npr--2020-09-19--A Five-Decade-Long Friendship That Began With A Phone Call

In 1971 , newly assigned to cover the Supreme Court , I was reading a brief in what would ultimately be the landmark case of Reed v. Reed .
It argued that the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause applied to women .
I did n't understand some of the brief , so I flipped to the front to see who the author was , and I placed a call to Rutgers law professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg .
By the time I hung up an hour later , I was so full of information that I was like a goose whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon began calling professor Ginsburg regularly , and eventually I met her in person at a conference in New York .
We never did agree what the subject of that conference was , but take my word for it , it was boring .
So boring that we ... well , we went shopping .
We would become professional friends , and later , close friends after she moved to Washington to serve on the federal appeals court here and later , on the U.S. Supreme Court .
Some of the stories that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brilliance , hard work , or devotion to the law , or even her pioneering role as the architect of the legal fight for women 's rights in this country .
Rather , they are examples of her extraordinary character , decency , and commitment to friends , colleagues , law clerks — just about everyone whose lives she touched .
I was lucky enough to be one of those people .
She was still on the D.C .
Circuit in 1988 when the Cosmos Club , after years of effort from many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to admit women .
Against my better judgment , I agreed to be proposed as one of the first female members .
But , as it turned out , I was blackballed .
While I was happy not to have to pay the significant fees associated with membership , the truth is that I was really hurt , and I must have told Ruth about it .
Some time later , RBG was invited to visit the club , and at the end of a tour of its lovely interior , her escort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As the story was related to me , Ruth paused , and in that quiet , low voice of hers , said to her escort , `` You know , I think that a club that is too good for Nina Totenberg is too good for me , too . ''
As floored as I was back then , I began to truly understand the measure of the woman when my late husband , Floyd Haskell , fell on the ice and spent much of the next four years , in the hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ruth was a Supreme Court justice , but periodically , she and her husband , Marty , would scoop me up , taking me with them for a night out , or dinner at their apartment with someone interesting , and once for a memorable and very small family birthday party for RBG at her cousin Beth 's house .
I always felt those evenings as a kind of embrace .
She continued these kindnesses after Floyd died , and then one night , when she had taken me to some event at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a hallway , and I said to her , `` Ruth , I 've started to date someone . ''
In my mind 's eye , I remember her stopping in her tracks , looking at me hard , and saying , `` Details .
I want details ! ''
Ruth always did love gossip !
The more the better .
And so I told her all about Dr. David Reines , a widower , a trauma surgeon and chairman of surgery at one of the Partners hospitals in Boston .
In November @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It was no small thing that she was there .
Because of her colon cancer radiation treatments the year before , she had a blockage that had landed her in the hospital the night before the wedding .
But as I would learn , a commitment from RBG was about as iron clad a thing as you could get .
In typical fashion , she forbade Marty to call me or let me know in any way .
`` This was your wedding eve , and I was not about to let you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later .
In true fashion , she was there , stayed through the dinner , and quietly asked me if it would be okay if she left a little early .
In 2009 when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer , she could not deliver a planned speech at Rutgers , but as she flew to New York for her surgery , she was working on the final draft of her speech , which would be delivered by someone else .
She was still in considerable post-operative pain when she was released from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days later , she pulled herself together to attend President Obama 's first State of the Union speech .
And , truthfully , she looked like she had a grand time .
In 2018 , when cancer again reared its head , she had to cancel a packed schedule , but tried to reschedule every cancelled date the following year , even though she had just undergone extensive radiation treatments .
The doctors told her judicial assistant , Kimberly McKenzie , to just cancel everything .
McKenzie knew better .
She could be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She knew how to play hurt better than most defensive ends .
Broken ribs , radiation , chemo — she just soldiered on .
I really have no idea how many times I interviewed RBG over the years .
Suffice to say dozens and dozens .
My personal favorite was a long interview I did with her and the late Justice Antonin Scalia before an audience of about 1,500 in Washington .
I loved it especially because these two ideological opposites were such good friends , and in that interview they came to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respectfully , laughed lovingly about experiences shared , and let the audience see how two brilliant justices of different views could love each other despite those differences .
Some of the interviews I did with her were hilarious , or revealing , especially , when we chatted for a few minutes the day before , and I let her know what I was thinking of asking .
Thus armed , she told me at the Sundance film festival about her first experience with sexual harassment , at Cornell , and she was so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , telling him , `` How dare you , how dare you ! ''
Can you imagine ?
She was 18 years old , if that , and fearless even then .
Then too there was the interview I did with her for a group of doctors when I asked her to tell the story of her second pregnancy , 10 years after her first child was born .
She had never expected to get pregnant again because of Marty 's extensive radiation treatments for testicular cancer when they were in law school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surprised , so was the doctor , because after telling her she was about to become a mother for a second time , he asked her , `` May I know who the father is ? ''
P.S .
James Ginsburg looks exactly like Marty .
Some of the interviews I did with her , especially toward the end of her life , were mainly me asking her to retell the many stories I had heard from her over the years .
I called them `` Ruth 's Greatest Hits . ''
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ performer she was .
No matter how lousy she felt , she rose to the occasion .
Whether the audience was a small gathering at an embassy or a music or opera group , or a packed arena filled with 16,000 spectators who gobbled up every ticket within hours of them being posted online in Little Rock , Ark.
, she was always the inimitable RBG .
She loved her wine .
Confined to one glass a day , she rebelled when my husband , David , brought her a giant glass filled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yom Kippur .
`` David , '' she instructed , `` fill it up to the top ? ''
She had a wonderful sense of humor .
When she spiked a high fever in July and her doctor told her she just had to go to Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore , right away , her response was : `` Well , they have good crab cakes there . ''
Ruth loved food .
She may have been 85 pounds soaking wet towards the end of her life , but she loved to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But God help you if you tried to take her plate way before she had eaten every last morsel of food on the plate .
Of course , she had been spoiled by the love of her life , her husband , Marty , the best of gourmet chefs .
My husband , and her daughter , Jane , and granddaughter Clara tried to live up to that .
But nobody was quite like Marty .
Anyone reading this will know from my pieces and from the documentary RBG about that last poignant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end of their 56 years together .
Before the movie , though , I asked her to bring the letter with her to an interview we were taping .
It was the last thing I asked of her that day , to read the letter .
It was the only time I ever saw her cry .
Few know how hard she tried to take care of Marty , all by herself in the last year of his life .
I called one day to ask if we could bring food .
No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so down that I asked if she would like David to come over and examine Marty .
`` Oh yes , '' came the reply .
I stayed in the living room while David went to the bedroom .
Ruth had not slept all night .
She was trying to take care of her darling husband , who was considerably bigger than she was , help him to the bathroom , giving him sponge baths .
David did what he could to make Marty comfortable and he discussed the situation with the two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` Ruth , I have Medicaid patients who have more help than you do . ''
There was one hilarious moment on that day , however .
We had brought some food in an aluminum tin that she could heat up .
My husband , David , ever knowledgeable about human behavior , said to her , as we were about to leave , `` Ruth , do you know how to heat that up ? ''
Yes , she assured him , just put it in the microwave .
`` NO , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ short out the electricity .
`` You need to heat it in the oven . ''
There must have been something about the look in her eyes , because he quickly followed up , `` Do you know how to use the oven ? ''
After some hesitation , the venerable justice admitted she did not .
And so , David gave Ruth Bader Ginsburg a lesson on how to use the oven in her apartment .
This was , of course , not the first time she pushed the envelope of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for work too .
And so it was that I learned early in our friendship not to call the Ginsburg household until after noon on the weekends .
Ruth would come to dinner at our house or go to the opera , or go to any of the many other events she enjoyed participating in , and when she got home , she would start to work again .
Ruth really did love being `` the notorious RBG . ''
At the opera , when her tiny figure , wrapped in a coat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Center opera house from a side entrance , I do n't know how , but people would see her , and the roar would begin , soon followed by a standing ovation , and loud cheering .
And amid Covid , she took to wearing a mask , with her tiny face printed on it .
She was an inspiration to so many women , especially young women .
She often would come to our twice-a-year big parties , attended by lots of doctor friends , journalists , and lawyers .
She always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would have thinned to a relative few .
But there almost always were a bunch of surgical residents and a few of my former interns still there .
It was such an amazing thing to see how they stood back , in awe of her , as I chatted with her , and she ate , undisturbed by the fact that we had 15 or so listeners .
Even then , she was , in a sense a performer .
Her memory was so prodigious .
At one party , we were talking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sheen -- they were in the same natural child birth class -- he with his wife , she with Marty , about 50 years or earlier .
She recalled that he was in his first Broadway play back then , and she paused to remember the name , `` The subject was roses . ''
My husband could n't believe it and googled it on the spot .
As usual , she was right .
I sometimes was asked how I could remain such good friends with RBG at the same time that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The answer was really pretty simple .
If you are lucky enough to be friends with someone like Ruth Bader Ginsburg , you both understand that you each have a job , and that it has to be done professionally , and without favor .
I think the only time that she told me anything she was n't supposed to was a mistake .
After the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown , our house was about the only safe place Ruth could go , and so from mid-March until the end of July , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Saturday night , except a few where we brought dinner to her .
Periodically , she would get this evil grin on her face , and say something on the order of `` You are going to be a very busy person this week . ''
Translation : lots of big opinions for you to cover .
Then , one Sunday I called her about something else , and she said , `` How did you like that Electoral College decision ? ''
I could n't believe my ears .
My friend was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rest of us in these Covid times , gotten her days mixed up .
She thought it was Monday .
I paused and said , gently , `` Ruth , it 's Sunday , not Monday . ''
She gasped .
She was horrified .
Beside herself at her indiscretion .
Of course , she had n't told me anything about what the court had decided , only that I would find out in about 12 hours .
But still , she was lashing herself for her mistake .
I could n't help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though , being her friend did get harder toward the end of her life .
But even then , she understood .
At the end of 2018 , she called on my husband David , to help her navigate the onset of lung cancer .
For some six weeks , he knew what was going on , supervised her biopsy , and talked with RBG and her family .
But I knew nothing of what was transpiring .
I was kept in the dark .
As it happened , the biopic about RBG @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was premiering in December , and over the course of a couple of weeks , she was to make a bunch of appearances in Washington , and New York .
I was the interviewer for all of these , and we ended up in New York , where unbeknownst to me , Ruth and my husband David were meeting at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with an array of doctors and Ruth 's daughter , Jane , to make plans for her surgery and treatment .
At the last of these appearances , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shorter than planned because when I looked into her eyes , she looked so terribly tired .
The night before the surgery , David sat me down to tell me what was going to happen the next morning .
I confess I cried .
The next day , I followed her example and did my job , as the court announced the operation .
When I finished for the day I met David for dinner as I prepared to do a TV shot , and as we sat in the restaurant , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It was Ruth .
She was `` sitting up in a chair eating a consomme soup that is far better than I had any right to expect . ''
She was calling me , she said , because she wanted me to know why she had forbidden David to breathe anything to me about what was going on .
As she memorably put it , `` I just did n't want you to be trapped between your friendship for me and your obligations as a journalist . ''

