Opening Statement - Biden

Using MS Word to summarize Biden's opening statement:

Judge, as you know, there's a genuine intellectual debate going on in our country today over whether the Constitution is going to continue to expand the protections of the right to privacy, continue to empower the federal government to protect the powerless.

For 70 years, there's been a consensus, Judge, on our Supreme Court on these issues of privacy and protecting the powerless. In 1967 the Constitution defended the right of a black woman to marry a white man.

Our constitutional journey did not stop then and it must not stop now, Judge. Judge, that's why this is a critical moment. Like most Americans, I believe the Constitution recognizes a general right to privacy.

You dismissed the constitutional protection of privacy as, quote, a so-called right. The Constitution provides for one democratic moment, Judge -- one democratic moment -- before a lifetime of judicial independence.