a swing vote to ban or over turn a ban on same sex you ll activity in texas. this is an issue that was important in the texas case. he is somebody very key, although not an advocate for it, he has written in his dicta about things like affirmative action and talking about the need to have race be a consideration, if not the overwhelming one, at least one factor. so while the focus is on the area of abortion, a very important one when it comes to human rights and women s rights and the ability to choose, there is also a whole host of areas where we require a swing vote for other more progressive minded notions and ones that are in line with our democratic principles and we don t have that now. let me give you two more. the death penalty. he has also been somewhat on the liberal side in insisting on strict controls on when executions take place and how the procedures not against the death penalty. not against the death penalty. but certainly for limit
state level. is it possible, angela, this will put pressure on the two republican senators who i believe support abortion rights to a degree, senator susan collins of maine and lisa murkowski of alaska. is that where there is focus when it comes to the supreme court battles coming up? it is hard for me to even think about row v. wade and just given the fact that anthony kennedy sided with the conservative portion of the bench on the last four decisions just coming out. whether we re talking about the wedding cake issue with the gay couple or talking about more voter suppression, base policy through texas and if we re talking about today s janice versus ask me case with labor union protection. not to mention the travel ban. i m sorry. i missed one. the muslim ban is some some of us are calling it and that is more appropriate. i think my issue is he has not been a voice of reason this term. and does that mean we re going
chunk of this country in 18 months. and there is nothing that democrats can do about it, laura? well that is partly true in terms of the korcongressional ll and all politics are local and local voting is important to decide who will be in office to do that. but i do agree it is going to change the partisan view point of the supreme court but there is still a lot of steps that have to go in order to get a case before the supreme court and to overturn 40-year-old precedent. now it may be they will do death by a thousand cuts and narrow it and continue to constrain the rights and move the date at which the viability of the fetus may be may be considered enough for the states to say we can do something about this. but i think it is more to narrow it and constrain as to overturn it entirely. that would be quite, quite monumental and it could happen but the more likely scenario is the constraint and the states could prevent that ultimately with the right to litigation at
gorsuch. while president trump replaced one conservative with another when he chose gorsuch to take justice antonin scalia s seat he now has the opportunity to move the court to the right when he replaced kennedy, a centrist. the case is swing. i don t. reporter: kennedy has never liked being the court s swing vote but for years it is his vote that decided a case in a closely divided court. kennedy a ronald reagan appointee was sworn in 1988. i shall honor the constitution. reporter: he sided with his conservative colleagues on issues such as gun control and voting rights. he authored the majority opinion in citizens united striking down election spending limits for corporations. congratulations reporter: and in bush v. gore he cleared the way for george w. bush s presidency but to the dismay of those on the right, he joined the liberals on abortion, affirmative action and the death