

from there to a war against contraception,

17:16

a war against gay marriage, a

17:18

continued war, which will move

17:21

to recriminalize gay sex and

17:24

create a world in which

17:26

the Handmaid's Act will

17:28

look more like paradise, the

17:31

Handmaid's Tale, excuse me. So we

17:34

have to look at this case, and if it ends up

17:36

the way we're hoping it does, breathe

17:38

a small sigh of relief, but remember

17:40

just as you said, all

17:43

of that could disappear if Trump wins

17:45

another term. Yeah, it

17:47

could. And it just makes it even

17:49

more important, I think, just for me,

17:51

it was a really direct line, like while

17:53

I would like to say that today, there was a

17:55

moment today where I felt more, I'm like, oh, thank

17:57

goodness. Right. Like, okay, fine. Put Alito and Thomas. to

18:00

the side, like I said, this could be, you know,

18:02

however this decision comes down, but put

18:04

them to the side. What a great time. But

18:06

I was like, wait a minute. No, this is bad.

18:08

This is still bad. And I can't help

18:11

but to think that like, now that it's

18:13

been pretty clear, like how they might

18:15

lose and on what basis standing, for

18:17

example, that they'll just find a way

18:19

to create standing, right? I mean, it

18:21

reminds me a little bit of like

18:23

during COVID, all the courts that were

18:26

forcing doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine inside of

18:28

hospitals, and we had no basis

18:30

for doing it. It wasn't even

18:32

like there was no science binded. It

18:34

was medication used for parasites and horses,

18:37

and people, but not for COVID.

18:40

And we have courts forcing people to

18:42

do things like that. So you think

18:44

about the potential unintended consequences, and they're pretty

18:47

dramatic in this case. Absolutely.

18:50

And, you know, I was reading the other

18:52

day a story about a couple that

18:55

took aquarium cleaner and

18:57

ingested it because it had

19:00

as one of its ingredients,

19:02

hydroxychloroquine, and both died. You

19:04

know, consequences of

19:06

this misinformation and

19:08

disinformation were drastic,

19:11

and not just because

19:13

people didn't get vaccinated or tried

19:15

to rely on treatments that were

19:18

absurd, or actually

19:20

denied to people who needed

19:22

drugs, lupus victims and others,

19:24

the drugs that they needed because people

19:27

scooped them up believing

19:30

that nonsense. You

19:33

know, it's a very

19:35

difficult time. And when I look

19:38

at Alito and Thomas, and I

19:40

look at many

19:42

occasions in which Kavanaugh and

19:45

Roberts have

19:48

joined them, and the

19:52

Gorsuch often as well, it

19:55

takes you to Alice in Wonderland, verdict

19:58

first trial to follow. And

20:00

we have to be very

20:03

aware of, sensitive to, and

20:05

concerned about situations where

20:07

it's clear they bring their ideological biases

20:09

right to the bench and

20:11

then post facto

20:14

come up with rationales. And

20:16

this is something that former

20:19

Justice Steve Breyer in

20:21

his really good interview

20:24

with Kristen Welker

20:26

on Meet the Press. And

20:28

with the book that he's written brings

20:31

out that, you know, his

20:33

pain that they were misusing this

20:36

doctrine for

20:38

their own purposes. Yeah,

20:41

I'm glad you brought up Kristen Welker's interview

20:43

because maybe that takes us into something that

20:45

comes up as a little bit of the

20:47

breaking news while we're recording this, but I

20:49

think it'd be worth getting your take on

20:51

it. And believe me or not, like this

20:53

is actually somewhat related to the Supreme Court

20:56

hearing today because it talks about the

20:59

NBC News hiring and what looks

21:01

like subsequent firing within, you know,

21:03

days of the announcement that

21:06

Ronna McDaniel is a paid

21:08

NBC, MSNBC correspondent. Then

21:10

on Sunday, Meet the Press, there was

21:12

a pretty dramatic intro to Kristen Welker's,

21:15

that same interview of Stephen

21:17

Breyer's that aired that same hour. She

21:19

also had a live on-air interview with

21:22

Ronna McDaniel, but had booked

21:24

that interview prior to learning that she

21:26

was going to be a paid contributor

21:28

for NBC, the employer for Meet the

21:30

Press and for Kristen Welker. And

21:33

that generated so much backlash, so much

21:35

so that at the end of the

21:37

hour when Chuck Todd, who was on

21:39

their kind of roundup panel, basically said

21:41

the network owed Kristen Welker an apology.