A 5-Decade-Long Friendship That Began With A Phone Call
Enlarge this image toggle caption Rebecca Gibian/AP Rebecca Gibian/AP
A 5-Decade-Long Friendship That Began With A Phone Call Listen · 8:42 8:42
In 1971, newly assigned to cover the Supreme Court, I was reading a brief in what would ultimately be the landmark case of Reed v. Reed. It argued that the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause applied to women. I didn't understand some of the brief, so I flipped to the front to see who the author was, and I placed a call to Rutgers law professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
By the time I hung up an hour later, I was so full of information that I was like a goose whose innards were ready for foie gras. I soon began calling professor Ginsburg regularly, and eventually I met her in person at a conference in New York. We never did agree what the subject of that conference was, but take my word for it, it was boring. So boring that we ... well, we went shopping.
We would become professional friends and later, close friends after she moved to Washington to serve on the federal appeals court here and later, on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some of the stories that follow have little to do with her brilliance, hard work or devotion to the law, or even her pioneering role as the architect of the legal fight for women's rights in this country. Rather, they are examples of her extraordinary character, decency and commitment to friends, colleagues, law clerks — just about everyone whose lives she touched. I was lucky enough to be one of those people.
Friendship through hardship
She was still on the D.C. Circuit in 1988 when the Cosmos Club, after years of effort from many of its male members, finally voted to admit women. Against my better judgment, I agreed to be proposed as one of the first female members. But, as it turned out, I was blackballed. While I was happy not to have to pay the significant fees associated with membership, the truth is I was really hurt, and I must have told Ruth about it.
Some time later, RBG was invited to visit the club, and at the end of a tour of its lovely interior, her escort invited her to become a member. As the story was related to me, Ruth paused, and in that quiet, low voice of hers, said to her escort, "You know, I think that a club that is too good for Nina Totenberg is too good for me, too."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Image from Nina Totenberg Image from Nina Totenberg
As floored as I was back then, I began to truly understand the measure of the woman when my husband, Floyd Haskell, fell on the ice and spent much of the next four years, in the hospital, struggling to recover. By then, Ruth was a Supreme Court justice, but periodically, she and her husband, Marty, would scoop me up, taking me with them for a night out, or dinner at their apartment with someone interesting, and once for a memorable and very small family birthday party for RBG at her cousin Beth's house. I always felt those evenings as a kind of embrace.
She continued these kindnesses after Floyd died, and then one night, when she had taken me to some event at Catholic University, we were walking down a hallway, and I said to her, "Ruth, I've started to date someone." In my mind's eye, I remember her stopping in her tracks, looking at me hard, and saying, "Details. I want details!"
Ruth always did love gossip! The more the better. And so I told her all about Dr. David Reines, a widower, a trauma surgeon and chairman of surgery at one of the Partners hospitals in Boston.
A woman of her word
In November 2000, she performed our wedding ceremony.
It was no small thing that she was there. Because of her colon cancer radiation treatments the year before, she had a blockage that had landed her in the hospital the night before the wedding. But as I would learn, a commitment from RBG was about as ironclad a thing as you could get. In typical fashion, she forbade Marty to call me or let me know in any way.
"This was your wedding eve, and I was not about to let you be worried," she told me later. In true fashion, she was there, stayed through the dinner, and quietly asked me if it would be OK if she left a little early.
In 2009 when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she could not deliver a planned speech at Rutgers, but as she flew to New York for her surgery, she was working on the final draft of her speech, which would be delivered by someone else.
She was still in considerable post-operative pain when she was released from the hospital, but less than 10 days later, she pulled herself together to attend President Obama's first State of the Union speech. And, truthfully, she looked like she had a grand time.
In 2018, when cancer again reared its head, she had to cancel a packed schedule, but tried to reschedule every canceled date the following year, even though she had just undergone extensive radiation treatments. The doctors told her judicial assistant, Kimberly McKenzie, to just cancel everything. McKenzie knew better.
Ruth could be stubborn. Oh my, stubborn. She knew how to play hurt better than most defensive ends. Broken ribs, radiation, chemo — she just soldiered on.
I really have no idea how many times I interviewed RBG over the years. Suffice to say dozens and dozens. My personal favorite was a long interview I did with her and Justice Antonin Scalia before an audience of about 1,500 in Washington. I loved it especially because these two ideological opposites were such good friends, and in that interview, they came to play.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Image from Nina Totenberg Image from Nina Totenberg
They fought over ideology, respectfully, laughed lovingly about experiences shared, and let the audience see how two brilliant justices of different views could love each other despite those differences.
Some of the interviews I did with her were hilarious, or revealing, especially, when we chatted for a few minutes the day before, and I let her know what I was thinking of asking. Thus armed, she told me at the Sundance Film Festival about her first experience with sexual harassment, at Cornell, and she was so furious that she faced down her professor, telling him, "How dare you, how dare you!" Can you imagine? She was 18 years old, if that, and fearless even then.
Then too there was the interview I did with her for a group of doctors when I asked her to tell the story of her second pregnancy, 10 years after her first child was born. She had never expected to get pregnant again because of Marty's extensive radiation treatments for testicular cancer when they were in law school. So, not only was she surprised, but so was the doctor, because after telling her she was about to become a mother for a second time, he asked her, "May I know who the father is?" P.S. James Ginsburg looks exactly like Marty.
Some of the interviews I did with her, especially toward the end of her life, were mainly me asking her to retell the many stories I had heard from her over the years. I called them "Ruth's Greatest Hits." But I could never get over what a performer she was.
No matter how lousy she felt, she rose to the occasion. Whether the audience was a small gathering at an embassy or a music or opera group, or a packed arena filled with 16,000 spectators who gobbled up every ticket within hours of them being posted online in Little Rock, Ark., she was always the inimitable RBG.
An 85-pound gourmand
She loved her wine. Confined to one glass a day, she rebelled when my husband, David, brought her a giant glass filled halfway up at break-fast on Yom Kippur. "David," she instructed, "fill it up to the top."
She had a wonderful sense of humor. When she spiked a high fever in July and her doctor told her she just had to go to Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, right away, her response was: "Well, they have good crab cakes there."
Ruth loved food. She may have been 85 pounds soaking wet toward the end of her life, but she loved to eat. Slowly, very slowly. But God help you if you tried to take her plate way before she had eaten every last morsel of food on the plate.
Of course, she had been spoiled by the love of her life, her husband, Marty, the best of gourmet chefs. My husband, and her daughter, Jane, and granddaughter Clara tried to live up to that. But nobody was quite like Marty.
Anyone reading this will know from my pieces and from the documentary RBG about that last poignant letter Marty wrote to her at the end of their 56 years together. Before the movie, though, I asked her to bring the letter with her to an interview we were taping. It was the last thing I asked of her that day, to read the letter. It was the only time I ever saw her cry.
Heating instructions
Few know how hard she tried to take care of Marty, all by herself in the last year of his life. I called one day to ask if we could bring food. No, she said. But she sounded so down that I asked if she would like David to come over and examine Marty. "Oh yes," came the reply. I stayed in the living room while David went to the bedroom.
Ruth had not slept all night. She was trying to take care of her darling husband, who was considerably bigger than she was, help him to the bathroom, giving him sponge baths. David did what he could to make Marty comfortable and he discussed the situation with the two of them, finally telling her, "Ruth, I have Medicaid patients who have more help than you do."
There was one hilarious moment on that day, however. We had brought some food in an aluminum tin that she could heat up. My husband, David, ever knowledgeable about human behavior, said to her, as we were about to leave, "Ruth, do you know how to heat that up?" Yes, she assured him, just put it in the microwave. "NO," he said firmly, that will short out the electricity. "You need to heat it in the oven." There must have been something about the look in her eyes, because he quickly followed up, "Do you know how to use the oven?" After some hesitation, the venerable justice admitted she did not. And so, David gave Ruth Bader Ginsburg a lesson on how to use the oven in her apartment.
This was, of course, not the first time she pushed the envelope of her own endurance. She did the same for work too. And so it was that I learned early in our friendship not to call the Ginsburg household until after noon on the weekends. Ruth would come to dinner at our house or go to the opera or go to any of the many other events she enjoyed participating in, and when she got home, she would start to work again.
An inspiration
Ruth really did love being "the notorious RBG." At the opera, when her tiny figure, wrapped in a coat and babushka, would enter the Kennedy Center opera house from a side entrance, I don't know how, but people would see her, and the roar would begin, soon followed by a standing ovation, and loud cheering.
And amid COVID-19 pandemic, she took to wearing a mask, with her tiny face printed on it.
She was an inspiration to so many women, especially young women. She often would come to our twice-a-year big parties, attended by lots of doctor friends, journalists and lawyers. She always came late when she knew the crowd would have thinned to a relative few. But there almost always were a bunch of surgical residents and a few of my former interns still there. It was such an amazing thing to see how they stood back, in awe of her, as I chatted with her, and she ate, undisturbed by the fact that we had 15 or so listeners. Even then, she was, in a sense, a performer.
Her memory was so prodigious. At one party, we were talking about how she had met actor Martin Sheen — they were in the same natural child birth class —he with his wife, she with Marty, about 50 years or earlier. She recalled that he was in his first Broadway play back then, and she paused to remember the name, "The subject was roses." My husband couldn't believe it and Googled it on the spot. As usual, she was right.
Covering a friend
I sometimes was asked how I could remain such good friends with RBG at the same time that I covered her as a reporter.
The answer was really pretty simple. If you are lucky enough to be friends with someone like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, you both understand that you each have a job and that it has to be done professionally, and without favor.
I think the only time that she told me anything she wasn't supposed to was a mistake. After the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown, our house was about the only safe place Ruth could go, and so from mid-March until the end of July, she came to us for dinner every Saturday night, except a few where we brought dinner to her. Periodically, she would get this evil grin on her face, and say something on the order of "You are going to be a very busy person this week." Translation: lots of big opinions for you to cover.
Then, one Sunday I called her about something else, and she said, "How did you like that Electoral College decision?" I couldn't believe my ears. My friend was human. She had, like the rest of us in these COVID-19 times, gotten her days mixed up. She thought it was Monday. I paused and said, gently, "Ruth, it's Sunday, not Monday."
She gasped. She was horrified. Beside herself at her indiscretion. Of course, she hadn't told me anything about what the court had decided, only that I would find out in about 12 hours. But still, she was lashing herself for her mistake. I couldn't help but laugh.
Truth be told, though, being her friend did get harder toward the end of her life. But even then, she understood.
At the end of 2018, she called on my husband David, to help her navigate the onset of lung cancer. For some six weeks, he knew what was going on, supervised her biopsy and talked with RBG and her family. But I knew nothing of what was transpiring. I was kept in the dark.
As it happened, the biopic about RBG, On the Basis of Sex, was premiering in December, and over the course of a couple of weeks, she was to make a bunch of appearances in Washington, and New York. I was the interviewer for all of these, and we ended up in New York, where unbeknownst to me, Ruth and my husband David were meeting at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with an array of doctors and Ruth's daughter, Jane, to make plans for her surgery and treatment. At the last of these appearances, I remember cutting a short interview even shorter than planned because when I looked into her eyes, she looked so terribly tired.
The night before the surgery, David sat me down to tell me what was going to happen the next morning. I confess, I cried.
The next day, I followed her example and did my job, as the court announced the operation. When I finished for the day, I met David for dinner as I prepared to do a TV shot, and as we sat in the restaurant, at about 8 p.m. my cellphone rang. It was Ruth. She was "sitting up in a chair eating a consommé soup that is far better than I had any right to expect." She was calling me, she said, because she wanted me to know why she had forbidden David to breathe anything to me about what was going on.
As she memorably put it, "I just didn't want you to be trapped between your friendship for me and your obligations as a journalist."


