Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we're looking to a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with a letter from more than 75 federal judges

to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee urging the Republican majority

not to confirm Emil Bovet to the Court of Appeals, then on to the Supreme Court.

Needless to say, the letter along with another plea from more than 900 Justice Department

lawyers, was ignored as Chairman Grassley rammed the nomination forward, prompting the Democratic

senators to walk out. We will discuss whether a full vote in the Senate could stop Trump from

finally getting his Roy Cohen on the Supreme Court with the outrageous appointment

of a craven and lawless lackey who will do anything Trump asks him.

Joining us is the Honourable Nancy Gertner, a former US federal judge who was appointed

to the federal bench of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts by President Bill Clinton.

She built her career around standing up for women's rights and civil liberties before retiring in 2011.

Now a senior lecture in law at Harvard Law School.

She is the co-author of a letter with more than 75 fellow judges warning against Trump's efforts to elevate Emil Bovey to the Court of Appeals, then the Supreme Court.

Then, as many fret over whether we are in a constitutional crisis, we'll examine whether we are past that already into the Trump dictatorship and that we should be working on how to get the

Constitution back and restore our democracy. Joining us is Sean Wilentz, the George Henry Davis

1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University. His books include The Rise of

American Democracy, Jefferson to Lincoln, The Age of Reagan, a History,

1974 to 2008, Bob Dylan in America, and the politicians and the egalitarians.

His latest book is No Property in Man, Slavery and Anti-Slavery of the Nation's founding,

and he's the co-host of the podcast, The Court of History.

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