CBS: Scalia Was a ‘Conservative,’ Ginsburg Is Simply ‘a Great Legal Mind’

October 10th, 2016 5:17 PM

CBS This Morning’s co-hosts on Monday hailed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a “great legal mind” and offered no ideological label for the very liberal judge. In contrast, while talking about her colleague Antonin Scalia, Charlie Rose made sure to describe him as a “conservative.” Rose hailed, “She has been called the Thurgood Marshall of the women's rights movement. Before she was even a judge, she was writing briefs about gender discrimination and has continued that fight all her life.” 

At no point, did the co-host define that. He didn’t explain that Ginsburg is a rabid promoter of abortion.  Rose cheered, “As a young litigator, Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued cases that transformed the Supreme Court's view of gender equality. In 1993, she became the second woman justice appointed to the nation's highest court.” 

The journalist described, “She is known as much for her candor as for her unlikely friendship with conservative justice Antonin Scalia.” So, Scalia gets defined ideologically, but not Ginsburg? 

Last week, Rose talked to Stephen Breyer, another liberal on the court. Yet, the host spun Breyer as a “pragmatist.” In reality, the liberal judge is rabidly anti-gun and doesn’t believe the Second Amendment is an individual right. 

A transcript is below: 

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CBS TM
10/10/16
8:33:09

CHARLIE ROSE: As a young litigator, Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued cases that transformed the Supreme Court's view of gender equality. In 1993, she became the second woman justice appointed to the nation's highest court. She is known as much for her candor as for her unlikely friendship with conservative justice Antonin Scalia. He died in February. Her new book, My Own Words, is published by Simon and Shuster, a division of CBS. We sat down for a conversation about Justice Ginsburg’s own past and her vision for the Supreme Court’s future. Whoever becomes president will have, when they arrive in the White House, they have the opportunity to appoint a new Supreme Court justice. 

RUTH BADER GINSBURG: That is one scenario. Another possibility is after the election, the Senate will act. 

ROSE: What would you like to see the Senate do? 

GINSBURG: I would like to see the Court have a full house by the time this term ends. 

ROSE: You'd like to see the Court have a full house? 

GINSBURG: Have nine members, yes. 

ROSE:  Before this term ends? 

GINSBURG: Yes. 

ROSE: No thought of retiring? 

GINSBURG: I have said that I will hold this office as long as I can do the job full steam. 

ROSE: And you are doing it full steam? 

GINSBURG: So I know that this year, I'm okay. At my age, I'm 83, you have to take it year-by-year. 

ROSE: Many people, you know, have been fascinated by the fact that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia were friends. We all know that you both loved opera. You have told me when we talked about your chambers that he was a better singer than you are. 

GINSBURG: He was a much better singer. Justice Scalia had a very good tenor voice. I am a monatone. 

ANTONIN SCALIA [From 2014]: We agree on a whole lot of stuff. We do. Ruth is bad only on the knee-jerk stuff. 

ROSE: Do you miss him on the Court? 

GINSBURG: Of course, I do. 

ROSE: Because? 

GINSBURG: It's paler place without him. He had an uncanny ability to make even the most somber judge smile. 

ROSE: When you came to the Court, Sandra Day O'Connor was your good friend. 

GINSBURG: Yes. 

ROSE: When she left, you said that was a turning moment? 

GINSBURG: When Sandra left, it was a very lonely place for me to be. That is, the perception of the Court, we come and sit on the bench and there is the audience of spectators, and they saw eight rather well-fed men there. 

ROSE: Rather well fed men. 

GINSBURG: And then there was this small little woman. It was the wrong perception. 

ROSE: Yeah, exactly. 

GINSBURG: I've been there over 23 years so I sit by seniority close to the middle. Justice Sotomayor is on now  my left and Keegan on the left side. Justice Kagan on my right side. We are now one third of the court. And my new colleagues are not shrinking violets. They take a very active part in the colloquy that goes on in oral argument. 

ROSE: This is the first book you have written since being a justice of the Supreme Court. 

GINSBURG: Yes. Not the first book ever. The first book was the bestseller called Civil Procedure in Sweden.

ROSE: I missed that one. But you've always been interested in procedure. 

GINSBURG: Yes. I taught procedure for 17 years. 

ROSE: When did this love affair with the law, how did it begin? 

GINSBURG: My interest in becoming a lawyer was sparked in the 1950s when I was a student, an undergraduate student at Cornell. It was the heyday of Senator Joe McCarthy. It was not a good time for our country. 

JOSEPH WELCH: Have you no sense of decency, sir? 

GINSBURG: My professor of constitutional law brought to my attention the lawyers that were appearing before the people called before the committees, lawyers who were reminded Congress, we have a First Amendment and we have a Fifth Amendment. 

ROSE: You saw the law as a protector of individual liberty? 

GINSBURG: Yes, yes. I thought it could be a way to make a living, plus to do something that would make conditions in your society a little better. 

ROSE: There was another student at Cornell — 

GINSBURG: Yes. 

ROSE: — who decided to become a lawyer too. 

GINSBURG: Yeah. My dear husband. 

ROSE: Your husband? 

GINSBURG: Yeah. In fact, we had decided that whatever we do, we do it together. Marty started out as a chemistry major but his true major was golf. 

ROSE: Yes. 

GINSBURG: And labs were in the afternoon and interfered with golf practice. So then it was either business school or law school. 

ROSE: You were at Harvard? 

GINSBURG: Yes. 

ROSE: And you transferred to Columbia. 

GINSBURG: Yes. 

ROSE: Both great law schools, but why transfer? 

ROSE: Marty was one year ahead of me. He had had his first year at Harvard and then was called into service. My daughter was three years old and I didn't want to be a single mom, so I left Harvard. 

GINSBURG: And Harvard didn't give you a degree. And then Marty comes to you, though, and says, “Don't go back and accept anything from Harvard unless they are willing to give you an honorary degree?” 

ROSE: Which I received in 2011. 

ROSE: There is a picture in your chambers of you and Placido Domingo. 

GINSBURG: Yes. 

ROSE: And he is singing to you in the Harvard graduation robes? 

[Clip.] 

ROSE: And your title to that picture is what? 

GINSBURG: Woman in ecstasy. That is me. 

ROSE: Thank you for this time. I enjoyed it very much. 

GINSBURG: I did, too. 

NORAH O’DONNELL: I like that. A woman ecstasy. 

GAYLE KING: What a sweet way to end too. 

O’DONNELL: You talked about, too, many people don't realize, too, her legacy in terms of being a great legal mind. 

ROSE: Exactly. And really she has been called the Thurgood Marshall of the women's rights movement. Before she was even a judge, she was writing briefs about gender discrimination and has continued that fight all her life. 

KING: I love she is 83 and going full steam. I often her described as frail. 

ROSE: She was alive and funny. 

KING: Very much so. 

ROSE: We loved it. 

King: Her voice is monotone. I like that. 

ROSE: I get the great pleasure, in a couple of weeks at the New York Bar Association to do her and Justice Sonia Sotomayor together. 

O’DONNELL: That will be fascinating. 

KING: That's what you like, smart girls on either side of you! That is very nice.