There was a time in this country when blacks and whites couldn’t get married or go to the same school. The Supreme Court changed that.

There was a time when gay people could be arrested for loving one another and when it was illegal for them to get married. The Supreme Court changed that.

There was a time when thousands of women died seeking illegal, unsafe abortions. And the Supreme Court changed that.

Through their decisions, the nine justices on the Supreme Court touch each of our lives.

The Constitution says that these justices are to be nominated by the president and approved with the advice and consent of the Senate. Senators have a constitutional obligation equal to the president’s to vet a nominee to the Supreme Court.

Because the next justice will provide the deciding fifth vote on issues that matter to everyone in Hawaii — such as access to health care and a woman’s right to choose — I take this constitutional responsibility seriously.

The nominee’s judicial philosophy, as well as his or her approach to constitutional and statutory interpretation, are important as these cases come before the court. President Trump’s nominees, however, are well-coached to avoid saying virtually anything at all on either subject.

Therefore, it becomes substantially more important to give weight to and evaluate the president’s nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, on the totality of his writings and record.

It is certainly significant that he was chosen from a list prepared and vetted by two right-wing organizations: the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. These organizations have spent decades and millions of dollars to pack our federal courts with ideologically-driven conservative judges who share their goals of repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and overturning Roe v. Wade.

Every person in Hawaii cares about access to affordable, quality health care. Most residents of our state benefit from the protections of Hawaii’s Prepaid Health Care Act, a law that mandates employers provide comprehensive health coverage to their employees.

However, nearly 18,000 Hawaii residents — approximately the population of Wahiawa — depend on the ACA to purchase health insurance on the individual marketplace. Many of these people are living with pre-existing conditions such as asthma, diabetes and cancer.

Right now, Trump, Texas and 19 other states are suing in federal court to invalidate the ACA and its core protections for Americans living with pre-existing conditions. In response to Trump’s ongoing attacks against the ACA, Hawaii recently enacted new legislation to protect state residents living with pre-existing conditions. Millions of people across the country are not as fortunate.

The next Supreme Court justice also will play a determining role in the future of a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health decisions.

The fight for reproductive freedom was one of the reasons I got involved in politics. When I was in college, the first letter I ever wrote to Hawaii’s congressional delegation was about abortion at a time when our Legislature was debating whether to legalize the procedure. Hawaii became the first state in the country to do so.

Donald Trump repeatedly promised to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would favor overturning the core holding in Roe v. Wade. Based on these promises, it is highly likely that Judge Kavanaugh would, at the least, support weakening Roe v. Wade.

He tried to do this last year, arguing in a dissent that a 17-year-old immigrant in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should not be released from custody to have an abortion.

These fights matter. The people who sit on our courts matter. With so much at stake in our country, every Hawaii resident should mobilize, resist and stay engaged for the long haul in the fight for a fair and independent judiciary.

Mazie Hirono is a U.S. senator for Hawaii, and a Judiciary Committee member.