judge jackson s hearings, my view is they re looking ahead. we saw number of senators tip their hand, senator blackburn talked about griswold v. connecticut which announced the right to privacy that undergirds the right to use contraception. we saw senator cornyn talk about the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage and whether that was rightly decided. and we saw senator braun talk about the case that legalized interracial marriages should have been left to the states. he later semiwalked that back, but we see this trajectory, all these rights, the rights of parents to raise their children in the manner of their choosing, the right to contraception, these all stem from these rights that have been implied from the text of the constitution but are not explicit in the text of the constitution. it s not just about abortion. it s these other things. there s a whole litany of right that come after this and this is
everybody and always make the right choices. and i think that s an unfair pressure to put on any one person. melissa, i keep thinking about how there were some commentators during justice sotomayor s hearing who said he is not as smart as she thinks she is. i want to circle back to some of the rights in question. in a recent piece for the washington post you noted republicans continue to pelt her with questions about unenumerated and judge-made rights, which you say underscores that abortion was never the conservatives end game. it is merely a weigh station on the path to rolling back a wide range of rights, the right that scaffold the most intimate parts of our lives. we ve always had abortion be the elephant in the room in these confirmation hearings and
professor melissa murray, author of you sound like a white girl. julissa, director of policy, and melissa megan hayes. what do you make of the argument that maybe it is the court that does not deserve the confidence of the american people and the credibility that judge jackson will bring? well, i think irin may be on to something. the court has had a really bruising couple months. public confidence in the court is at an all-time low. they have allowed a patently unconstitutional law to be in effect in texas, essentially nullifying the constitutional rights of those in one of the largest states in the country to go unmitigated and unremedies. so yeah, the court is not having a great couple of months, and the public support for judge jackson, i think, and what she will bring to the judiciary perhaps will buoy the court for the time being, but again, we still have to wrestle with the fact that this african american
woman, this historic nomination, is going to bolster an institution that right now is governed by a conservative 6-3 supermajority that is intent on rolling back 50 years worth of abortion precedent and if we can read the tea leaves here, and i think we can based on this confirmation hearing, that won t be where it stops. there s going to be more and the court has signaled they have an appetite for dismantling the way we run government. i want to loop back in a minute that conversation about rights that we take for granted. but first, i want to ask something. i got lost because there was so much to unpack this week. judge jackson was asked by republicans about court packing, how she plans to strengthen the legitimacy of the supreme court. can you explain why this isn t up to jackson? yeah, it s not. it s up to congress. even mike lee, very conservative senator from utah, with whom i have never in my life once