[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 30, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S1842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           U.S. Supreme Court

  Mr. President, now on a related matter, judicial independence is 
essential to our Republic. It is 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. Ah, 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 the liberals wanted.
  In 2021, President Biden assisted the delegitimizing campaign by 
constructing a pseudoacademic 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 No. 2 Senate Democrat, 
our colleague from Illinois, claimed that the primary safeguard against 
partisan Court-packing is the Senate's 60-vote threshold. This 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 of months back.
  And now, in the last few days, the latest chapter, the quest to 
delegitimize the Supreme Court found its latest outlet. This time it is 
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 way back in 1991.
  Washington Democrats are now trying to bully this exemplary judge of 
30-plus years out of an entire legal subject or off the Court 
altogether. Far-left House Members are talking about dusting off their 
party's impeachment addiction for a third consecutive year.
  They are boasting about how they 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 the Democrats' radical 
agenda.
  This isn't new. It is a tired old topic. In recent years, the far 
left has issued near-constant--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 faith, ethical problems, or partiality. This new 
public 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 Court. The Justice and the entire Court should feel free to 
completely ignore all of this. Justice Clarence Thomas is a great 
American, 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 really 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 these Justices give any of the radical left's various 
pressure campaigns a minute's thought.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.