npr--2020-09-19--New York City Delays School Reopening; Campus Lockdowns Grow

Monday , Sept. 21 , was supposed to mark the start of in-person classes for New York City 's 1.1 million public school students .
It was the only big-city district planning to start the school year in person .
But with just four days to go , Mayor Bill de Blasio ( D ) announced that only the youngest students , in 3-K and Pre-K , and those with significant special needs , would be coming back on Sept. 21 .
The rest of the students will phase in by grade level between through Oct. 1 .
In announcing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decision stemmed from an abundance of caution .
`` We have got to get it right for our kids , '' he said .
`` They lost a lot . ''
It was the latest in a series of upheavals for parents , educators and students in the nation 's largest school district , and the second time the district has announced changes to the start of the school year just a few days in advance .
The city 's educator 's unions have for weeks been raising concerns over the issues of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the basis for the latest decision .
The latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) puts the city in the `` light green '' zone — far ahead of most places around the country .
In the past few weeks , 55 teachers have reportedly tested positive for COVID , out of 17,000 tested .
That 's a very low ratio — lower than the city as a whole .
However , as teachers have started to come back into buildings , complaints have grown about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Some teachers have been working outside their buildings as a form of protest .
One school in Brooklyn had to shut down because it had two positive cases among teachers .
The other issues are budget and staffing .
The City 's Independent Budget Office released an estimate that the cost of bringing schools fully in compliance with stated plans would cost $ 32 million a week .
And that over 11,000 new teachers would be needed to cover both in-person and online courses .
Tajh Sutton , a public school parent and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the problem is a lack of consultation with the various stakeholders .
`` In this so-called planning that 's happening , we 're seeing all these gaps because they did n't include families , they did n't include teachers , they did n't include students . ''
She does n't think the announced delay of one week will be enough to address these gaps : `` As if that 's going to change the material conditions of the schools or magically have the funding we need up here . ''
That `` light @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of new , updated guidance the CDC released this week to help districts decide when it 's safe to reopen school buildings .
The guidelines included a clear , color-coded system that rates a district 's risk level — from red , the highest risk of transmission , to dark green , the lowest .
The colors are based on both the number of community infections , as well as the school 's ability to adhere to key mitigation strategies like social distancing , masks and contact tracing .
The guidance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is too late to inform most districts ' reopening plans .
An analysis by Dr. Ashish Jha , the dean of the school of public health at Brown University , found that 88 percent of people in the U.S. live in counties where the risk is rated either `` higher '' ( orange ) or `` highest '' ( red ) .
On the higher education front , the rising number of COVID-19 cases on campuses drove a number of universities to impose a two-week quarantine .
In Colorado , students at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the local health department to only leave their homes or dorms for essential needs .
This follows earlier lockdowns like that at Notre Dame University , a school that came out of a two-week quarantine and resumed in-person classes afterwards .
Notre Dame reported lower case numbers following the two weeks , suggesting the pause may have been effective .
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , which mandated a mini-lockdown following higher-than-expected positive cases of coronavirus , also found its numbers decreased , though experts there said it was too early to @ @ @ @ @ @ @

