the confirmation battle is already in full swing on capitol hill for president trump's new supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. kavanaugh met today with vice president mike pence and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. if confirmed, kavanaugh would cement a conservative majority on the high court. he has the power to shift the course of history. that's not an overstatement. cnn legal analyst joins us now to break it all down. joan, tell us what influence he's going to have. >> right from the start he's going to have a lot of influence because anthony kennedy was a true swing vote. i'm not sure if we're ever going to have another swing vote on this court like anthony kennedy. jim, you know it came down to justice kennedy's vote on abortion rights, affirmative action, on some death penalty cases. when the senate confirms him, if the senate confirms him, he'll definitely have a gravitational pull to the right for this supreme court. >> so tell us more about his experience then.