To me, the thing that is the huge, flashing, billboard, right front and center is the past

record of the court with a five to four Republican majority.

Staffers and interest groups and money propel much of the action, and you have a group

of very talented and originally idealistic people who came to Washington to try and make

a country better, and many of them feel trapped in this system.

Hi and welcome to Amicus, Slates podcast about the law and the Supreme Court.

I'm Dietlesswick, I cover the courts and the law for Slate.

Starting Monday, Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court seat that has sat empty for

well over a year now is going to start his confirmation hearings.

Judge Neil Gorsuch will be alternately grilled and celebrated by members of the Senate

Judiciary Committee in what has become really the only must-see TV event in the life of

the high court.

Later on in the show, we're going to talk to longtime DC journalist and observer Tom

Rosensteel about his brand new novel that is weirdly enough set around a really controversial

Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

First, we want to turn to the Senate where Democrats are trying to figure out how much

energy they're going to expend on blocking a Neil Gorsuch nomination, whether it's worth

fighting really hard over a nominee that maybe isn't all that different from Antonin's

Glea.

Sheldon Whitehouse sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He is the junior senator from Rhode Island.

He served as Rhode Island's US Attorney under Bill Clinton and was Attorney General of

...