Senator (unspecified)

But anyway, I'm over.

I heard your answer to Senator Durbin, but you were a sitting federal judge, and I know some other judges joined you, but you wrote a letter to Columbia saying, because of what I see happening at Columbia, I'll never hire one of your graduates.

Why did you do that?

Well, I know.

I know what happened.

I guess what I'm getting at is our federal judiciary

has lost some of its legitimacy.

I'm not laying it at your doorstep, but it has.

And so many Americans now feel, because they're told, that judges are just politicians in robes.

Okay?

There's just many legislatures.

And that's not what our founders intended, and I don't think that's what they are.

And so...

When a federal judge expresses a political opinion like you did and your colleagues did, how does that help our effort to help the public understand that judges aren't politicians?

I get that, Judge.

And you're a judge.

You can do what you want.

I hope you won't do something like that again.

I'm not saying you don't have the right, but when you adopt a political position, which I happen to believe with, frankly, to do that as a private lawyer is one thing.

To do it as a sitting federal judge is quite another.