she wrote that makes sense and we're not going to make funi of sherrilyn ifill. we're afraid to do that onced she getss a supreme court, shesh might pull this show off the air last august ifill wrote that quote fox news should not be part of the basic cable at this point. michael added that she thinks the fccc should regulate fox and wrote another tweet that she was upset h this show p was allowed, quote,ub on the public airwaves that belong to us ands are licensed by our government. we're not on the public t airwaves. but now some might sayay that anyone who writes p a sentence that ignorant probably has a pretty low iq, but we're not going to say that about sherrilyn ifill. we're going to assumey she's just highly self-conscious, confident. she n has no idea the fcc doesnt actually license t cable news networks like fox news. on the other hand , she t doesn't carean to a scholar like sherrilyn ifill. what agency does what thing? according toos what law, those are just minor details. they're just background noise. and sherrilyn ifill is not going to let any of it

sherrilyn ifill, you are a national treasure my sister, you truly are.d and highly favored to be able to access you from time to time. i thank you for being here. thank you for all that you do for our democracy. >> thank you for what you do, joy. i appreciate you. >> thank you very much. i appreciate you. >> still ahead, the traumatic events a year ago today, american divisions into sharp focus, and acclaimed author, we keep bringing it to you, ibram kendi joins me next. don't go anywhere. don't go anywhere. (burke) with farmers auto multi-policy discount, the more policies you have with us, the more you could save on your auto insurance. (man) hey, hon! (wife) hi, honey! (man) like what? (burke) well, you'd get a discount for insuring your jet skis... and boat...rv...life... ...home and more. you could save up to forty-five percent. (man) that's a whole lot of discounts. (burke) well, we offer coverage for a whole lot of things, and you could save a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. (kid) sup, dad! (burke) seventeen-car garage you got th

it was a great pleasure to get to sit down and talk to sherrilyn ifill.joke in front of you. the joke i was going to make is in basketball there's a stat called plus minus. it's independent of how the player is playing, what the score does while they're on the floor. she's plus minus. it's a little rough. >> i think you are making a different calculation than i'm making. you are making a different calculation. i actually think -- it's the part i feel good about. i feel incredibly pleased and gratified and actually even surprised and hopeful about the progress that's been made in helping millions more people understand the issues that i have devoted my life to than ever before in my lifetime. >> i mean, that's -- >> pure plus. >> the issues you work on, voting rights, and the protection of multi-racial democracy have never been more essentially activating issues in my lifetime. >> and many more millions of people who understand the reality or at least have a sense that there is something that is real and systemic about racism in this country and that it is

outstanding defense fund president, sherrilyn ifill. second circuit court of appeals judge, ewan lee and north carolina justice, anita earls. judge childs has been championed by house majority whip, james clyburn. >> i have a high regard and sincere appreciation for our legal system, which is the form of order in our court in our democracy. >> the eventual nominee will likely face a daunting confirmation process. breyer told several people who n nudged him to retire that the confirmation process shouldn't be political. >> if they see them as politicians in robes, it's confidence in the court and the rule of law will only diminish. >> some democrats worried breyer would remain on the bench and with the 2022 midterms looming, senate republicans have already raised the stakes around his retirement with five gop lawmakers telling cnn in december that they would likely oppose any nominee out of this white house if they take the majority in november. >> so we want to get more perspective now. history about to be made. joining us now, valerie

sherrilyn ifill, everyone knows her work and everyone down the line, you can talk about. i highlight only a couple of them, but not because they could be excluded from the overall conversation. but this is the point, i am very curious going forward as to how these women will be treated, and vetted, and viewed. i've already seen rumblings on other networks about, well, are they qualified enough, have they had a long enough tenure, questions that were not asked of those recently stated, who had shorter appellate histories. i'm looking to see how america receives this embarrassment of riches. >> do you believe, gloria brown marshall, that this might get some republican support, granted it is such a partisan process now. i'm not talking about a lot, but some republican support, given the historical nature of this potential pick? >> i think as the historical nature of it. but you think about the states from which the women reside now or were working should support their nominations. i mean, yes, this is a political process, yes, it is going to be very divisive. i think the wom

let's see there.yn sherrilyn ifill is not even a judge. she's some kind of political activist who works for the naacp, her primaryen credential and she listed this prominently in her online biographys herself is that she was one of glamor magazine's women of the year in twenty twenty laugh if you will. but i mean, why is that not a qualification? glamor magazine's women ofca the year 2020 send her forth to the supreme court. a twitter page. my twitter pagee is full of racist attacks against white people. here's one example from july of 2018 quote truthli and reconciliation efforts have little chance in many placesatha because whites view truthtelling as an act of violence relief. they do all whites. yes, sherrilyn ifill they're all the same same skin color, same belief. now that's a common attitude on the left. it's not a reassuring attitude for a supreme court justice. we'll see how she does. meanwhile, cnn is also recommending a woman called younus lee. niceay be a perfectly act person. we don't know, but she first became a judge in augu