New York City Delays School Reopening; Campus Lockdowns Grow
Enlarge this image toggle caption John Minchillo/AP John Minchillo/AP
Monday, Sept. 21, was supposed to mark the start of in-person classes for New York City's 1.1 million public school students. It was the only big-city district planning to start the school year in person. But with just four days to go, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced that only the youngest students, in 3-K and Pre-K, and those with significant special needs, would be coming back on Sept. 21. The rest of the students will phase in by grade level between through Oct. 1.
In announcing the changes, the mayor said his decision stemmed from an abundance of caution. "We have got to get it right for our kids," he said. "They lost a lot."
It was the latest in a series of upheavals for parents, educators and students in the nation's largest school district, and the second time the district has announced changes to the start of the school year just a few days in advance. The city's educator's unions have for weeks been raising concerns over the issues of safety and staffing that the mayor cited as the basis for the latest decision.
The latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts the city in the "light green" zone — far ahead of most places around the country. In the past few weeks, 55 teachers have reportedly tested positive for COVID, out of 17,000 tested. That's a very low ratio — lower than the city as a whole.
However, as teachers have started to come back into buildings, complaints have grown about ventilation and lack of protective equipment. Some teachers have been working outside their buildings as a form of protest.
One school in Brooklyn had to shut down because it had two positive cases among teachers.
The other issues are budget and staffing. The City's Independent Budget Office released an estimate that the cost of bringing schools fully in compliance with stated plans would cost $32 million a week. And that over 11,000 new teachers would be needed to cover both in-person and online courses.
Tajh Sutton, a public school parent and an education advocate in Brooklyn, says the problem is a lack of consultation with the various stakeholders.
"In this so-called planning that's happening, we're seeing all these gaps because they didn't include families, they didn't include teachers, they didn't include students."
She doesn't think the announced delay of one week will be enough to address these gaps: "As if that's going to change the material conditions of the schools or magically have the funding we need up here."
New CDC guidelines for opening schools
That "light green" designation for New York was part of new, updated guidance the CDC released this week to help districts decide when it's safe to reopen school buildings. The guidelines included a clear, color-coded system that rates a district's risk level — from red, the highest risk of transmission, to dark green, the lowest. The colors are based on both the number of community infections, as well as the school's ability to adhere to key mitigation strategies like social distancing, masks and contact tracing.
The guidance, coming as it did in mid-September, is too late to inform most districts' reopening plans. An analysis by Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the school of public health at Brown University, found that 88 percent of people in the U.S. live in counties where the risk is rated either "higher" (orange) or "highest" (red).
Campuses order two-week lockdowns to curb COVID-19 spread
On the higher education front, the rising number of COVID-19 cases on campuses drove a number of universities to impose a two-week quarantine. In Colorado, students at the University of Colorado Boulder were asked by the local health department to only leave their homes or dorms for essential needs.
This follows earlier lockdowns like that at Notre Dame University, a school that came out of a two-week quarantine and resumed in-person classes afterwards. Notre Dame reported lower case numbers following the two weeks, suggesting the pause may have been effective. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which mandated a mini-lockdown following higher-than-expected positive cases of coronavirus, also found its numbers decreased, though experts there said it was too early to tell if the measures were successful.


npr--2020-09-19--In A Tribute To Justice Ginsburg, Obama Calls On Senate Delay Naming A Successor

In A Tribute To Justice Ginsburg , Obama Calls On Senate Delay Naming A Successor Former President Barack Obama paid tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Friday , calling on Republicans to delay filling the vacancy left by her death until after the 2020 presidential election .
Ginsburg died from cancer complications earlier on Friday .
She was 87 .
In his statement , Obama called Ginsburg a `` warrior for gender equality '' who `` inspired the generations who followed her , from the tiniest trick-or-treaters to law students burning the midnight oil to the most powerful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the task of filling her Supreme Court seat , he asked Republicans to `` apply rules with consistency , and not based on what 's convenient or advantageous in the moment , '' referring to the precedent set when the Senate would not hold a hearing on his nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia .
`` Four and a half years ago , when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland , they invented the principle that the Senate should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in , '' he said .
`` As votes are already being cast in this election , Republican Senators are now called to apply that standard , '' Obama added .
The former president also referenced Ginsburg 's `` instructions for how she wanted her legacy to be honored . ''
Before her death , she told her grandaughter , Clara Spera , that her `` most fervent wish '' was that she would not be replaced `` until a new president is installed .

In A Tribute To Justice Ginsburg, Obama Calls On Senate To Delay Naming A Successor
Enlarge this image toggle caption Saul Loeb/AP Saul Loeb/AP
Former President Barack Obama paid tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, calling on Republicans to delay filling the vacancy left by her death until after the 2020 presidential election.
Ginsburg died from cancer complications earlier on Friday. She was 87.
In his statement, Obama called Ginsburg a "warrior for gender equality" who "inspired the generations who followed her, from the tiniest trick-or-treaters to law students burning the midnight oil to the most powerful leaders in the land."
Regarding the task of filling her Supreme Court seat, he asked Republicans to "apply rules with consistency, and not based on what's convenient or advantageous in the moment," referring to the precedent set when the Senate would not hold a hearing on his nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
"Four and a half years ago, when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland, they invented the principle that the Senate shouldn't fill an open seat on the Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in," he said. "As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican Senators are now called to apply that standard."
The former president also referenced Ginsburg's "instructions for how she wanted her legacy to be honored." Before her death, she told her granddaughter, Clara Spera, that her "most fervent wish" was that she would not be replaced "until a new president is installed."


npr--2020-09-19--In RBG's Own Words: Listen To 5 NPR Interviews With The Liberal Icon

In RBG 's Own Words : Listen To 5 NPR Interviews With The Liberal Icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg , the feminist Supreme Court justice who inspired generations of women , died on Friday at the age of 87 .
Throughout her career , Ginsburg granted a number of interviews to NPR .
Explore some of her recent , more memorable remarks .
The octogenarian served 27 years on the bench over four presidencies , five bouts with cancer , and countless opinions on groundbreaking legal decisions .
In 2016 , amid a heated election between Democrat Hillary Clinton , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Ginsburg said she had no plans on retiring until she could no longer `` do the job full-steam . ''
In 2019 , while battling pancreatic cancer , Ginsburg sat with NPR 's Nina Totenberg to discuss her health .
`` My first two cancer bouts ... Marty [ her husband ] stayed with me -- stayed with me in the hospital , sleeping on an uncomfortable couch , despite his bad back .
And I knew that someone was there who really cared about me and would make sure that things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said at the time .
Ginsburg , the soft-spoken , outspoken Supreme Court justice , had more than two decades on the court and more than eight-and-a-half decades of life to ponder the nature of regret .
Still , in an interview last year , Ginsburg found herself feeling fortunate and relatively unburdened by longing for moments past .
`` I do think that I was born under a very bright star , '' Ginsburg said then .
`` When you think about — the world has changed really in what women are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when women were less than 3 % of lawyers in the country ; today , they are 50 % .
I never had a woman teacher in college or in law school .
The changes have been enormous .
And they 've just — they 've gone much too far [ to be ] going back . ''
Reading a letter from her late husband , Ginsburg gave listeners a glimpse into the couple 's love story that spanned more than half a century .
`` I found this letter in the drawer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hospital .
And it reads : 'My dearest Ruth , you are the only person I have loved in my life , setting aside a bit parents , and kids , and their kids .
And I have admired and loved you almost since the day we first met at Cornell some 56 years ago . '
'' Listen to Ginsburg read the letter in her own voice here .
`` On the Basis of Sex '' : Towards the end of her life , Ginsburg , known affectionately by fans as RBG @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fascination around her life spawned the biographical film On the Basis of Sex , starring Felicity Jones .
The 2018 film follows Ginsburg 's time as a young professor focusing on sex discrimination law .
Listen to more about the film here .

In RBG's Own Words: Listen To 5 NPR Interviews With The Liberal Icon
Enlarge this image toggle caption Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Berggruen Insti Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Berggruen Insti
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the feminist Supreme Court justice who inspired generations of women, died on Friday at the age of 87.
Throughout her career, Ginsburg granted a number of interviews to NPR. Explore some of her recent, more memorable remarks.
On retiring:
The octogenarian served 27 years on the bench over four presidencies, five bouts with cancer, and countless opinions on groundbreaking legal decisions.
In 2016, amid a heated election between Democrat Hillary Clinton, and eventual White House winner, Donald Trump, Ginsburg said she had no plans on retiring until she could no longer "do the job full-steam."
Listen here.
On health:
In 2019, while battling pancreatic cancer, Ginsburg sat with NPR's Nina Totenberg to discuss her health.
"My first two cancer bouts ... Marty [her husband] stayed with me-- stayed with me in the hospital, sleeping on an uncomfortable couch, despite his bad back. And I knew that someone was there who really cared about me and would make sure that things didn't go wrong," she said at the time.
Ginsburg's husband, Martin "Marty" Ginsburg, died of cancer in 2010.
Listen here.
On regret:
Ginsburg, the soft-spoken, outspoken Supreme Court justice, had more than two decades on the court and more than eight-and-a-half decades of life to ponder the nature of regret.
Still, in an interview last year, Ginsburg found herself feeling fortunate and relatively unburdened by longing for moments past.
"I do think that I was born under a very bright star," Ginsburg said then.
"When you think about — the world has changed really in what women are doing. I went to law school when women were less than 3% of lawyers in the country; today, they are 50%. I never had a woman teacher in college or in law school. The changes have been enormous. And they've just — they've gone much too far [to be] going back."
Read more here.
On love:
Reading a letter from her late husband, Ginsburg gave listeners a glimpse into the couple's love story that spanned more than half a century.
"I found this letter in the drawer next to Marty's bed in the hospital. And it reads: 'My dearest Ruth, you are the only person I have loved in my life, setting aside a bit parents, and kids, and their kids. And I have admired and loved you almost since the day we first met at Cornell some 56 years ago.'"
Listen to Ginsburg read the letter in her own voice here.
"On the Basis of Sex":
Towards the end of her life, Ginsburg, known affectionately by fans as RBG, grew into a pop culture icon and fascination around her life spawned the biographical film On the Basis of Sex, starring Felicity Jones.
The 2018 film follows Ginsburg's time as a young professor focusing on sex discrimination law.
Listen to more about the film here.


