[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 117 (Monday, July 10, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           U.S. SUPREME COURT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now on another matter, last month, the Supreme Court 
wrapped up its productive term by deciding some especially 
consequential decisions in favor of equal protection and Executive 
restraint. In response, Washington Democrats offered a fresh example of 
just how profoundly they misunderstand the Court and its role in our 
government.
  The President, who has flirted with calls for Court packing, warned 
ominously that a coequal branch was ``not a normal court.'' The 
Democratic leader who threatened Justices by name from the steps of the 
Court branded it as ``MAGA.'' And this month, the Judiciary Committee 
will attempt to force the Court to restructure itself in the name of 
``ethics.''
  But for all the Democrats' breathless fearmongering, the record of 
the Supreme Court's latest term tells a very different story. By the 
numbers, the Court remains as ideologically diverse and unpredictable 
as even passing students of our Constitution know it was designed to 
be.
  Nearly half the cases the Court heard this term produced a unanimous 
outcome. It ruled overwhelmingly in both directions--striking down 
union thuggery and declining to stop the Biden administration's open 
border policy.
  By contrast, just 9 percent of cases were decided 6 to 3, with each 
of the Republican-appointed Justices in the majority. The exact margin 
liberal commentators use to claim that the Supreme Court is 
irredeemably polarized actually decided fewer than 1 in 10 cases this 
term. This is the institution our colleague from New York likes to call 
a MAGA Court. Really.
  Here is the reality: In case after case, the exceptionally qualified 
Justices Washington Democrats have spent years vilifying continue to 
prove their strength and independent jurisprudence.
  Justice Barrett was just as likely this term to vote with Justice 
Kagan as with Justice Thomas. Let me say that again. Justice Barrett 
was just as likely this term to vote with Justice Kagan as with Justice 
Thomas. Justice Kavanaugh was more likely to vote with Justice Kagan. 
And the Court's two most conservative Justices, Thomas and Alito, voted 
together less frequently than liberal Justices Sotomayor and Jackson.
  The Supreme Court is not in crisis when it refuses to reliably and 
predictably advance Democrats' priorities. The Court is not in crisis 
when it puts the text of our law above politics. The Supreme Court is a 
coequal branch of government, and it should continue to do its job.

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