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Schumer: "My concern is that we don't have people on the court that we don't have someone who will dismantle the structural protections that have guaranteed...basic protections."

Schumer reiterates Roberts' answers to Biden's questions about the 14th amendment and Sen. Kohl's questions about Griswold.

Roberts nods his head in assent.

Schumer: "How you will divine what that right to privacy means?"

Roberts: "The court...talked about the necessity of considering the naiton's history, tradition and practices. As Justice Harlan always explained in his opinions, you alsways need to do that with limitations on the judicial role. You need to recognize that it is not your job to make policy, either under the constitution or under the statutes. The approp. judicial role focuses on those considerations as developed in the court's precedents. That's where I would start."

More: "You begin with the precedents. You analyze them with the principles of stare decisis. All the justices recognize that in this area you need to be especially careful about the source of the content that you're giving to the right at issue because it is an area of the danger of the judges going beyond the limits of their authority."

Schumer knocks Roberts to allegedly inconsistently applying the "Ginsberg" precedent on confirmation hearing questions.

He then suggests that Roberts is insensitive for using the term "amigos" in a memo to the Attorney General.

Posted by Marc Ambinder | 06:24 PM