npr--2020-09-19--Listen, Open Up, Connect: A Mental Health Expert's Advice On Living Through A Crisis

Listen , Open Up , Connect : A Mental Health Expert 's Advice On Living Through A Crisis Terri Cheney did not expect she would be weathering the pandemic so well .
The author of Modern Madness : An Owner 's Manual has been living with mental illness her entire life .
She realizes now , this has been good preparation for the impositions of 2020 .
`` With anxiety , '' she said , `` you 're used to feeling unpredictable and always being afraid of what 's going to happen .
With depression , there 's that loss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of productivity , and the loss of hope for the future . ''
`` That 's what America is experiencing right now , '' she says , while `` these are all traits that mentally ill people have learned how to deal with . ''
`` It 's very strange , '' she says , `` like we 've been in training . ''
Cheney , an entertainment lawyer turned mental health advocate , has put her decades of de facto training into a book that merges memoir — her familiar form from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disorder — with practical insights on topics including mental health diagnoses , the impact of mental illness on relationships , and coping skills ( both good and bad ) .
NPR spoke with her about the new book and her advice for living with pandemic stress .
This interview has been edited for clarity and length .
You write about how living with bipolar disorder can transform normal reactions to unfortunate events `` into major chemical depressions . ''
As we 're going through the most distressing event in recent memory , how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'm doing pretty well .
I did n't expect to [ be ] .
I was frightened like everyone else .
But being a writer , I 'm used to isolation .
So that has n't been as hard on me as I 'm sure it has been for other people .
I feel like I maybe developed antibodies to depression because frankly , this is what I do in a really acute depressive episode .
I isolate , I binge-watch TV , stay at home , stay away from people .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 've had good practice and good training with all the coping skills that I 've developed against depression ; they 've really stood me in good stead .
You wrote the book before the coronavirus pandemic , but does it have any lessons that apply to the challenges people might be going through right now ?
I think a lot of us are facing our partners being not the support they used to be : They 're going through their own thing , and they 're having trouble , and maybe we ca @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or they just seem to be more depressed than usual .
I think when you 're in a relationship with somebody who 's suffering , if you can bite your tongue and not give advice , you 're going to be in a lot better place than you would be otherwise .
[ Giving ] advice , just , it 's human nature .
It 's well-meaning and sometimes it 's exactly what is necessary , but it shuts the other person down .
Whereas if you say , `` Tell me where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person up ; they can express some of the darkness that 's inside them and it dissipates when it hits the light .
I used to run a support group at UCLA 's Neuropsychiatric Institute for about 15 years .
I noticed whenever people would try to talk , immediately others would jump in with advice , and it just did n't work .
It 's not easy to sit back and listen to a depressed person talk because the things they say might be pretty dark .
But you have to remember @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important it is and you 're doing it out of love .
Do you have advice for people dealing with grief — from losing a loved one , or their job , or just having their lives upended ?
I think it 's essential that we start to talk about how we feel in a way that we really have n't before , because mental illness loves secrecy .
Grief will thrive in secrecy as well , and I do think what we 're going through is a collective grieving process .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any suicidal ideation or thoughts or even jokes .
[ Before the pandemic , ] the suicide rates just skyrocketed to the point where there 's another person [ who ] dies every 40 seconds from suicide , which is just unbelievable .
Particularly with young people , the rates are shocking .
If I 've found one thing that people seem to be searching for , it 's connection and not feeling so alone , which is ironic because we 're in isolation at the moment .
We do need to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
What has helped you adjust to the limitations of living in a pandemic ?
Medication , therapy , writing : Those are my big mooring lines that keep me tethered to the earth .
Writing has been incredibly cathartic and therapeutic .
I do n't know how I 'd live without writing .
It just makes the world make sense for me .
I feel like once I 've written about something , I understand it , as opposed to just living through it .
It 's certainly helped me heal .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ being sober .
[ In the past ] I did n't realize that my psychiatric medications would n't work unless I was sober .
With alcohol [ and medication ] you 're giving your brain too many messages , and it could n't sort out what was what .
In your book you acknowledge that madness is `` a word I know may be controversial , but that I frankly adore . ''
You also write that bipolar disorder has given you positive traits , like `` creativity , empathy , and an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you say to someone who is skeptical that mental illness could be a good thing ?
I meant to encompass anyone who feels like their perspective is divergent in some way .
I write that `` it assumes a spark of genius , a familiarity with things not quite of this commonplace world . ''
I think we 're all a little bit mad , you know — we just do n't own it .
The concept of the `` owner 's manual '' is not just because the book is broken down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ User Precautions , but also [ because ] you own yourself and your journey , and own your madness , because it makes you beautiful .
It makes you who you are .
I think people with mental illness , going back to even before they were diagnosed , [ have ] this sense of , `` I 'm different from the rest of the world . ''
I 'm just saying I think that 's valuable .
We need that kind of diversity ; we need all the different perspectives .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You write that when you 're depressed , it 's an accomplishment just to take a shower .
How did you come to recognize that as an achievement , rather than as a simple task you should be able to do ?
How can other people identify what these achievements are in their lives ?
It took many , many years for me to educate myself about my illness to the point where I recognized my symptoms and my triggers and was able to have some compassion for them .
The shower is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world because when I 'm depressed , I just ca n't move .
I get what they call psychomotor retardation , which means I 'm paralyzed almost : not just my will but my physical body .
Just getting out of bed is such an effort that I sometimes just ca n't do it .
So I felt a lot of shame and anger at myself , frustration .
It took years to understand that , `` Oh , that 's what 's happening .
`` [ In ] the same way I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it 's depression talking . ''
That really helps .
To put that kind of distance between me and the symptoms has been invaluable .
It 's a matter of having compassion , more than anything — in addition to the right medication , of course .
I think there 's a learning curve to mental illness .
You really need to learn what yours looks like .
`` What does it look like ? ''
and `` What can I do about it ? ''
Those are the two questions that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Some people have someone they love who refuses treatment for their mental illness .
To help someone in denial , you recommend empathizing with that denial .
What could that look like ?
Ideally , it would be something they would share in an open conversation , but I doubt that 's going to happen very often with someone in denial because they just do n't want to talk about it .
It shuts them down .
I think most people who are in denial about needing help , do realize that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ afraid nothing can be done to help .
Realizing that you use denial , we all use denial , because we 're so afraid , it 's a totally different feeling than just frustration and anger at the person for not getting help .
I think it 's just a subtle mind shift [ to go from ] `` Why are you doing this to me , '' to `` I understand where you 're coming from .
You know , I 'm afraid of dying , or I 'm afraid of making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might be a way to empathize .
For people who do n't have the privileges of a white , educated middle-class professional , are there parts of the book that do n't apply to them or need to be adapted to fit their lives ?
I tried especially hard in this book in particular , to be inclusive of all races and genders and all different kinds of illnesses .
I made it an effort more so than in my first two books , which were all about me , to go beyond @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health landscape .
People might not be able to understand when I talk , for example , about my psychopharmacologist .
Not everybody is lucky enough to have a doctor who specifically manages their mental health medications .
That is a real sign of privilege .
My doctor is retiring , unfortunately , after 25 years of treating me .
I 'm having a great deal of trouble finding affordable treatments , so I ca n't begin to fathom how hard people without my resources have it .
I can only imagine .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ so much less than the stigma that , say , a homeless person who has mental illness has encountered .
Are you talking about the story where a woman was pleading for someone to call her doctor as police hauled her away ?
I was thinking of her , yes .
You write about a time you were confronted by a police officer who thought you were intoxicated .
He let you go after you convinced him to call your psychiatrist , who explained that you collapsed from side effects of a medication @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how each of you were treated in that moment ?
I did realize it in the moment .
I remember that vividly .
I can take myself right back to that pharmacy and what she looked like and smelled like and sounded like .
It was a very visceral experience of seeing what I might have turned into if it were n't for the incredible care that I 've gotten , what my life might have turned into , and it really shook me .
It really , in some ways , broke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were sisters under the skin in a way .
I 've seen a lot of socioeconomic barriers to access .
It 's a total tragedy that insurance companies do n't pay for aftercare once you get out of the hospital .
My [ support ] group that I ran was an attempt to address that .
So many of us did n't have the financial wherewithal to have private support groups that were run by professionals .
It 's a big gaping hole in the mental health system .

