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OBAMA

39:45 And it essentially has never happened. I mean if you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement 39:48 and its litigation strategy and the court I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples so that I would not have the right to vote.. Would now be able to sit at lunch counter and as long as I could pay for it ..would be ok.

40:10 But the supreme court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of basic issues of political and economic justice in this society and to that extent as radical as people try to characterize the warren court it wasn’t that radical 40:30 It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the constituion. At least as it has been interpreted and the Warren Court interpreted it generally in the same way that the constitution is a document of negative liberties 40:43 Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the federal govt cant do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal govt or state govt must do on your behalf and that hasn’t shifted and I think one of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was that 41:01 the civil rights movement became so court focused. I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and organizing activities 41:12 on the ground that are able to bring about the coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change.. 41:20 and in some ways we still suffer from that.

Caller (Karen): 46:07 The gentlemen made the point that the warren court wasn’t terribly radical with economic changes my question is: Is it to late for that kind of reparative work and is that the appropriate place for reparative economic work to take place?

Q: You mean the court

Caller: The court or would it be legislation at this point?

OBAMA

46:27 You know maybe I am showing my bias here as a legislator. As well as a law professor, but you know I am not optimistic about bringing about major REDISTRIBUTIVE CHANGE through the courts. 46:43 You know the institution just isn’t structured that way. Just look at very rare examples where during he desegregation era the court was willing to, for example, 46:55 order you know changes that cost money 46:59 to local school district and the court was very uncomfortable with it. It was hard to manage. 47:04 It was hard to figure out. You start getting into all sorts of separation of powers issues. 47:09 You know in terms of the court monitoring or engaging in a process that is essentially is administrative and take a lot of time. The court is not very good at it and politically it is hard to legitimize opinions from the court in that regard. 47:27 So I think that although you can craft theoretical justifications for it legally you know I think any three of us sitting here could come up with a rationale for bringing about economic change through the courts. 47:45 I think that as a practical matter.. that our institutions are just poorly equipped to do it.

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