On the recordMay 1, 2015
This has been an interesting week, with all the activity here on the Hill. The Prime Minister of Japan came and spoke. He did a very admirable job. There has been a lot of activity across the street at the Supreme Court. It was rather interesting. If you look at the history of the Supreme Court, until 1810 or thereabouts, the Supreme Court did not have a courtroom here in the Capital--or anywhere, really--and they often had to borrow a room from the House and Senate in order to have oral arguments. They were thrilled on the Supreme Court in 1810 when the Senate Chamber on the second floor was open, what is now referred to as the Old Senate Chamber. The Senate moved up to that Chamber just straight down the hall out here, and the Old Senate Chamber downstairs was converted into a Supreme Court courtroom. The Justices were thrilled. They were thrilled that they finally had their own nice courtroom. Now, it is not much more than a museum room. People can tour that room. There were some important decisions that were considered down there, some very poor decisions that were made in that room and some very good decisions that were made in that room. One of them involved the Spanish ship the Amistad. It was a great movie. A guy who grew up in Longview, Texas, in my district, Matthew McConaughey, played the trial lawyer in the case. {time} 1115 Anthony Hopkins did a great job playing John Quincy Adams, and I commend that movie to anyone that cares to see it.…