Listen, Open Up, Connect: A Mental Health Expert's Advice On Living Through A Crisis
Enlarge this image toggle caption Neha Gupta/Getty Images Neha Gupta/Getty Images
Terri Cheney did not expect she would be weathering the pandemic so well. The author of Modern Madness: An Owner's Manual has been living with mental illness her entire life. She realizes now, this has been good preparation for the impositions of 2020.
"With anxiety," she said, "you're used to feeling unpredictable and always being afraid of what's going to happen. With depression, there's that loss of interest in things, the lack of productivity, and the loss of hope for the future."
"That's what America is experiencing right now," she says, while "these are all traits that mentally ill people have learned how to deal with."
"It's very strange," she says, "like we've been in training."
Cheney, an entertainment lawyer turned mental health advocate, has put her decades of de facto training into a book that merges memoir — her familiar form from two previous books on living with bipolar disorder — with practical insights on topics including mental health diagnoses, the impact of mental illness on relationships, and coping skills (both good and bad).
NPR spoke with her about the new book and her advice for living with pandemic stress.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
You write about how living with bipolar disorder can transform normal reactions to unfortunate events "into major chemical depressions." As we're going through the most distressing event in recent memory, how are you feeling?
Surprisingly, I'm doing pretty well. I didn't expect to [be]. I was frightened like everyone else. But being a writer, I'm used to isolation. So that hasn't been as hard on me as I'm sure it has been for other people.
I feel like I maybe developed antibodies to depression because frankly, this is what I do in a really acute depressive episode. I isolate, I binge-watch TV, stay at home, stay away from people. It's been weird to feel like I've had good practice and good training with all the coping skills that I've developed against depression; they've really stood me in good stead.
You wrote the book before the coronavirus pandemic, but does it have any lessons that apply to the challenges people might be going through right now?
I think a lot of us are facing our partners being not the support they used to be: They're going through their own thing, and they're having trouble, and maybe we can't rely on them as much, or they just seem to be more depressed than usual.
I think when you're in a relationship with somebody who's suffering, if you can bite your tongue and not give advice, you're going to be in a lot better place than you would be otherwise. [Giving] advice, just, it's human nature. It's well-meaning and sometimes it's exactly what is necessary, but it shuts the other person down. Whereas if you say, "Tell me where it hurts," it opens the person up; they can express some of the darkness that's inside them and it dissipates when it hits the light.
I used to run a support group at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute for about 15 years. I noticed whenever people would try to talk, immediately others would jump in with advice, and it just didn't work.
It's not easy to sit back and listen to a depressed person talk because the things they say might be pretty dark. But you have to remember why you're doing it and how important it is and you're doing it out of love.
Do you have advice for people dealing with grief — from losing a loved one, or their job, or just having their lives upended?
I think it's essential that we start to talk about how we feel in a way that we really haven't before, because mental illness loves secrecy. Grief will thrive in secrecy as well, and I do think what we're going through is a collective grieving process.
I think we need to take very seriously any suicidal ideation or thoughts or even jokes. [Before the pandemic,] the suicide rates just skyrocketed to the point where there's another person [who] dies every 40 seconds from suicide, which is just unbelievable. Particularly with young people, the rates are shocking.
If I've found one thing that people seem to be searching for, it's connection and not feeling so alone, which is ironic because we're in isolation at the moment. We do need to make that connection however it can be made.
Help Is Available: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
What has helped you adjust to the limitations of living in a pandemic?
Medication, therapy, writing: Those are my big mooring lines that keep me tethered to the earth.
Writing has been incredibly cathartic and therapeutic. I don't know how I'd live without writing. It just makes the world make sense for me. I feel like once I've written about something, I understand it, as opposed to just living through it. It's certainly helped me heal.
An important thing for me has been being sober. [In the past] I didn't realize that my psychiatric medications wouldn't work unless I was sober. With alcohol [and medication] you're giving your brain too many messages, and it couldn't sort out what was what.
In your book you acknowledge that madness is "a word I know may be controversial, but that I frankly adore." You also write that bipolar disorder has given you positive traits, like "creativity, empathy, and an outsider's eye." What would you say to someone who is skeptical that mental illness could be a good thing?
I meant to encompass anyone who feels like their perspective is divergent in some way. I write that "it assumes a spark of genius, a familiarity with things not quite of this commonplace world." I think we're all a little bit mad, you know — we just don't own it.
The concept of the "owner's manual" is not just because the book is broken down into sections like Troubleshooting and Warranties and User Precautions, but also [because] you own yourself and your journey, and own your madness, because it makes you beautiful. It makes you who you are.
I think people with mental illness, going back to even before they were diagnosed, [have] this sense of, "I'm different from the rest of the world." I'm just saying I think that's valuable. We need that kind of diversity; we need all the different perspectives. They all add something unique and exciting.
You write that when you're depressed, it's an accomplishment just to take a shower. How did you come to recognize that as an achievement, rather than as a simple task you should be able to do? How can other people identify what these achievements are in their lives?
It took many, many years for me to educate myself about my illness to the point where I recognized my symptoms and my triggers and was able to have some compassion for them.
The shower is the thing I hate most in the world because when I'm depressed, I just can't move. I get what they call psychomotor retardation, which means I'm paralyzed almost: not just my will but my physical body. Just getting out of bed is such an effort that I sometimes just can't do it. So I felt a lot of shame and anger at myself, frustration.
It took years to understand that, "Oh, that's what's happening."[In] the same way I can tell myself, "Oh, it's depression talking." That really helps.
To put that kind of distance between me and the symptoms has been invaluable. It's a matter of having compassion, more than anything — in addition to the right medication, of course.
I think there's a learning curve to mental illness. You really need to learn what yours looks like. "What does it look like?" and "What can I do about it?" Those are the two questions that I hope Modern Madness will help people answer.
Some people have someone they love who refuses treatment for their mental illness. To help someone in denial, you recommend empathizing with that denial. What could that look like?
Ideally, it would be something they would share in an open conversation, but I doubt that's going to happen very often with someone in denial because they just don't want to talk about it. It shuts them down. I think most people who are in denial about needing help, do realize that they need help. But they're afraid nothing can be done to help.
Realizing that you use denial, we all use denial, because we're so afraid, it's a totally different feeling than just frustration and anger at the person for not getting help. I think it's just a subtle mind shift [to go from] "Why are you doing this to me," to "I understand where you're coming from. You know, I'm afraid of dying, or I'm afraid of making a will." Things like that might be a way to empathize.
For people who don't have the privileges of a white, educated middle-class professional, are there parts of the book that don't apply to them or need to be adapted to fit their lives?
I tried especially hard in this book in particular, to be inclusive of all races and genders and all different kinds of illnesses. I made it an effort more so than in my first two books, which were all about me, to go beyond myself and look more at the mental health landscape.
People might not be able to understand when I talk, for example, about my psychopharmacologist. Not everybody is lucky enough to have a doctor who specifically manages their mental health medications. That is a real sign of privilege. My doctor is retiring, unfortunately, after 25 years of treating me. I'm having a great deal of trouble finding affordable treatments, so I can't begin to fathom how hard people without my resources have it. I can only imagine.
The stigma I've encountered is probably so much less than the stigma that, say, a homeless person who has mental illness has encountered.
Are you talking about the story where a woman was pleading for someone to call her doctor as police hauled her away?
I was thinking of her, yes.
You write about a time you were confronted by a police officer who thought you were intoxicated. He let you go after you convinced him to call your psychiatrist, who explained that you collapsed from side effects of a medication. Did you realize the contrast in how each of you were treated in that moment?
I did realize it in the moment. I remember that vividly. I can take myself right back to that pharmacy and what she looked like and smelled like and sounded like. It was a very visceral experience of seeing what I might have turned into if it weren't for the incredible care that I've gotten, what my life might have turned into, and it really shook me. It really, in some ways, broke my heart. I felt like we were sisters under the skin in a way.
I've seen a lot of socioeconomic barriers to access. It's a total tragedy that insurance companies don't pay for aftercare once you get out of the hospital. My [support] group that I ran was an attempt to address that. So many of us didn't have the financial wherewithal to have private support groups that were run by professionals. It's a big gaping hole in the mental health system.


npr--2020-09-18--'Titan Of The Law': Trump Reacts To Ginsburg's Death

'Titan Of The Law ' : Trump Reacts To Ginsburg 's Death President Trump called Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a `` titan of the law '' in a statement late Friday night on her death .
`` Renowned for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissents at the Supreme Court , Justice Ginsburg demonstrated that one can disagree without being disagreeable toward one 's colleagues or different points of view , '' the statement said .
The White House has also lowered its flag to half-staff .
The news of Ginsburg 's death broke about 10 minutes after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a large crowd at an airport hangar in Bemidji , Minn. Trump continued on , for more than an hour , before returning to Air Force One , where reporters were waiting .
As Elton John 's Tiny Dancer played from the nearby stage , a reporter broke the news .
`` She just died ? ''
Trump said .
`` I did n't know that , you 're telling me now for the first time , '' he told a reporter .
`` She led an amazing life , what else can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman — whether you agreed or not — she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life , '' he said .
`` I am sad to hear that , '' he said before boarding the plane to return to Washington , D.C .

