[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 149 (Tuesday, September 24, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S6341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           U.S. Supreme Court

  Mr. President, now on another matter, about halfway through President 
Biden's term, he leveled some rather weighty accusations at the 
opposition party. He said Republicans ``do not respect the 
Constitution'' and ``do not believe in the rule of law.'' Well, that 
was pretty rich coming from someone who was already exploring the 
possibility of resurrecting one of the most flagrant affronts to the 
Constitution in American history.
  After less than 100 days in office, the President had formed a faux 
academic Commission to revisit a plan to toss out the separation of 
powers and pack the Supreme Court. This idea had been dead and buried 
since the 1930s, when it proved so inconceivable to even the most loyal 
New Deal Democrats that it almost tore President Roosevelt's 
administration apart. And just months after convening, the President's 
own Commission concluded that structural changes would--listen to 
this--risk irreparable damage to an independent judiciary. That was the 
President's Commission.
  The Commissioners warned that ``in recent years, we have seen 
democratic governments `regress' or `backslide' with respect to 
judicial independence. This has come about through electoral majorities 
using their power to restructure previously independent institutions, 
including courts, to favor the political agendas of those 
governments.''
  Now, this didn't entirely chasten Washington Democrats. And even 
though they haven't yet gone forward with a nearly 90-year-old old plan 
to turn the Nation's highest Court into a fief of the Presidency, the 
campaign to undermine judicial independence is alive and well right 
here in the Senate.
  Vice President Harris, for her part, has yet to disavow her own 
openness to taking truly radical steps. In 2019, then-Senator Harris 
said:

       We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the 
     Supreme Court. We have to take this challenge head on, and 
     everything is on the table to do that.

  ``Everything is on the table''--including, as she confirmed just this 
summer, packing the Court. The Vice President endorsed the President's 
call for ``imposing term limits for Justices' active service.'' It 
would be difficult to draw up a more devastating blow to public 
confidence in the independence of a coequal branch of government than 
subordinating it to the election cycles of another.

  On a laundry list of issues, Vice President Harris's flip-flops have 
left voters wondering where she stands. But this particular one is no 
secret. The Democratic nominee for President of the United States wants 
to reanimate a dangerous, long-rejected attack on traditional 
independence, an idea the American people would do well to send back to 
the ash heap where it belongs.
  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. THUNE. 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.