Hey, everyone who listens to the podcast. This is Ari Melburgh. This week's news was dominated by many things.

But the one with the longest implication is, of course, these hearings for Donald Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh.

I actually got to spend a couple days down there covering the hearings.

We saw some pointed exchanges, including the Democrats, saying there was too much secrecy to kick off the hearing and trying to get it all delayed. Corey Booker threatening to release documents, which he ultimately did. There was a big fight over whether that was all a plan or something that could get him, as he put it, ousted from the Senate. Kavanaugh also made a lot of news with his discussion of Roe v. Wade and U.S. v. Nixon.

Now, today, Nixon's former lawyer who ended up testifying against him in the Watergate era

is saying Kavanaugh's views on executive power would be detrimental.

Now, on today's podcast, Extra, you're going to hear some of our coverage this week of the

Kavanaugh hearings, followed by my interview with Senator Sheldon White House.

What would you say your position today is on a woman's right to choose?

Well, as a judge, as a judge, it is an important precedent of the Supreme Court. By it, I mean

Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, then reaffirmed many times. Casey is precedent on precedent.

Precedent on precedent. I am joined by people who know their way around precedents.

Chairman Eiffel is the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Elise Hoag, president of NARAL

Pro-Choice America, and my favorite legal eagle, NPR's Nina Totenberg, who is furiously still covering

the hearing there at Ground Zero. My thanks to all of you, this is big. Sherilyn off the top.

Did Judge Kavanaugh help or hurt himself today? So I think he heard himself today, and I want to disagree with you, this was very exciting. It was exciting. It really was. I didn't realize now I know it was. I was there all day today and yesterday. You missed it. There were very important moments, and we learned a lot about Judge Kavanaugh.

And there was a mix of substance and process that was really important. You know the whole issue about the documents, the documents we don't have from Kavanaugh's time when he worked for

President Bush. That was interwoven with some of the colloquy that you showed at the top of the

hour. Senator Leahy, for example, brought a line of questioning about whether or not

Kavanaugh had received confidential documents that had been stolen from Senator

Leahy in 2002 at the time that Kavanaugh worked on judicial nominees.

And what Laii did was he questioned the nominee up to the point that he couldn't use documents

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