[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 126 (Friday, September 19, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9723-S9725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PARTISAN ATTACKS ON THE INDEPENDENCE AND INTEGRITY OF THE JUDICIAL 
                                 BRANCH

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I think it is regrettable that this week 
the Senate has failed to consider and confirm judges necessary to fill 
vacancies that are leading to a crisis in the Federal courts. Instead, 
this is going to be remembered as the week that the Republican 
leadership in the House and the Republican leadership in the Senate 
talked openly about seeking to intimidate--their word--to intimidate 
the Federal judiciary.
  I regret that any Senator or any Member of the House of either party 
would speak of a desire to intimidate the Federal judiciary. One of the 
greatest hallmarks of the United States of

[[Page S9724]]

America is that we have an independent Federal judiciary of the highest 
integrity. We are the envy of the world in that respect. To hear 
Republican leaders in the House and the Senate talk about intimidating 
that Federal judiciary was disheartening. It indicates our system of 
government showing disrespect to the intelligence of the American 
people and sends a signal of shame throughout the world.
  These partisan attacks threaten the independence that the Founders 
created to insulate the judiciary from politics. These attacks threaten 
the checks and balances on the political branches of our Federal 
Government that have served us so well for over 200 years. These 
bedrock principles have helped preserve our freedoms for two centuries 
and has helped make this country a model for emerging democracies 
around the world.
  Not since Congress and the American people rejected the Court-packing 
scheme over 60 years ago have we faced such a threat to our third 
branch of Government and its ability to act as the guardian of our 
constitutionally guaranteed rights.
  On Sunday, Congressman DeLay of Texas was quoted in the Washington 
Post openly asserting that ``The judges need to be intimidated.'' We 
have heard Republicans clamor for impeachment when a judge renders a 
decision with which a Republican Member of the House of Representatives 
disagrees. We have heard demands that Congress destroy the orderly 
process of appellate court and Supreme Court review and, instead, 
assume the role of a supercourt and legislatively review and veto 
decisions on a case-by-case basis as it may suit Congress' passing 
political whim and fancy.
  We have seen proposals to amend the U.S. Constitution to eliminate 
the independence and tenure that the Founders understood were essential 
if judges were to act impartially and in the interest of justice in 
each case rather than worry about partisan intrigue.
  This extreme rhetoric and outlandish proposals have contributed to a 
poisonous atmosphere in which the Federal justice system is overloaded. 
We have heard testimony in the Judiciary Committee from judges around 
the country who fear that the quality of justice they will be able to 
provide in our Federal courts will be adversely affected. More and more 
courts around the country are being forced to rely on senior judges, 
retired judges, and visiting judges to hear cases. The Second Circuit 
Court of Appeals expects to include an outside visiting temporary judge 
on 80 percent--80 percent--of its panels over this year.
  Other appellate courts have had to forego oral arguments in more and 
more cases, and litigants, the people who are paying the bills, the 
taxpayers of the United States, are denied any opportunity to see the 
judges who are deciding their causes and to have any reassurance that 
judges are personally considering their arguments and concerns. Court 
clerks and attorney staff are being used more and more extensively in 
the determination of cases as judges become overburdened and backlogs 
grow.
  These are not the way to engender confidence in our system of justice 
or acceptance of the process and decisions being rendered or respect 
for courts and the Government.
  The chief judge of the eleventh circuit has testified about 
``crushing workloads.'' He has noted that Federal courts are ``no 
longer able to provide the public with the same standard of excellent 
service that [they] did in the past.'' The Chief Justice of the U.S. 
Supreme Court, William Rehnquist, has called the rising number of 
Federal judicial vacancies ``the most immediate problem we face in the 
Federal judiciary.'' He warned at the end of 1996 that ``filling 
judicial vacancies is crucial to the fair and effective administration 
of justice.''

  The second shoe dropped on Wednesday when it was reported that the 
Republican leader of the Senate echoed the sentiments of Mr. DeLay and 
defended the idea of Republicans plotting to intimidate the Federal 
judiciary and said, ``It sounds like a good idea to me.'' I can only 
hope that the reports of this exchange with the majority leader of the 
Senate were in error. For the Republican leader in the Senate to join 
Republican leaders in the House in an acknowledged effort to undercut 
the independence and integrity of the Federal judiciary would be a sign 
of grave danger for the American people and would be a sign of danger 
for the system of government that has protected this democracy for over 
200 years.
  Wednesday marked the 210th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. 
Constitution. Rather than commemorating the principles that helped make 
this country great, the Republican leadership's statements this week 
undermined the separation of powers on which our charter is based.
  Last Congress, the Republican leadership was bent on shutting down 
the executive branch of the Government. I remember being on the floor 
of the Senate arguing against that, but they shut down the Government. 
The American people rose up and rejected that effort outright, as the 
American people should. In my State, Republicans and Democrats alike 
roundly condemned what was done.
  So now, these Republican forces have turned their fire on the branch 
of Government most protective of the people's rights but least equipped 
to protect itself from political attack.
  They might not be able to speak up, but I will, because this year's 
continuing attack on the judicial branch, the slowdown in the 
processing of the scores of good women and men the President has 
nominated to fill vacancies on the Federal courts around the country, 
and widespread threats of impeachment are all part of a partisan 
ideological effort to intimidate the judiciary. Judges cannot take the 
floor of the U.S. Senate and defend themselves. I will.
  I have felt privileged to serve in the U.S. Senate representing the 
State of Vermont for 23 years. I have served twice in the majority in 
the Senate and twice in the minority in the Senate. I have served with 
Republican and Democratic Presidents, and I have worked alongside great 
majority leaders, like Senator Mansfield, Senator Byrd, Senator Baker, 
Senator Dole and Senator Mitchell. I have never known a time when the 
leadership of the Senate would tolerate partisan and ideological 
politics so diverting this institution from its constitutional 
responsibilities with respect to the third constitutionally coequal 
branch of Government. If Wednesday's reports are accurate, sadly the 
American people must know that not only is the Senate leadership 
allowing these efforts, it is condoning them.
  Mr. President, the United States is a great democracy, I believe the 
greatest democracy history has ever known. Something that sets our 
great country apart from virtually all others in the world is the 
independence of our Federal judiciary and the respect that it commands 
among all of us.
  Every nation in this century that has moved from a dictatorship 
toward democracy has sent observers to the United States. Why? To see 
how they can emulate our judiciary.
  Those working for democracy in countries that are still struggling to 
adopt democratic principles know that one thing that is holding them 
back, one thing that allows crime and corruption and economic 
breakdown, is a lack of a truly independent judiciary. They know that 
unless they can come close to something like our independent judiciary, 
they will never become truly great democracies or truly free.
  We have the greatest judicial system in the world. We are the envy of 
people around the world who are struggling for freedom. Independence of 
our third coequal branch of Government helps allow it to act fairly and 
impartially. It is our judiciary that has for so long protected our 
fundamental rights and freedoms and served as a necessary check on 
overreaching by the other two branches that are so easily susceptible 
to the gusts of the political winds of the moment.

  This is a sad week for America because it is a week in which a 
campaign to intimidate Federal judges was acknowledged and condoned.
  Mr. President, I call upon the U.S. Senate to reject that effort and 
go forward to fulfil our constitutionally mandated duty to advise and 
consent on the nominations of judges that the President has sent to us. 
Vote them up or vote them down, but show that we are united, whatever 
party we belong to, in protecting the integrity and, most importantly, 
the independence of our Federal judiciary.

[[Page S9725]]



                          ____________________