confirmation hearings are set to begin tomorrow for president biden s u.s. supreme court nominee. biden has tapped judge ketanji brown jackson to replace retiring justice stephen breyer. she would be the first black woman to sit on the nation s highest court if confirmed. joan biskupic is a supreme court biographer and cnn analyst. so you have a new piece on cnn.com today, and you write, jackson s hearings will showcase her status as the first black woman nominated to the high court. yet the televised sessions will also bring into national focus the trajectory of america s highest court, now controlled by a conservative supermajority. tell us how you think that will impact the hearings. so good to see you, fredricka. this is such a dramatic moment. first of all, the history-making nomination we have here and then
that another group of republican challenges could bring another differently tailored case that might have the justices look at it on the merits, or is this said and done? i don t think anything is said or done in a supreme court with a 6-3 conservative supermajority. even in this particular challenge, there were two justices, justice alito and justice gorsuch, who were willing to overturn the aca in the middle of a health pandemic. i don t think anything is off the table here. this is a very narrow decision on the specific facts of this particular case and this challenge. there could obviously be other challenges. there will certainly be challenges of a contraceptive mandate. there will be many challenges going forward, and i don t think all bets are off, and i don t think this is the height of the aca or efforts to repeal it. we may just see a more piecemeal approach going forward. peter baker, i want to draw on your experience as a presidential historian in
neil gorsuch, brett kavanaugh, and amy coney barrett. with those three historic appointments, the court s delicate 5-4 majority really shifted to a 6-3 conservative supermajority. and that meant for all intents and purposes the chief justice who had often been a swing vote and who just last term had voted with the liberals on the court to strike down a louisiana admitting privileges law, lost his authority to steer the court to a more moderate perspective. they only need five vets to actually do anything, and that means the path is wide open for roe, and any case will do. so leah, it s interesting when you think about the state of mississippi. there s only one abortion clinic in the entire state. and that abortion clinic now being targeted by anti-abortion activists since the supreme court s decision to take up this case. on a kind of everyday level here, talk us through how detrimental it is banning
access is severely limited. six states in country with only one abortion clinic, result of relentless attacks by republicans on abortion access. mississippi is one of those states. new york times reports many women in mississippi live 250 or more miles from nearest abortion clinic. this map shows the clinics likely to close in the south if the court reverses roe. would force women throughout the southeast to travel hundreds of miles for abortion access. joining me now, senior correspondent for new york magazine. want to start with the decision to hear the mississippi case. reading the tea leaves, what ruling should we prepare for from this court given its new conservative supermajority? just a decision to take the case is earth-shattering. for years the supreme court has