00:00Senate. Thank you. Congratulations to both of you on your nominations. Mr. Dunlop, I'm
00:07pleased to support your nomination. Mr. Tung, same. But I want to ask you why you neglected
00:14to talk about one of the most important parts of your background, and that is the fact you
00:19were born in Houston, Texas. Is that correct? Senator, I was not born in Houston, Texas,
00:27but my brother did attend Rice University in Texas. Okay, okay. Well, tell me a little bit
00:32about your family. I see your parents are here, and what did you learn from your... Could you say
00:36that again? What did you learn from your parents growing up that's made you the man you are today?
00:42Senator, I learned everything from my parents. My parents immigrated from Taiwan, and their parents,
00:50my grandparents immigrated from communist China. My dad, he is an entrepreneur in the construction
00:58business. He laid tile and constructed kitchen cabinets for houses in our community and for
01:07other businesses. My dad got his MBA at the University of Dallas when he was an exchange student
01:16in the U.S. My mother, my dear mother, she graduated with a master's in education
01:23at USC in California, and she raised two boys, my brother and myself, and I couldn't just... I couldn't
01:34be prouder of my parents, and I hope I'm making them proud today.
01:38Well, I was a little stunned by some of the initial comments by two of my colleagues from
01:48California, and it sounds like they were painting you as some sort of radical.
01:57Do you consider yourself to be a radical? I do not, Senator. Well, you've had a pretty
02:04impressive background in terms of your education, University of Chicago, law school, Yale University.
02:13By the way, you spent a year abroad studying Chinese?
02:18I did. It was an exchange program, and I studied the Chinese language.
02:21And why did you want to do that?
02:23Well, at the time, I had wanted to enter the Foreign Service and have a career in diplomacy,
02:28so I thought, well, learn Mandarin that could be useful in the future. But while I was there,
02:34I changed my mind and decided to apply to law school.
02:37And you clerked for Justice Gorsuch and Justice Scalia.
02:43Do you consider them role models?
02:45I do, Senator.
02:47And when you talk about originalism, I believe both of them embraced this approach to the work
02:57of the judge on the Supreme Court of originalism. Could you just explain what originalism is and
03:03why you support it?
03:07Thank you, Senator.
03:09Originalism is the method of interpreting the Constitution that looks to the original public
03:14meaning of the text when it was ratified. It gives the power to the people and not to
03:20unelected judges who have life tenure. It prevents judges, ideally, from indulging in their personal
03:28policy preferences, and it requires them to stick to the text in history and the original meaning
03:34of the Constitution when it was ratified.
03:36Well, you've been asked about all sorts of hot-button issues from same-sex marriage to the
03:42gender equality to you name it. Is that your job as a judge to basically make those sort of policy
03:53judgments or try to reconcile or find consensus among divergent views among Americans?
04:00Senator, my job, if I was so confirmed, lucky to be confirmed as a judge, would not be as a
04:05policymaker.
04:07And I can tell you that probably all 100 members of the Senate would be grateful for the statute
04:15of limitations on dumb things they said when they were in college. But thank you for clarifying
04:25your views. I'm kind of stunned myself that colleagues would want to go back to comments you made
04:33in college and somehow impugned your record or your ability to serve as a circuit court judge based
04:42on some comment you made back then. But in the short time I have remaining, I'm intrigued by one last
04:50thing on your resume. You were a member of the International Defensive Pistol Association.
04:57What in the heck is that? It's a competitive shooting organization, Senator, that seeks to promote
05:04self-defense knowledge and self-defense training. Thank you. My time's up.
05:10Senator Ronald. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:12I've posted an me on theicassof.
05:14Dear timon.
05:14Thanks, man.
05:16Happy In theist.
05:16I don't know what My Oypero Initiative is.
05:33Absolutely.
05:34Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:35Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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