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Speaker 1: Few organizations have had as much impact on American law

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Speaker 1: as the Federalist Society, a group of conservative and libertarian

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Speaker 1: legal thinkers founded two as a counter to what they

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Speaker 1: saw as a liberal orthodoxy in the nation's law school

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Speaker 1: and many of its courts. Its first faculty advisor was

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Speaker 1: future Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and over the years

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Speaker 1: the group has gone a long way towards changing the

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Speaker 1: conversation about American law. The Federal Society is having its

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Speaker 1: annual convention starting today in Washington. Featured speakers include Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court Justices Samuel A. Ledo and Clarence Thomas, as well

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Speaker 1: as nine of the people who are on Donald Trump's

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Speaker 1: list of twenty one perspectives Supreme Court justices. With us

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Speaker 1: today is the Federal Society. Federal Society's long time leader

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Speaker 1: and executive vice President, Leonard Leo. He met with Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump yesterday and discussed the the Supreme Court vacancy. Leonard,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us, especially since it's in

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Speaker 1: the middle of your convention. Um, what what's the mood

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Speaker 1: at the Federal Society right now? Given Donald Trump's election?

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Speaker 1: Is it celebratory, excited or is there a mixture of

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Speaker 1: concern over, uh, you know what what the next few

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Speaker 1: years will hold and how Donald Trump will approach the law. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of exciting anticipation about the

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Speaker 1: incoming administration, in particular the opportunity to fill Justice wholey

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Speaker 1: is seat with an individual who has a devotion to

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Speaker 1: limited constitutional government. Leonard, when you spoke with the President

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Speaker 1: elect Trump yesterday, did you discuss specific nominees. President elect

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Speaker 1: Trump made it very clear in yesterday's meeting that he

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Speaker 1: would be selecting a nominee for the Supercan Court from

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Speaker 1: the list of people who had put out during this campaign.

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Speaker 1: And we had a very um thorough conversation about that

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Speaker 1: list and the need to move forward soon evaluating those

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Speaker 1: people and winnowing the list. Um So, I guess that

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Speaker 1: means we can exclude Ted Cruz and some other folks

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Speaker 1: who are off off the list but have been speculated about.

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Speaker 1: Based on what I heard yesterday. If someone is not

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Speaker 1: on the list, they're not on the list and not

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Speaker 1: being considered. Let me let me ask you. You know,

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump was on sixty Minutes the other night and

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Speaker 1: he reiterated that he wants to appoint pro life justices

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Speaker 1: justices who will overtote to overturn Roe v. Wade. But

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Speaker 1: at the same time, he said that the one year

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Speaker 1: old decision legalizing the gay marriage is settled law. How

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Speaker 1: is it possible to I know, you're some he who

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Speaker 1: doesn't just care about a bottom line result. You care

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Speaker 1: a lot about you know legal you know legal method

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Speaker 1: and how a justice gets to results. How is it

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Speaker 1: possible that he might be able to appoint somebody who

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Speaker 1: would hold both those thoughts? Well? First of all, I

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Speaker 1: think the way Mr Trump talks about the courts purisprudence

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Speaker 1: is shorthand and probably the way non lawyers think about

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Speaker 1: jurisprudence and the courts. So when he talks about the

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Speaker 1: abortion issue, for example, I think what he is probably

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Speaker 1: suggesting in a more casual way is that there will

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Speaker 1: be abortion related issues that have to be before the

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Speaker 1: court future. There are lots of follow on regulations to abortion,

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Speaker 1: involving partial birth, abortion, people paying, and other issues at

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Speaker 1: the court hasn't fully resolved. Uh, And so I think

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Speaker 1: when he talks about ov. Wade, that's probably the way

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Speaker 1: he's thinking about it. In terms of the Oberga case

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Speaker 1: and gay marriage, I think the marriage issue, right has

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Speaker 1: been decided by the Court last year, and in his mind, uh,

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Speaker 1: there may be other issues involving LGBT matters, but obviously

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Speaker 1: the marriage issue has been decided and it's not as

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Speaker 1: blood an area as some of the issues of abortion

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Speaker 1: regulation that to this day still percolate through the courts. Leonard,

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Speaker 1: when you your society made up that list, part of

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Speaker 1: that list to give to Trump, what were your major

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Speaker 1: concerns in choosing candidates, Well, they weren't our major concerns.

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Speaker 1: I have had a very productive discussion with Ben Canada

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Speaker 1: Trump and he wanted people who we're going to be bright, uh, courageous, independent.

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Speaker 1: He felt that one of the big problems we've had

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Speaker 1: on a Supreme Court in terms of moving away from

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Speaker 1: the Constitution is that we've had justices who are weak,

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Speaker 1: who don't have the courage and descisiveness to apply the constitutions,

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Speaker 1: as he would put it, as it was meant to be.

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Speaker 1: So I want to thank our guests. Leonard Leo, the

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Speaker 1: executive vice president of the Federalist Society, talking about the

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Speaker 1: potential next Supreme Court justice to be nominated by Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump and the Federalist Societies Annual Convention that's it for

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Speaker 1: this edition of Bloomberg Law. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to our technical director Reginald Basil and our producer Mark

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Speaker 1: Sinnis Kuci. You can find more legal news at Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Law dot com and Bloomberg Being a dot com, plus

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Speaker 1: an invaluable website for the legal community at Big Law

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Speaker 1: Business dot com. Coming up on Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Markets

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Speaker 1: with Carol Masser and Corey Johnson. Carol, what's on the agenda.

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Speaker 1: We are live from Finnay Galleries in Midtown Manhattan. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna be talking with the director and CEO at Finnay Galleries,

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Speaker 1: talk about the art market as another asset class. So

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Speaker 1: much to cover on this Thursday. Back to you guys. Fantastic,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Carol Masser. Stay tuned for all that and

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Speaker 1: more here on Bloomberg Radio. This is Bloomberg