Democrats Mount Yet Another Attack on the Institution of the Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the Supreme Court:
“Judicial independence is essential to our Republic. It’s integral to the rule of law. And for the most part, since the Democratic Party’s last run at partisan court-packing in the 1930s, both parties have respected it.
“But lately, Washington Democrats have gone off the rails.
“In 2019, Democratic Senators tried to openly bully the Supreme Court into a certain outcome. They wrote a threatening amicus brief saying the Court had better, 'heal itself.'
“In 2020, the Democratic Leader himself stood on the steps of the Supreme Court and threatened multiple sitting Justices by name if they didn’t reach the policy outcome that liberals wanted.
“In 2021, President Biden assisted the delegitimizing campaign by constructing a pseudo-academic commission to ponder ideas like partisan court-packing and unconstitutional term limits.
“Far-left activist groups mounted a public pressure campaign to push Justice Breyer to retire.
“Just last week, the number-two Senate Democrat, our colleague from Illinois, claimed that the primary safeguard against partisan court-packing is the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. That was a very revealing comment, considering that Senator Durbin and the vast majority of his fellow Democrats just tried to destroy that very threshold a couple months back.
“And now, in the last few days, the latest chapter. The left’s quest to delegitimize the Supreme Court found its latest outlet.
“This time, it’s a coordinated effort to nullify the presence of Justice Clarence Thomas on the Court. The far left wants another crack at what they tried and failed to do in 1991.
“Washington Democrats are now trying to bully this exemplary judge of 30-plus years out of entire legal subjects, or off the Court entirely.
“Far-left House members are talking about dusting off their party’s impeachment addiction for a third consecutive year. They’re boasting about how they’ve successfully bullied their senior leadership into impeachment in the past.
“Make no mistake. This performative outrage is not in earnest. This is a political hit, part of liberals’ yearslong quest to delegitimize the Court. All because our laws and Constitution occasionally inconvenience Democrats’ radical agenda.
“This isn’t new. It’s a tired old tactic. In recent years, the far left has issued near-constant demands for the late Justice Scalia, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, and Justice Barrett to recuse themselves from various issues where the far left feared they might not like a certain ruling. All based on spurious accusations about fake ethical problems or partiality.
“This new inappropriate pressure campaign is just a continuation of this well-worn pattern. It has no basis in Justice Thomas’s decades of impeccable service on the bench. The Justice and the entire Court should feel free to ignore it.
“Justice Clarence Thomas is a great American and an outstanding Justice. He is faithful to the text of our laws and Constitution. His writing is clear. His reasoning is rigorous and transparent.
“I have total confidence in Justice Thomas’s impartiality in every aspect of the work of the Court.
“Each of the nine justices should feel free to make every single judicial decision they make with total independence and complete freedom. What cases they hear; how they hear them; how they rule; whether and when they recuse themselves; and whether and when they retire —these are all judicial decisions.
“All nine Justices deserve total independence as they approach every judicial decision they make.
“This clumsy bullying from the political branches is beyond the pale.
“Justice Thomas is an exemplary jurist who has modeled fidelity to the rule of law for more than 30 years and counting. I hope none of the Justices give any of the radical left’s various pressure campaigns a minute’s thought.”
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Related Issues: Supreme Court, House Democrats, Senate Democrats
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