a wild card would be sherrilyn ifill, and there's been lots of discussion about the fact that there hasn't been a civil rights lawyer on the court since ginsberg and marshall. >> and the 115 justices that have been seated on the supreme court, only six of them have not been white men. it would be a significant and historic moment for president biden to make this move. >> indeed. and i've been thinking since this announcement about what justice ginsberg said when she was asked, how many justices ought to be women out of the nine on the supreme court, and her answer was always, nine. >> it's accurate, you know? can you talk a little bit more, if you can, about the transition process that you've had a chance to see somewhat firsthand yourself, when a justice retires and another comes in? >> indeed. there have only been 115 of them. even though it seems that there's been a lot of turnover on the supreme court recently, these moments are actually pretty rare. i was a law clerk for justice o'connor when she made her announcement to retire. in that case, back in 2005, pete williams did not scoop

district court judge in south carolina, and sherrilyn ifill, a civil rights attorney who heads the naacp legal defense and educational fund. vice president kamala harris has also been mentioned as a possible nominee. to talk more about the retirement of justice stephen breyer and the future of the court, we are joined by two guests. dahlia lithwick is senior editor and senior legal correspondent at slate.com where she hosts the podcast amicus. her latest piece is headlined "the deep irony of stephen breyer's bare-knuckled exit from the supreme court." elie mystal is the nation's justice correspondent. his new piece is "the supreme court vs. the earth." his forthcoming book is "allow me to retort: a black guy's guide to the constitution." elie, your response when you heard about justice breyer retiring and your tweet offering,, some suggestions. >> it is about time. breyer has had a long and distinguished career, serve the nation with integrity, and it was time for him to leave and i have to say that is not my doing. that is mitch mcconnell's doing. he has promised essentially to not repl

you have sherrilyn ifill. ketanji brown jackson -- >> bakari, i get that. but i think the implication is that her polling numbers and she's not seen as effective or people don't see her -- scott, is that -- go ahead. and then i'll let scott -- >> yeah, i -- >> hold on, scott. let bakari finish and then i'll let you respond. what were you going to say, bakari? >> look, people want to find any way that they can take a dig at this vice president. and she's withstood it. and they've only been in office for 13 months. she'll be just fine. but she ain't going to be on the supreme court. >> go ahead, scott. >> i agree with bakari, they're not going to put her on. but i did marvel today at the fact there were more than a handful of democrats and more than a handful of reporters who were begging for the idea that kamala harris would be appointed or put on the list. and i assumed it was because they believe she's a political liability to biden and they want him to choose someone else. so i agree with bakari, she's not going on, but make no mistake, this whole theory

sherrilyn ifill, the director council of the naacp defense fund. it would be wonderful to have a former civil rights attorney on the bench. >> well said. the controversy over joe biden's pick certainly does make having a conversation right now about supreme court expansion even more difficult. something i know you're passionate about, as am i. when is a good time if not now when there's a vacancy on the bench? when will your party, congressman, recognize that this court which lacks legitimacy in so many ways and is about to strike down abortion rights, voting rights, gun control, affirmative action, it needs to be reformed, it needs to be rebalanced, it needs to, yes, expand? >> medhi, you know, this is a supreme court that gutted the voting rights act, which unleashed this new racist wave of voter suppression that we are seeing across the country, including in places like georgia and texas. and so the time was a long time ago. i'm grateful to have now 50 people in the united states congress supporting my bill with johnson and jerry nadler to add f

another woman you might know, sherrilyn ifill.he naacp legal defense fund, she's been on this program and many msnbc shows, because she's established herself as a leading voice in civil rights. here she was speaking to "60 minutes" about race in america. >> race lies at so much of the core of what is problematic in our society today and that is so easily exploitable because we have not had the courage in this country, and particularly most white people have not had the courage to really decide if this is your job every day as a citizen to deal with the fractures ultimately if you don't confront them will destroy us. >> have you noticed ifill speaks differently there, it's because of a different role. she's speaking as a progressive advocate and sometimes litigator, not bound by the rules of active judges, which is what you see with some of the other potential names. for example, judge leondra kruger on the california supreme court, was a deputy solicitor general under obama. like more government conspiracy and naacp advocacy. and

the work of sherrilyn ifill is well known in the civil rights world. and i could go on with every single person who is even on the short list singing their praises. and none of their qualifications can be questioned. yet and still i'm sure you can imagine the state of affairs that people are already trying to impute something negative towards them or question whether they've been on the bench long enough. i just direct people to think about and compare and contrast how they might be reviewed compared to, say, a sitting justice of amy coney barrett who certainly is a legal scholar in her own right, and i do not want to take away from her qualifications. but it was not a requirement that she had a lengthy tenure in appellate court. and justice elena kagan on the other side of the aisle, so to speak, never a day as a judge before becoming a supreme court justice. so i hope these women get a fair opportunity for a confirmation hearing and that we don't just continue to think about this inertia of the knee-jerk reaction that it must be a white man from a pa

then sherrilyn ifill is an nyu alum. same organization that marshall, the first african american to be appointed to the supreme court was on when he litigated brown versus board of education. >> i waited an hour and 28 minutes for you to do what you just did. thank you so much. i just want to say wow. i also want to ask you just your personal thoughts. this was a campaign promise made in march of 2020 but it wasn't preordained, right? that joe biden would win the election. but here we are and this is happening. what are you thoughts? >> i think this is a long time coming and there's already palpable excitement among the democratic base and especially among black woman who are such stalwarts of the democratic party. they believe joe biden's prospects. they swept him to victory in a number of key states and they're counting on him keeping this promise and it looks like he's doing that. it will be important as he looks for support to not only get this through, but other key aspects of his agenda and to line up his ducks for