[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Federal Judiciary

  Mr. President, on another but somewhat related matter, over the last 
several years, Washington Democrats have waged war on our independent 
Federal judiciary.
  Three years ago, the majority leader of the Senate, the Senator from 
New York, joined an abortion rally outside the Supreme Court, where he 
made deeply disturbing comments about two sitting Associate Justices on 
the Supreme Court of the United States. He said:
       I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: 
     You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. 
     You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these 
     awful decisions.

  That is a quote.
  Well, the majority leader certainly did not mince words. The top 
Democrat in the U.S. Senate threatened two sitting Supreme Court 
Justices by name based on a case they were considering.
  In the year since, the radical left has picked up the sword and 
carried on the fight. Last summer, as the Supreme Court considered a 
case on abortion rights, a radical organization released the home 
addresses of several Supreme Court Justices, and they encouraged 
protesters to show up at the Justices' private homes to harass and 
intimidate. It was a disgusting invasion of privacy and a massive 
security risk, which sadly was met with nothing more than a shrug by 
many of our Democratic colleagues.
  Attorney General Garland himself had an opportunity to address this 
abhorrent conduct in the Judiciary Committee last week, and he 
confirmed that, to date, no prosecutions have been brought under a 
Federal statute making what these protesters did a crime--seeking to 
intimidate sitting Justices and cause them to change their opinion on 
legal matters that they were charged with. No prosecutions.
  With no real repercussions for such gross behavior, the far left has 
now expanded its attack to include other Federal judges.
  Last month, the liberal news site Vox published a story railing 
against what it described as ``Trump's worst judges,'' all of whom 
serve on the Federal courts in my State of Texas. The author of that 
piece tweeted the article that featured a photo of one of those judges, 
Matthew Kacsmaryk. The author added that Judge Kacsmaryk is ``the 
single worst villain in the United States of America that most people 
have never heard of, and I am determined to make him a household 
name.''
  This blatant attack on this sitting Federal judge and on the 
independent judiciary wasn't just limited to a liberal news site; 
larger mainstream news sources joined in too. The Washington Post 
recently published an opinion piece that argued that the only way to 
``rein in Republican judges'' is to shame them. These are Federal 
judges who were given life tenure following Senate confirmation for the 
very purpose of making them insulated from politics so that they can 
remain laser-focused on judging the law and interpreting the 
Constitution and applying it to the case before them.
  The Washington Post opinion piece I am referring to says:

       Democratic politicians, left-leaning activist groups, 
     newspaper editorial boards, and other influential people and 
     institutions need to start relentlessly blasting Republican-
     appointed judges.

  A former aide to Senator Schumer, majority leader of the U.S. Senate, 
who now serves as the executive director of a dark money group called 
Demand Justice, shared that article on Twitter and endorsed the idea of 
referring to judges by ``their party affiliation.'' Again, these are 
Senate-confirmed judges who serve for life who have basically forsworn 
politics. But this former aide to the Senate majority leader says: No, 
you need to refer to them by their party affiliation--presumably the 
party affiliation of the President who nominated them to the office.
  As our country struggles to deal with hate speak online and threats 
of violence against our leaders and politicians, it is hard to imagine 
anything getting more dangerous than the rhetoric targeting Federal 
judges and the independent Federal judiciary.
  Last summer, U.S. marshals arrested a man outside of Justice 
Kavanaugh's home who had traveled all the way from California with the 
intention of assassinating Justice Kavanaugh. When the man was 
arrested, he had in his possession a Glock 17 pistol, along with 
ammunition, a knife, a hammer, a crowbar, and zip ties. He told 
authorities that it was his plan to break into the house and kill 
Justice Kavanaugh and then take his own life. Thank God he was caught 
before anyone was harmed. But we may not be so lucky next time when 
this reprehensible, irresponsible rhetoric strikes unstable individuals 
and prompts them to do things that none of us, I hope, would want or 
endorse.
  Blatant attacks against judges and our independent judiciary must 
come to an end.
  Sadly, one of our Senate colleagues has joined the ranks of the angry 
mob. Last month, the senior Senator from Oregon delivered an incredibly 
dangerous speech here on the Senate floor advocating for the Biden 
administration to ignore a potential court order from Judge Kacsmaryk's 
court. To be clear, this is a U.S. Senator who said that the executive 
branch should disregard the lawful order of a Federal district judge. 
He wants the Constitution to be effectively ripped into shreds and 
thrown out the window if the judge happens to decide a case in a way 
that he doesn't approve of.
  The left's attack on our independent judiciary keeps getting more and 
more dangerous. It doesn't matter what case is in a Federal court or 
what ruling is ultimately handed down--Senators must respect the 
Constitution itself, and with that comes three coequal branches of 
government.
  Judicial independence is the thing that distinguishes our democracy 
and our Constitution from all other countries on the planet--judicial 
independence: judges who aren't afraid to call balls and strikes and 
interpret the Constitution, hopefully, as written and apply the laws 
that Congress passes. That judicial independence should never be 
threatened. If a U.S. Senator doesn't realize that, then we have some 
really, really big problems.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.
  (The remarks of Mr. Cotton pertaining to the introduction of S. 691 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. COTTON. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.