He has read their cases. He knows their records. And now President Joe Biden has begun the last stage for selection of a new Supreme Court justice: the interview.

For possible nominees, this can be a make-or-break moment. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously sealed her nomination during a June 1993 meeting with President Bill Clinton, after he had concentrated for weeks on other candidates. It was, Clinton said later, “the conversation of a lifetime.”

For a president, the interview provides an opportunity to bond with an individual who would fulfill his legacy on the nation’s highest court, to delve into her legal approach and