Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Rep. Shalala on the trailblazing career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

-In my lifetime, I expect to see three,

four, perhaps even more women on the high court bench.

Women, not shaped from the same mold,

but of different complexions.

-I've known Ruth since she was at Rutgers

because she was part of the women's movement.

And then she moved to Columbia

and I was teaching on the Columbia faculty.

I was teaching Political Science and she was at the Law School.

So we had lunch periodically.

I knew her for a very, very long time.

-As a friend, is there something that comes to mind to you

about her that you don't think the public may know?

-She was quick, even through she was deliberate in her speech.

The other thing is, she's a very cool person.

And her reputation just expanded.

Ruth Ginsburg, to be fair, had a huge reputation

before she got on the bench.

She was the leading lawyer for women's rights.

She chipped away before the Supreme Court

and won a series of cases which established women

as having equal rights with men.

-I'm proud to nominate this path breaking attorney,

advocate, and judge, to be the 107th Justice

to the United States Supreme Court.

-And so as she entered the court,

unlike the other Justices with a single exception

probably of Thurgood Marshall,

she went a huge reputation as a litigator of some

of the most important cases in human rights.

-What about her thoughts on voting rights

and the rights to election, fair elections?

-She was very upset with the financing of campaigns,

because she thought it would fundamentally

change American politics, and she was right.

-With Senator McConnell saying that he's going to push

for filling that vacancy before the election,

what are your thoughts on the Senate moving forward,

even though that was not her wish?

-I thought that Senator McConnell

saying something yesterday about this was in poor taste.

It seems to me that you ought to allow some space,

but they clearly jumped on it.

And it will be a campaign issue.

I hope cooler heads prevail

on the Republican side of the Senate.

Already you're seeing some people

that are pretty uncomfortable.

That at least are going to wait until after the election.

So, they're going to have to be under enormous pressure.

And we're going to add to the pressure.

-What do you think she would think

of McConnell's statement yesterday?

-She wouldn't have said anything,

but she would've been mortified.

She would've left it to the rest of us.