'Titan Of The Law': Trump Reacts To Ginsburg's Death
Enlarge this image toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Updated at 10:56 p.m. ET
President Trump called Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a "titan of the law" in a statement late Friday night on her death.
"Renowned for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissents at the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg demonstrated that one can disagree without being disagreeable toward one's colleagues or different points of view," the statement said.
The White House has also lowered its flag to half-staff.
The news of Ginsburg's death broke about 10 minutes after Trump launched into a campaign speech before a large crowd at an airport hangar in Bemidji, Minn.
Trump continued on, for more than an hour, before returning to Air Force One, where reporters were waiting. As Elton John's Tiny Dancer played from the nearby stage, a reporter broke the news.
"She just died?" Trump said. "I didn't know that, you're telling me now for the first time," he told a reporter.
"She led an amazing life, what else can you say? She was an amazing woman — whether you agreed or not — she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life," he said.
"I am sad to hear that," he said before boarding the plane to return to Washington, D.C.


npr--2020-09-18--Biden: Senate Shouldn't Take Up Supreme Court Vacancy Until After The Election

Biden : Senate Should n't Take Up Supreme Court Vacancy Until After The Election Updated at 12:15 a.m .
ET The Senate should n't take up the vacancy on the Supreme Court opened by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg until after voters have expressed their choice in the election , former Vice President Joe Biden said Friday .
The Democratic presidential hopeful kept in lockstep with his colleagues now in the Senate minority , who wasted little time after the announcement of Ginsburg 's death in stating their belief that Washington must wait .
Biden reflected Friday about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : `` It 's hard to believe it was my honor to preside over her confirmation hearing , '' he said .
Democrats want to mirror back the political position taken in 2016 by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , who responded to that year 's vacancy on the high court by declaring that he would not take up the matter of a replacement until after the presidential election .
History records that Donald Trump was elected and sent McConnell his nominee in place of the one chosen by President Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the first of Trump 's choices .
McConnell said on Friday that he considers the situation this year different from the one in 2016 and that the Senate would consider Trump 's third nominee comparatively soon .
It is n't clear whether that might take place before Election Day or Inauguration Day , but the stage in Washington is set for an incendiary political war .
Sen. Ted Cruz , R-Texas — whom Trump had mused about potentially being a nominee himself to the Supreme Court — said on TV Friday that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as soon as next week .
Former President Obama echoed Biden 's position a bit more forcefully in a post , writing :

Biden: Senate Shouldn't Take Up Supreme Court Vacancy Until After The Election
Enlarge this image toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Updated at 12:15 a.m. ET
The Senate shouldn't take up the vacancy on the Supreme Court opened by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg until after voters have expressed their choice in the election, former Vice President Joe Biden said Friday.
The Democratic presidential hopeful kept in lockstep with his colleagues now in the Senate minority, who wasted little time after the announcement of Ginsburg's death in stating their belief that Washington must wait.
Republicans do not agree.
Biden reflected Friday about his own long career in the Senate: "It's hard to believe it was my honor to preside over her confirmation hearing," he said.
Democrats want to mirror back the political position taken in 2016 by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who responded to that year's vacancy on the high court by declaring that he would not take up the matter of a replacement until after the presidential election.
History records that Donald Trump was elected and sent McConnell his nominee in place of the one chosen by former President Barack Obama. The Senate then confirmed Neil Gorsuch, the first of Trump's choices.
McConnell said on Friday that he considers the situation this year different from the one in 2016 and that the Senate would consider Trump's third nominee comparatively soon. It isn't clear whether that might take place before Election Day or Inauguration Day, but the stage in Washington is set for an incendiary political war.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas — whom Trump had mused about potentially being a nominee himself to the Supreme Court — said on TV Friday that he believed Trump should identify his nominee as soon as next week.
Obama echoed Biden's position a bit more forcefully in a post, writing:


npr--2020-09-18--Trump's Nominee To Succeed Ginsburg Would Cap A GOP Judicial Wave

President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , already had remade the federal judiciary before the hinge of fate swung again on Friday night .
The Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed no fewer than 200 federal judges , many of them young , and each to a lifelong term , as NPR 's Carrie Johnson has reported .
Two of those jurists included Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg now means that Trump can nominate a third .
McConnell said on Friday night he intends to convene @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senate , potentially before Election Day or Inauguration Day in January .
Conservative legal activists could n't be happier about McConnell 's project , which not only stocks lower-level federal courts with judges they believe will interpret the law in a way they support , but also creates a vast pool from which Trump now could select for a Supreme Court nominee .
`` Filling all of these circuit seats is an unmitigated success , no downside to that , '' Carrie Severino , who leads the Judicial Crisis Network , told NPR @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from last summer about the judges Trump has nominated and McConnell has led to confirmation in the Senate .
The corps of judges now in place means conservatives hope for a body of rulings that match their perspectives on key issues , including on reproductive rights , environmental issues , voting cases and more .
Plus the comparatively young age of the population of judges — some in their 30s and 40s — mean they 'll be on the bench for decades .
Democrats accuse McConnell of a cynical scheme : he blocked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a surplus of vacancies , which he then was able to fill with the arrival of a Republican president .
Other critics also noted to NPR 's Johnson how mostly male and mostly white were the judges of the Trump-McConnell era .
Vanita Gupta , who runs the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights , said this of the cadre : `` It is an astonishing lack of representation . ''

Trump's Nominee To Succeed Ginsburg Would Cap A GOP Judicial Wave
Enlarge this image toggle caption Pool/Getty Images Pool/Getty Images
President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., already had remade the federal judiciary before the hinge of fate swung again on Friday night.
The Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed no fewer than 200 federal judges, many of them young, and each to a lifelong term, as NPR's Carrie Johnson has reported.
Two of those jurists included Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg now means that Trump can nominate a third. McConnell said on Friday night he intends to convene a vote on that nominee in the Senate, potentially before Election Day or Inauguration Day in January.
Conservative legal activists couldn't be happier about McConnell's project, which not only stocks lower-level federal courts with judges they believe will interpret the law in a way they support, but also creates a vast pool from which Trump now could select for a Supreme Court nominee.
"Filling all of these circuit seats is an unmitigated success, no downside to that," Carrie Severino, who leads the Judicial Crisis Network, told NPR's Johnson.
Here's a breakdown from last summer about the judges Trump has nominated and McConnell has led to confirmation in the Senate.
The corps of judges now in place means conservatives hope for a body of rulings that match their perspectives on key issues, including on reproductive rights, environmental issues, voting cases and more. Plus the comparatively young age of the population of judges — some in their 30s and 40s — mean they'll be on the bench for decades.
Democrats accuse McConnell of a cynical scheme: he blocked judicial nominees under President Obama to create a surplus of vacancies, which he then was able to fill with the arrival of a Republican president.
Other critics also noted to NPR's Johnson how mostly male and mostly white were the judges of the Trump-McConnell era.
Vanita Gupta, who runs the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said this of the cadre: "It is an astonishing lack of representation."


npr--2020-09-18--Trump Has Detailed His Supreme Court List. Will Biden Release One?

Trump Has Detailed His Supreme Court List .
Will Biden Release One ?
President Trump has revealed the names of people he 'd consider nominating to the Supreme Court in the event of a vacancy like the one opened by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg .
Some critics were faulting Biden 's reticence as recently as Thursday , as the Associated Press reported , and the matter has become newly urgent for Democrats as they go to war to try to stop Senate action on the high court .
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y. , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they can defer action now , Biden will be elected , that they 'll secure a Senate majority and then — and only then — they could move ahead to fill the Ginsburg vacancy .
Democrats would need persuade a number of Republican senators , some of whom are facing reelection themselves , to go along with this plan .
That would be difficult , and as some Democrats told the AP this week before Ginsburg 's death , the putative identities of a Biden nominee likely would n't make that big a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sen. Chris Coons , D-Del.
, for example , told the wire service that he believed the faithful could trust Biden enough to put him into position for when the right time came without the bona fides that Coons suggested Trump had to secure with sometimes nervous conservatives .
`` He does n't need to issue some lists in order for Democrats to be comfortable that they know his values and his priorities , '' Coons told the AP , arguing that Americans could expect a potential Biden administration to select `` highly @ @ @ @ @ @

Trump Has Detailed His Supreme Court List. Will Biden Release One?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Drew Angerer/Getty Images
President Trump has revealed the names of people he'd consider nominating to the Supreme Court in the event of a vacancy like the one opened by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump's Democratic challenger, hasn't.
Some critics were faulting Biden's reticence as recently as Thursday, as the Associated Press reported, and the matter has become newly urgent for Democrats as they go to war to try to stop Senate action on the high court.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other members in the minority hope that they can defer action now, Biden will be elected, that they'll secure a Senate majority and then — and only then — they could move ahead to fill the Ginsburg vacancy.
Democrats would need persuade a number of Republican senators, some of whom are facing reelection themselves, to go along with this plan.
That would be difficult, and as some Democrats told the AP this week before Ginsburg's death, the putative identities of a Biden nominee likely wouldn't make that big a difference to party loyalists.
Biden acolyte Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., for example, told the wire service that he believed the faithful could trust Biden enough to put him into position for when the right time came without the bona fides that Coons suggested Trump had to secure with sometimes nervous conservatives.
"He doesn't need to issue some lists in order for Democrats to be comfortable that they know his values and his priorities," Coons told the AP, arguing that Americans could expect a potential Biden administration to select "highly qualified, mainstream jurists."


npr--2020-09-19--Ginsburg's Death A 'Pivot Point' For Abortion Rights, Advocates Say

