i was lucky to clerk at the supreme court for lewis powell.rian: what did you take away from lewis powell? david: remarkable admiration. he was an impressive person. very fine judge. now, as i approach the age, i think with some resonance of what he said to me once which was, you have no idea how hard it is to keep an open mind when you are 71. he tried to. he recognized that he didn't always, but he did try to. he tried to see both legal implications of the case, but also the human implications of the case. i think a great judge needs to look at both. brian: when did you first see the impeaching of a public official up close? david: i served as defense counsel for a district judge in south mississippi, walter nixon junior, in the late 1980's. he had been convicted of perjury before a grand jury, a lengthy and somewhat ill-conceived investigation. he was actually in prison at the time of the impeachment effort. that was a real barrier for us to work with. he felt it was a wrong conviction, a bad case, and i concurred. we resisted the impeachme

lewis powell and anthony kennedy. and i think, i could take a solid bette on this that rick cavanagh will be confirmed by the u.s. senate. this fight will be something. we'll be with you covering it every step of the way. good night from the whitete hou. shannon bream is up next. >> this is the fox news alert. i'm shannon bream in washington. a historic night for the white house and for the nation. making an impassinged appeal to the left tasking about his family commitment to community and telling america, he would keep an open mind in every case. the first pitch to the deeply divided senate looking at mid term other elections and president trump efforts to nominate conservatives to the high court. potentially leaving indellable mark on the high court for decades. we will break it down. from senator ben sax to the tony perkins for the news we have team coverage. justin fisher is looking into cavanagh background and the protest against

justice hugo black, justice lewis powell, and justice anthony kennedy. justice thomas replacing thurgood marshall. that was the big swing but this is basically a slightly more conservative nominee replacing a generally conservative justice in anthony kennedy. the big change is that for the first time since the 1930s, the court could have a reliable conservative majority. that's big. and this partially explains why some democrats are just going completely bonkers today. to block kavanaugh, dems are trotting out a new tactic. i loved seeing this unfold today. they now want to force nominees to answer how they would rule on hypothetical cases. now, this is all meant to pin down a nominee on hot button issues. here is senator richard blumenthal. >> you know, we have heard these phony platitudes again and again. we heard them from gorsuch. we heard them from now chief justice roberts. these evasive, canned, rehearsed answers are absolutely meaningless. no more business as usual. no more deferential or courteous acceptance of these phony platitudes. >> laura:

hugo black, lewis powell, and anthony kennedy.i could take a pretty solid bet on this that brett kavanaugh will be confirmed by the u.s. senate. this fight ahead of us is going to be something. we will be with you covering it every step of the way. good night from the white house. shannon bream is up next. >> shannon: this is a fox news alert. i'm shannon bream in washington on this historic night for the white house and for the nation. judge brett kavanaugh making an impassioned appeal to the left and remarks from the white house tonight talking about his family's commitment to community and telling america he would keep an open mind in every case. his first pitch to a deeply divided senate looking at midterm elections and president trump's efforts to nominate conservatives to the high court. potentially leaving an indelible mark on the laws of the land for decades. this is history, folks. we have a star-studded lineup to break down from senator sasse to tony perkins. we have team coverage. kristin fisher digging into kavanaugh's