21:43

And there was just a flurry of

21:45

both internal and very public and high

21:47

visible kind of proclamations even by all

21:49

the basically female anchors of MSNBC, including

21:52

Rachel Maddow, Nicole Wallace, Stephanie Rule, who

21:54

basically said like not on our network.

21:56

And now as we're recording this kind of

21:58

breaking news, norm that she's been

22:01

let go and that she's retained counsel,

22:03

not a shack. Um, I

22:05

bring this up because we're talking about the Supreme Court,

22:07

but we're talking about the political backlash. We're talking about

22:09

the coverage. You and I have talked about the media.

22:11

We need to do that media episode, but tell

22:13

me your thoughts on this. And I'm not sure

22:15

if you saw that news, but you know, what,

22:17

what a 48 hours it's been

22:20

starting with meet the press and ending

22:22

on the Supreme Court hearing with

22:24

this news after of her being let

22:26

go from NBC. So,

22:29

um, first I've been

22:31

plenty critical in the past of meet the

22:33

press, some of the guests

22:35

that they brought on with some of the

22:37

interviews, uh, that, uh,

22:40

Kristen Welker has done, but I also did that

22:43

in the past with Chuck Todd and

22:45

other moderators, I want

22:47

to give her props for the interview

22:49

that she did with Ronna McDaniel, you

22:52

know, she stopped using, uh,

22:54

Romney because Trump insisted on

22:56

that. I'm guessing that now

22:58

the Romney family is going to insist

23:00

that she not use that name, um,

23:04

but, uh, and

23:06

I'll give props to Chuck

23:08

Todd. What a massive self-inflicted

23:10

wound by a completely out

23:13

of touch leadership at NBC

23:15

news. And you know,

23:17

Ronna McDaniel is likely to walk away

23:19

with $300,000 that she did not earn.

23:24

Um, I actually thought it would be

23:26

better for NBC at this point to

23:28

basically keep her contract going, but

23:31

just not use her on any

23:33

shows so that she couldn't then

23:35

dance off and become a commentator

23:37

somewhere else. Uh,

23:39

and she will probably find some right

23:41

wing network, uh, to do so. It's

23:44

funny you say that. I actually said the same thing

23:46

to a colleague who works at NBC. I

23:48

said, why not? You're going to

23:50

have to pay her either way. You've got a

23:52

contract. Yeah. Why not just keep her and never

23:55

put her on TV because all contracts, including even

23:57

my own has like a carve. You can't go

23:59

on any. other network.

24:01

And you would imagine she's got that same exclusivity on

24:03

there too. And so I'm a

24:07

million thousand. I love that

24:09

idea of keeping her on. Not sure that... Although

24:12

I think there's something just deplorative about

24:14

keeping someone on a payroll and handing them

24:16

free money like that, which is I'm sure

24:19

where some of this comes from. There's

24:22

more to this than just the

24:24

insensitivity of hiring somebody. And

24:26

this pushback

24:29

from Frank Luntz and others, Greta

24:31

Van Susteren, they're trying to

24:34

silence conservative voices. No, they're

24:36

trying not to put on

24:39

and legitimize serial liars and

24:41

election deniers and insurrectionists. She

24:44

actively tried to alter the

24:46

election results in Michigan. So

24:49

it's a very different case. But then

24:51

you look at the reality that Kristen

24:53

Welker was blindsided by her own network,

24:56

that all of the other anchors and

25:00

others had no idea. But

25:02

also all of the

25:04

people who are on as paid contributors, my

25:06

guess is that very few of them make close to

25:08

$300,000 and they've laid off plenty

25:12

in the name of fiscal responsibility.

25:14

So the direct slap at so

25:16

many people, and there's one other

25:18

point we ought to make here,

25:20

which is that this is not

25:22

a new thing. And

25:24

there is some reality

25:27

to the struggle that

25:30

television networks and

25:32

newspapers with op-ed pages have,

25:35

where they want to represent all

25:38

of the different elements in the political

25:40

arena. But you go back to CNN

25:44

hiring Jeffrey Lord and Corey

25:46

Lewandowski and others, who they

25:48

then had to fire when

25:50

their scandals emerged and

25:52

other networks doing the same thing.

