[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 123 (Monday, July 29, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           U.S. Supreme Court

  Madam President, but let me focus primarily on his remarks about the 
Supreme Court.
  It is clear that the majority leader and that our Democratic 
colleagues don't like the Constitution. They don't like the separation 
of powers. They don't like the independence of the judiciary, which is 
really the gold standard for courts worldwide based on the rule of law. 
What they want is a political branch of government--not one that calls 
balls and strikes and one that decides cases based on the law and the 
facts.
  He talks about how the Supreme Court's reputation has been tarnished. 
Well, one reason why the Supreme Court's reputation has, perhaps, been 
tarnished in the media is because the majority leader stood in front of 
the Supreme Court and called out two Justices by name and threatened 
them if they made a decision that he didn't like. He said they won't 
know what hit them.
  Well, that kind of irresponsible rhetoric by the majority leader and 
others is perhaps responsible for people wondering: Is the Court an 
impartial institution?
  I would point out that when the Court was maybe constituted a little 
differently, that our Democratic friends didn't say a peep as long as 
the Court was making decisions that they liked and they agreed with 
from a political perspective. But it is fundamentally irresponsible for 
the majority leader to come here--I guess he is caught up in the fervor 
of the November 5 election. Having established a political coup in 
replacing the sitting President with the Vice President without going 
through the democratic process of actually holding elections, he is 
feeling his oats and perhaps cannot restrain himself.
  But it is clear that our Democratic colleagues don't like the 
Constitution and they want to change it. But they know they can't do 
that because there is not the support across the country or in Congress 
to do that. So he uses this as a political cudgel in the runup to the 
election. It is irresponsible, and, unfortunately, I think it reflects 
the desperation with which the majority leader views this upcoming 
election on November 5.