BANGOR – Rights to abortion and privacy may be in jeopardy under the direction of the current justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to renowned National Public Radio legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

Totenberg was both witty and serious as she spoke Thursday to a packed house at Husson College as part of the school’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

Her reports air regularly on NPR’s newsmagazines “All Things Considered,” “Morning Edition” and “Weekend Edition.”

Totenberg, dubbed by “Esquire” magazine as one of the “Women We Love,” began by quoting from a series of notes that had been passed between judges on the bench over the years – some written about her.

One justice is reported to have passed a note to a fellow justice that referred to the blonde in the second row center and how she, Totenberg, was showing up more now that he’d been appointed.

Another was written Oct. 10, 1973, when Vice President Spiro Agnew was charged with tax evasion. A court clerk sent a note to the bench that read: Spiro Agnew in trouble. Mets 2, Reds nothing.

“They’re smart, but they’re still people,” Totenberg said of the justices.

On the subject of abortion, the court has gone from a 7-2 decision in 1972 in Roe v. Wade when women were granted abortion rights to upholding a decision last term that bans partial-birth abortion.

“You don’t have to oppose Roe v. Wade outright to obtain very, very close to the same result,” Totenberg said.

She noted that it’s likely that abortion clinics will find themselves more severely regulated, and the waiting period to have an abortion will become longer.

For the first time in 30 years, the nine-member court is expected to address the practice of lethal injection and whether it’s a cruel and unusual practice.

“I think it’s a good bet [that] five justices will say it is,” she said.

Gay marriage is another issue that’s recently been given a lot of attention, and Totenberg doesn’t anticipate the U.S. Supreme Court deciding in favor of the idea any time soon.

“On civil rights questions, there really was a consensus [in the ’60s and ’70s] about where the country should be that doesn’t exist today,” Totenberg said. “We are a much more divided country than we were.”

There also is a case pending to challenge the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns. It will be the first decision on the 2nd Amendment since 1939, Totenberg said.

The issue of Guantanamo detainees and their rights also is expected to be addressed.

“These are difficult issues that pit security against liberty,” Totenberg said. “Just how they draw the lines may help determine what kind of a country we are.”

When asked by an audience member what she thought of newly appointed Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Totenberg said that he has a difficult task in front of him and that he must rebuild the morality and respect of the justice department.

“He’s smart and he’s not a crook, and that probably puts him ahead of the last occupant of that position,” she said.