25:55

Some of the absolutely cringe-worthy contributors,

25:58

paid contributors, on

26:00

op-ed pages like the Washington Post, Hugh

26:02

Hewitt being a good example, but I

26:05

can go on with more and the

26:07

times and others as well. And

26:11

it's tough, but you can

26:13

find legitimate conservatives.

26:16

I applauded the New York Times

26:18

when they hired David French, who

26:20

has proven to be an enormous

26:22

asset, a conservative, but who is

26:24

an honest figure out

26:26

there. You can find

26:28

people who represent Republican

26:30

viewpoints, conservative viewpoints, without

26:32

pandering to the worst

26:34

instincts, and NBC News just

26:37

soiled itself over and over again with this

26:39

one, and it's not going to be forgotten.

26:42

I think it's the one that's not going to be forgotten. And

26:44

also, I can tell you

26:46

that my guess, and I'm not no

26:49

firsthand knowledge, but nor am I guessing that all

26:51

of this is done because there's this pressure

26:53

to kind of appear. I

26:56

don't even know what to say. Balance for provide

26:58

diverse perspectives, something like that. Well,

27:00

there's a way to provide. I know

27:03

that this goes without saying, you and I

27:05

know some Trump officials who could provide some

27:07

very diverse perspectives who would actually be like

27:09

somewhat, you know, one I'd be more interested

27:12

in hearing from and could actually

27:14

be like productive in conversation, not

27:16

someone who actually has supported not

27:18

just election deniers and

27:20

Donald Trump, but gone out of their way

27:22

to not say anything about January 6 until

27:25

lo and behold, she was relieved of her

27:27

RNC duty. And she can make a convenient

27:29

comment such as, well, you know, when you're having

27:31

to act on behalf of like a larger group,

27:33

you take one for the team. But now I'm

27:35

my own person. Give me a break. I mean,

27:38

so I can't, I can't help just

27:40

following orders, just following or like, sorry,

27:42

not me, you know, not it. I mean,

27:44

it's just a well in

27:47

any case, it's, we'll see. I went to

27:49

when do we think that we might expect

27:51

a ruling norm that is going back to

27:53

the Supreme Court case? It'll

27:57

take a while. And yes, it'll take a

27:59

while in. part because it's

28:02

going to have to be very carefully

28:04

crafted to get that

28:06

super majority of justices. And

28:10

I would guess, as

28:12

somebody not on the inside, but

28:15

having seen a lot of these arguments go forward,

28:18

that they're going to try and base their

28:20

ruling entirely on the narrow issue of who

28:22

has standing. Not weigh

28:24

in on Ephr of

28:49

justice is all. Justice is, I loved that. I know

28:51

that was when she won like, you know, it's

28:53

like, I love this woman. She's amazing. By the

28:55

way, I was like, everybody has an opinion about

28:57

doctors, but I don't mind if it's Katanji Brown

29:00

Jack. That's okay. Who

29:03

is by the way, married to a physician

29:05

or husband is an orthopedic surgeon, I believe

29:07

at George Washington University. So, all

29:10

right, well, that's that's our wrap for our

29:12

combo episode. We hope that listeners learned

29:14

a little bit and got a

29:17

little bit more ficed to keep fighting

29:19

and making sure that we get some

29:21

folks out to vote because I hope

29:23

we painted a pretty clear picture. I

29:25

want to thank you, Norm, for joining

29:28

me. Thank everyone for listening. It would

29:30

be helpful if you could rate, review,

29:32

subscribe and share this podcast on your

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favorite podcast player. And

29:36

if you like this and want to get

29:38

more of a conversation, return as a

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member and you can get bonus segments

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and certainly access to past bonus segments,

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as well as future events that

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are exclusive to members only. Words

29:50

Matter is a production of the DSR

29:52

Network. Our executive producer is Chris Cutmar

29:54

and our producer for our podcast is

29:56

Riley Fessler. Our next episode of Words

29:59

Matter will be in in and on

30:01

your podcast feeds around April

30:03

4th. See you then.

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