Sen. Booker tells Colbert he does 'not trust' Trump-appointed judges 'to secure our rights'

Sen. Cory Booker told "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert that he did not trust conservative judges, especially those appointed by former President Trump, to uphold the rights of Americans in an interview Monday.

"I don't trust [Trump-appointed] judges to secure our rights," the New Jersey Democrat told Colbert during a conversation about what Congress can do to stop conservative judges from influencing issues like abortion and gun rights. 

"Congress must act," he said. "I have been shaken by seeing things happen in our federal judiciary that I never imagined possible."

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As an example, Booker cited Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk's injunction against the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, an abortion drug, in early 2023.

Later that year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that ended the availability of mifepristone by mail and required that it be administered in a physician's presence. It also stated that the drug can only be used through the seventh week of pregnancy, a three-week decrease.

The senator also said conservative judges were making decisions on issues like in vitro fertilization (IVF) contrary to the interests of a majority of Americans. 

"The majority of Americans believe that we should have access to IVF," Booker said.

Booker supports an IVF bill to protect the practice through federal legislation that Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill, is spearheading. Republicans have previously blocked the measure, criticizing it for being too expansive and not allowing for certain regulations.

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Booker also said during the late-night media appearance that Trump used his term to fill the courts "with extreme right-wing" judges. 

"The majority of Americans believe in Roe v. Wade, but that was stripped away from us by the courts," the senator said, then pointing to gun control efforts. "The majority of Americans believe that we should have common sense, universal background checks, but that's been blocked again and again by a Republican Congress."

"It is an extreme nature of the people he is putting on the court to take precedence, to take patterns, practices and upturn them," Booker continued. 

Booker said he and other congressional Democrats have taken action to "protect same-sex marriage" and in vitro fertilization from conservative judges' decisions. 

Fox News' Julia Johnson contributed to this report.