. >> well, john marshall has come a long way, baby. i am glad to see you all here today. thank you so much, dr. markowitz, dean lynn, and all of the john marshall community for conferring this honorary degree on me this afternoon. i cannot tell you how deeply honored i am to receive such a distinguished award from what is a distinguished law school. you have worked hard, earned everything you have, and i'm very proud, as are all the members of the court. thank you, kevin, for that generous and gracious introduction. good afternoon it is so good to see all of you. thank you for letting me be part of this celebration, your celebration, said it marks the end of one part of your life and the exciting beginning of a new chapter. to the graduates, congratulations on your academic achievements and on the relationships that you have cultivated while here. i hope the connections he made at this school will forever in rich your lives. and to the parents and families, congratulations to you, too. some you should feel an accomplishment, because i know you have made many sacrifices to

as chief justice john marshall famously wrote -- quote -- "this government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers." enumerated means the government has the powers itself given and only those powers it was given. and if you'll recall the constitution starts out "we the people of the united states of america in order to establish a more perfect union." to the speeple established it and they granted certain powers to the -- the people established it and they granted certain powers to the government. they were limited and enumerated and set forth. but our founders knew these limitations, history being what it is, standing alone were not enough. so they created three distinct branches of government creating a system of checks and balances to prevent any one branch from consolidating too much power. the constitution gives each branch its own responsibility. article 1 of the constitution declares -- quote -- "all legislative powers -- that's us -- herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the united states." close quote. article 2 declares -- quote -- "the executive pow

as john marshall famously wrote, this is an acknowledged to be one of enumerated powers. this means the government has the power that it was given, only the power that was given. the constitution starts, we the people of the united states of america, and the people established this and had certain powers given to the branches of government. but these were not unlimited. they were enumerated and set forth. the founders knew these limitations -- standing alone was not enough. they created three distinct branches of government, with checks and balances to prevent any one brand from consolidating too much power. they gave their own branch a responsibility, and this declares that all legislative powers shall be vested in a congress of the united states. the second article declares that the executive power should be vested in a president of the united states, article 3 declares, the judicial power of the united states shall be vested in one supreme court. and such other court's as the congress creates. these words are not ambiguous, the judiciary possesses no power to make law

john marshall harlan, who was on the supreme court, was often heard to complain that the court seemed to try and find a constitutional remedy for whatever the country's problems might be, and was not happy with what he saw as the courts stepping in to solve those problems when other expenses of government appeared not to be willing to act. archie cox, a scholar, made the comment that historians will record the warren court as being essentially mainstream, that it was very much in touch with the keeping of the genius of american institutions. so you had a wide range of judgments. there was discussion this morning, with judge wilkins and asking the chief justice about important cases, which cases he would identify. when he stepped down, chief justice warren was asked if he would name the cases that he saw was the most historical. which had the most impact. he dicks three cases, and the top of the roster was car. he also mentioned brown versus board of education, and gideon versus wainwright, the course decision that said if one could not afford a lawyer, one would be appointed. if one t

john mar hall -- john marshall was heard to come main that the court really seemed to find a constitutional remedy for whatever the country's problems might seem to be, and he was not happy with what he saw as the court stepping in to solve those problems when the other branches of the government appeared not to be willing to act. others were more charitable. archie cox, the harvard famous scholar made the comment that the historians will record the warren court to have been essentially mainstream, that it was very much in touch with the keeping of the genius of american institutions, so you had quite a range of judgments about the warren court. there was discussion this morning, judge wilkinson asked the chief justice about important cases, which cases he would identify. when he stepped down from the supreme court, chief justice warren was asked if he would name the cases that he thought during the time of the warren court were the most historical. which ones had the most impact, and he picked three cases that he thought the warren caught ought -- the warren caught out to be remembered for

general marshall did. john showed up as a surprise to his dad. marshall arranged that john should have his furlough after his graduation in europe with his dad. it was typical of marshall to have that kind of thoughtfulness. c-span: "the atlantic wall" -- these are your words -- "must therefore be regarded as one of the greatest blunders in military history." first, describe it. >> guest: well, it's hard to describe briefly. it was the greatest construction project of all time. this was way bigger than the great wall of china, way, way bigger than the maginot line. people who go to europe today aren't aware of it because so much of it was underground, and some of it had been blown over with sand, but it's still there. it will be there forever. c-span: and it goes from where to where? >> guest: it goes from the north sea down to the spanish border, and at every conceivable site of a landing -- that is, any place where the cliff wasn't absolutely vertical -- they had out to sea underwater obstacles with mines on them to blow up the landing craft at

john kennedy once said that winston churchill marshalled the english language and sent it into battle in world war ii. there much truth it that. to the extent there is truth in that there is also truth that al from took a bunch of us who were very interested, some of whom you have seen here, some of whom were backstage -- chuck robb, sam nunn, dick gephardt -- and i was one of the first people in that organization and al made us put up each $1,000 apiece, which now seems like a small sum but in 1985 seemed like a very large sum. my campaign account was not nearly as large as, luckily, it is today. and we were very proud of that organization and it was somewhat controversial and has remained controversial because al has kept the organization, through many great leaders like bill clinton, like harold ford -- is harold still here? if harold were speaking he would have stayed, i guarantee you. tell him i said so, will you, please? or just yell at the television when you see him come on. but al from kept the faith an kept the focus. and he made an extraordinary difference in terms of respo