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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Passes Away; Controversy Brews Over The Timing Of A New Nomination; Type Of Western Apple Tree Returns From The Past. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired September 21, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Twenty-one days into the month of September and on the last official day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere we welcome
you to CNN 10. I`m Carl Azuz back in our home studio.
Outside the U.S. Supreme Court, memorials appeared over the weekend. They were in remembrance of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed
away last Friday at the age of 87. In the Supreme Court`s announcement of her death, Chief Justice John Roberts said America has lost a jurist of
historic stature and that the Supreme Court has lost a cherished colleague.
Justice Ginsburg had been battling pancreatic cancer since 2009. She`d served on the high court since 1993 when she was nominated by President
Bill Clinton. Ginsburg was the second woman to serve on the court. Before that she had worked as a law clerk, a law professor, a U.S. Appeals Court
judge and a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. Women`s rights was a deeply important issue to the Associate Justice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: In my lifetime, I expect to see three, four perhaps even more women on the high
court bench. Women not shaped from the same mold but of different complexions. I surely would not be in this room today without the
determined efforts of men and women who kept dreams of equal citizenship alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: In recent years, Ginsburg served as the most senior member of the high court`s liberal justices. She took a liberal position in her votes on
a number of controversial issues from abortion to immigration to healthcare.
But Ginsburg also shared a close friendship with Associate Justice Antonin Scalia who was known for his conservative positions until his death in
2016. At that time there was a political controversy over Justice Scalia`s replacement and it seems history is repeating itself ahead of the process
to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, serve for life. That`s why presidents regard these judicial appointments as such
an important way to extend their own legacies. The Constitution does not set out a resume that a Supreme Court justice has to have. There`s no
requirement in the Constitution that a Supreme Court justice even be a lawyer but traditionally presidents have nominated impeccably qualified
sitting judges.
Both presidents and Senators like to say that the confirmation process is all about qualifications but it`s really also about politics. Virtually
every important issue in American politics and even American life winds up in front of the Supreme Court and they have the last word. Both the
president and the Senators trying to figure out how the nominee stands on the hot button issues that the Supreme Court deals with. And that`s why the
Senators will vote yes or no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: And it is the responsibility of the Senate to confirm or deny presidential nominees to the high court. That`s established by the Advice
and Consent Clause of the Constitution. But a political fight is brewing over the timing of appointing Justice Ginsburg`s replacement. Generally
speaking, Republicans want to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court though they don`t have to vote that way.
Democrats want to appoint liberal justices to the Supreme Court though they don`t have to vote that way. The president is a Republican and the Senate
is controlled by Republicans. So with an election coming in November, it may benefit Republicans to try to nominate and vote on Ginsburg`s
replacement now while they control the White House and Senate.
This could help them appoint another conservative to the court. It may benefit Democrats to try to delay the process until the New Year in the
hopes their party will win control of the White House and/or Senate. That could help them appoint another liberal to the court. Of course, it`s a
gamble any way you look at it because neither party knows what will happen in the election and both parties want to look good to voters going into it.
We will be following this controversy in more detail this week. As far as the current makeup of the Supreme Court goes, five of its members were
appointed by Republican presidents. Three of its members were appointed by Democratic presidents.
10 Second Trivia. What was the only U.S. state to join the union in 1876? Wyoming, Idaho, California, or Colorado. One hundred years after the
Declaration of Independence, the Centennial State of Colorado achieved statehood.
Don`t get confused about our next story. It`s about an orange called an apple, specifically the Colorado Orange Apple. It`s not easy to grow any
kind of apple in Colorado. The air is thin. The temperature changes in spring and fall are extreme. There are late frosts, a lot of grasshoppers
and not a lot of rainfall. And yet, fruit orchards cover the valleys of the Centennial State and one of those fruits used to be the Colorado Orange
Apple.
It was among more than 400 types of apples historically grown in Colorado according to one expert. Fifty percent of them were reportedly thought to
be extinct but thanks to the efforts of two passionate people, the Colorado Orange Apple has returned from the past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These trees keep the stories of people that grew them. People that ate them, that made money off them. The trees tell the story.
Orchard fruits were a foundational industry in Colorado from the earliest days in the 1860s when many people were coming in to go after gold in the
Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Other people realized that those miners and those folks would need to be fed. It`s really the only apple of Colorado origin
that ever made it big in the world. We first saw the Colorado Orange in a county fair record.
It took us a couple of years of realizing what it was and then going crazy trying to find it. This was a tree that it had been in their family since -
- since the early 1900s at least. We started looking at the tree and there were still apples hanging on it. The story in the tree and the fruit were
together. We really felt like this was it. This doesn`t mean it`s not (inaudible). You have to find a horticultural specimen to match it to. The
problem with that is if it`s believed to be extinct, there`s -- there`s nothing else you can match it to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After they explained that they were really trying to track down this particular apple, I was just so excited that we had one in
the collection. Then we have our apples.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were able to compare apples to apples. We feel like it`s absolutely it. This is a little row of Colorado Orange Apple trees
from -- that were grafted this year. Our steps now is to get this out to people. For us, it`s about moving it forward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can actually take some little sticks of this and graft it, insert it into the wood of that other tree and this will start to
grow and it will be a Colorado Orange tree. Every time I do it, it doesn`t seem like it should work and it usually does. And it`s just one of those
cool things in nature.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I absolutely believe the Colorado Orange has a story yet to come. I think the best part of this story is just going to happen when
consumers are able to taste it and ask for it and demand it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: For a man in Massachusetts it was a late summer snooze by the pool. That`s why the feet you see in this picture aren`t going anywhere when an
uninvited visitor strolls onto the scene. The animal seems to take a sip of water and then it seems taken a back when it realizes what`s sleeping
nearby. But when the bear`s curiosity gets the best of it and the sleeping giant wakes up, it`s the bear that bolts, not the napper. Instead he just
reaches for his phone and zooms in for a close up.
This should probably fit into the "don`t try this at home" category. Because even if you enjoy a good "slumbear" going dormant in the summer
sun. A bit of shut eye gets really "eye-opening" when your cat-nap because a "bear-nap", turning all of your dreams into an "ersa major
hibernightmare" ya`ll.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10. We dream of visiting Cairo, Egypt and that`s where you`ll find the American International School in Egypt where folks
are watching and they`re commenting on our YouTube channel.
END