With her 14-month-old daughter on her hip , Anna Lashley , an attorney from Washington D.C. , came to pay her last respects to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court on Saturday .
`` I just ca n't wait to tell my daughter about her , and teach her about the lessons she taught me , and what she did for women , '' Lashley said .
Now , with a vacancy on the court left by Ginsburg 's death , President Trump appears poised to name his third Supreme Court nominee in less than four years — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right than its 5-4 conservative majority that existed until Friday .
`` I 'm terrified for women in this country , '' Lashley said .
`` I 'm very concerned about what it will mean for Roe v. Wade going forward .
I 'm worried that other people are n't going to be able to take up the fight that she did for us . ''
Without Ginsburg 's reliable liberal vote and her consistent voice for reproductive rights , Renee-Lauren Ellis has similar fears about the future of the Roe v. Wade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Ellis , who 's also a lawyer in the D.C. area , said she 's afraid of what she sees as the potential to go backward .
`` It 's dire that something as fundamental as what I do with my body is up for debate still , in 2020 , '' Ellis said .
Ginsburg 's death sets up a divisive nomination fight in the midst of a presidential campaign .
And , advocates on opposing sides of the issue agree , it could be a turning point in the long-running @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issues for the court — abortion rights .
For those opposed to abortion rights , a Supreme Court vacancy just weeks before a presidential election also marks a pivot point .
`` For the pro-life movement and the work that we do there , this is the moment that we 've been building towards , '' said Marjorie Dannenfelser , president of the anti-abortion rights group the Susan B. Anthony List , which has spent years working to elect Republican senators and confirm conservative judges and has staunchly supported President Trump and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her family happened to be sitting outside the Supreme Court on Friday evening when they heard the news of Ginsburg 's death .
`` It was such a sense of profound meaning that we felt in her passing , and also a moment of change , '' she said .
`` That in this place that we 're sitting will be the pivot point of change in our country . ''
`` The fate of our rights , our freedoms , our health care , our bodies , our lives , our country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coming months , '' McGill Johnson said .
Groups that support abortion rights , including Planned Parenthood and NARAL , say they 'll be working to apply pressure to potentially vulnerable Republican senators facing reelection now or in 2022 , demanding they wait to confirm a replacement for Ginsburg until after the November election .
McGill Johnson notes that four years ago , Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell famously refused to hold hearings to consider President Obama 's nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia .
At that time , the presidential election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and McConnell argued it was too close .
Now , with the election about six weeks away , McConnell is promising to work quickly to confirm a Trump nominee .
`` Mitch McConnell keeps making up the rules to suit his desires and his will to maintain power , '' McGill Johnson said .
`` In a democracy it 's really important that we all play by the same rules . ''

Ginsburg's Death A 'Pivot Point' For Abortion Rights, Advocates Say
Enlarge this image toggle caption Sarah McCammon/NPR Sarah McCammon/NPR
Updated at 11:10 a.m. ET
With her 14-month-old daughter on her hip, Anna Lashley, an attorney from Washington, D.C., came to pay her last respects to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court on Saturday.
"I just can't wait to tell my daughter about her, and teach her about the lessons she taught me, and what she did for women," Lashley said.
Now, with a vacancy on the court left by Ginsburg's death, President Trump appears poised to name his third Supreme Court nominee in less than four years — tilting the court even further to the right than its 5-4 conservative majority that existed until Friday.
"I'm terrified for women in this country," Lashley said. "I'm very concerned about what it will mean for Roe v. Wade going forward. I'm worried that other people aren't going to be able to take up the fight that she did for us."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Sarah McCammon/NPR Sarah McCammon/NPR
Without Ginsburg's reliable liberal vote and her consistent voice for reproductive rights, Renee-Lauren Ellis has similar fears about the future of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. Ellis, who's also a lawyer in the D.C. area, said she's afraid of what she sees as the potential to go backward.
"It's dire that something as fundamental as what I do with my body is up for debate still, in 2020," Ellis said.
Ginsburg's death sets up a divisive nomination fight in the midst of a presidential campaign. And advocates on opposing sides of the issue agree that it could be a turning point in the long-running debate over one of the most divisive issues for the court: abortion rights.
For those opposed to abortion rights, a Supreme Court vacancy just weeks before a presidential election also marks a pivot point.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said she hopes to soon see the culmination of a movement that began decades ago.
"Our ultimate goal, and we've been very clear with this, is an America without abortion, where abortion is made illegal and unthinkable," Hawkins said.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of the Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion rights and has spent years working to elect Republican senators and confirm conservative judges. The group, which has staunchly supported Trump and his judicial nominees, advocates a variety of restrictions on abortion, including banning the procedure at 20 weeks or earlier and for reasons such as the sex, race, or disability of the fetus.
Dannenfelser said she hopes a more conservative court would roll back the Roe decision, setting the stage for state legislatures to ban abortion as early as the first trimester.
"If abortion is the taking of a human life, the more ambitious they are the better," she said.
Dannenfelser said she and her family happened to be sitting outside the Supreme Court on Friday evening when they heard the news of Ginsburg's death.
"It was such a sense of profound meaning that we felt in her passing, and also a moment of change," she said. "That in this place that we're sitting will be the pivot point of change in our country."
Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson agrees there's a lot at stake.
"The fate of our rights, our freedoms, our health care, our bodies, our lives, our country, literally depends on what happens over the coming months," McGill Johnson said.
Groups that support abortion rights, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL, say they'll be working to apply pressure to potentially vulnerable Republican senators facing reelection now or in 2022, demanding they wait to confirm a replacement for Ginsburg until after the November election.
McGill Johnson notes that four years ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., famously refused to hold hearings to consider President Obama's nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. At that time, the presidential election was more than eight months away, and McConnell argued it was too close. Now, with the election about six weeks away, McConnell is promising to work quickly to confirm a Trump nominee.
"Mitch McConnell keeps making up the rules to suit his desires and his will to maintain power," McGill Johnson said. "In a democracy, it's really important that we all play by the same rules."
Abortion rights advocates are closely watching more than a dozen cases that are working their way through the court system and could reach the Supreme Court in the near future – as well as a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, which could have significant implications for reproductive healthcare.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Sarah McCammon/NPR Sarah McCammon/NPR
This summer, supporters of abortion rights won a surprising victory when the court struck down a Louisiana law that could have had the effect of shutting down most abortion clinics in the state. Chief Justice John Roberts cast the swing vote in that decision, siding with the majority. The opinion was in line with a 2016 ruling that struck down a similar Texas law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges. In that case, Roberts had dissented. But in the Louisiana case, Roberts said he wanted to uphold the court's earlier precedent.
Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, said such a result would be far more difficult with another Trump nominee on the court.
"That would swing the court in such a way that for at least the next two generations that it would mean hostility to reproductive rights," Goodwin said.


npr--2020-09-19--'Fill That Seat' Chants Erupt At Trump Rally, A Day After Ginsburg's Death

'Fill That Seat ' Chants Erupt At Trump Rally , A Day After Ginsburg 's Death A day after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , chants of `` Fill that seat !
Fill that seat ! ''
broke out during President Trump 's campaign rally in Fayetteville , N.C. , on Saturday .
`` That 's what we 're going to do .
We 're going to fill that seat ! ''
Trump said , saying his supporters should print `` Fill that seat ! ''
on T-shirts .
The president also pledged to nominate a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I actually like women much more than I like men . ''
He went on to `` poll '' the crowd about whether they 'd prefer a man or a woman for the seat .
The cheers were much louder for a woman nominee .
`` It will be a woman , a very talented , very brilliant woman , '' Trump then announced .
Earlier Saturday , Trump had said he expects to announce the nominee next week .
Trump said previous presidents have filled vacancies on the court `` every single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's refusal to consider former President Barack Obama 's nomination of Merrick Garland ahead of the 2016 election .
`` Nobody said , 'Let 's not fill that seat , '' Trump said .
`` We win an election , and those are the consequences . ''
Trump also nodded to Sen. Thom Tillis , R-N.C. , who is up for reelection in a tough race and earlier Saturday said he would approve Trump 's nominee if a vote was held before Election Day .
The Democrats would need four Republicans to join @ @ @ @ @ @ @

'Fill That Seat' Chants Erupt At Trump Rally, A Day After Ginsburg's Death
Enlarge this image toggle caption Chris Carlson/AP Chris Carlson/AP
A day after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, chants of "Fill that seat! Fill that seat!" broke out during President Trump's campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C., on Saturday.
"That's what we're going to do. We're going to fill that seat!" Trump said, saying his supporters should print "Fill that seat!" on T-shirts.
The president also pledged to nominate a woman for the seat, saying "I actually like women much more than I like men." He went on to "poll" the crowd about whether they'd prefer a man or a woman for the seat. The cheers were much louder for a woman nominee.
"It will be a woman, a very talented, very brilliant woman," Trump then announced.
Earlier Saturday, Trump had said he expects to announce the nominee next week.
Trump said previous presidents have filled vacancies on the court "every single time," ignoring the Republican-controlled Senate's refusal to consider former President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland ahead of the 2016 election.
"Nobody said, 'Let's not fill that seat," Trump said. "We win an election, and those are the consequences."
Trump also nodded to Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is up for reelection in a tough race and earlier Saturday said he would approve Trump's nominee if a vote was held before Election Day.
The Democrats would need four Republicans to join them to stop Trump's nominee.