Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, this evening, the President of the United States will perform his duty and nominate a person to serve as the next Supreme Court Justice to fill the vacancy left by Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement at the end of July. I look forward to joining the President this evening, along with a number of my colleagues, for that historic announcement. It is an important day because the person selected will help decide many cases that will have a deep and lasting impact on American history. Certainly, Justice Kennedy played that role many times in many close cases.
There are a great many talented men and women who are qualified for Justice Kennedy's seat, I believe, and that is why the President's choice is so difficult. All of these candidates who have been identified as a potential pool of candidates have the intellectual capacity that has developed over many years, along with a rigorous understanding of the law. They have demonstrated their analytical skills in a variety of ways--by studying at top-tier law schools, clerking for well-respected judges on the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court, in their public speeches, in the courses they have taught, in the articles they have published, working at the highest levels inside government and prominent law firms, and, of course, in the case of the final four, serving on an appellate bench, which is the midlevel, intermediate Federal court which, for all practical purposes in most cases, is the court of last resort since the Supreme Court only hears roughly 80 or so cases a year.
I know the President has considered a handful of these jurists. He revealed a list of potential appointees to the Court when he ran for President, and I think that probably was one reason why he was elected because when people saw the quality, the experience, and the qualifications of the individuals he said he would consider for the Supreme Court, I think it gave them greater confidence he would choose wisely, given the opportunity as President, to appoint somebody to the Court.
These individuals who are in the pool of prospective nominees have come from different academic and professional backgrounds, but I have no doubt the selection will be a good one primarily because of the one appointment the President has already made to the Supreme Court, which is Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Justice Gorsuch did not disappoint those of us who supported his nomination during his first year on the Court. He has demonstrated not only the power of his pen but the clarity of his thought and the force of his legal reasoning. I am sure his predecessor, Justice Scalia, would be proud of the fact Justice Gorsuch succeeded him on the Court and has left a record of accomplishments in such a short time.
President Trump and Justice Gorsuch taught us all a valuable lesson last year. At the end of the day, the decisions of the Supreme Court should not be much affected by the personalities or the life stories of the Justices themselves. That is because the interpretation of the law should always be separate and apart from the people who apply it, and the Justices and their work must be insulated from the day-to-day politics that happen inside this Capitol Building and the statehouses around the country.
The Court is not a partisan or political institution. After all, that is the way our Founders--the people who created this great country--and our Founding documents wanted it to be. Wisely, they figured there needed to be someone who would make a final decision in the event of a controversy or a lawsuit, but the Court itself should not put a finger on the scale or be a player in the partisan battles that occur here in Washington, DC. Indeed, the Court should be and is a separate and equal branch of government and must stand on its own, apart from the political biases and persuasions that pervade the District of Columbia. So I, along with many other people, am excited to hear the President's choice.
Tribute to Justice Anthony Kennedy
Before we begin this confirmation process, let me acknowledge the work and the legacy of departing Justice Kennedy. I thank Justice Kennedy for his 40-plus years serving this country on the Federal bench. He has presided over and authored the majority opinion in many high-stakes cases of national importance. He may be somewhat hard to pigeonhole at times, but I think it is safe to say he has remained committed to upholding the integrity of the judiciary throughout the course of his career. As a former State supreme court justice myself, I can attest that the work of a judge is painstaking, time-consuming, but obviously extraordinarily important. So we are grateful to Justice Kennedy for his willingness, his ability, and his determination to carry out his important work as a Federal judge.
After being appointed by President Reagan and having served on the Supreme Court for the last three decades, he has furthered the pursuit of American justice one case at a time through calm times and turbulent times. He was an important member of the Court who recognized one's individual right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment, and he recently upheld the President's ability to protect national security and limit immigration from countries that have no ability to vet and to identify potential sources of terrorism in their own countries.
As Justice Kennedy concludes his tenure on the Court at the end of the month, we wish him and his wife, Mary, and his children many more happy years together.
Filling the Upcoming Court Vacancy
Mr. President, meanwhile, after the President's announcement this evening, the Senate will fulfill its constitutional role by providing advice and consent on whomever President Trump nominates. We plan to consider the nominee and his or her record thoroughly. That is our responsibility.
As the senior Democratic Senator from Connecticut said recently, ``the Senate should do nothing to artificially delay'' the consideration of the next Justice. I agree. It is also consistent with the standards set by former President Obama and Vice President Biden. In 2010, which was a midterm election, just like this year, Senate Democrats confirmed President Obama's nominee, Elena Kagan, to the Supreme Court.
After President Trump makes his selection, Senators will have the opportunity to meet with the nominee, examine his or her qualifications, debate them, and then vote. We will vote this fall to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor. I know Chairman Grassley will manage a fair confirmation process in the Judiciary Committee. He always has.
It is crucial that as this process begins to unfold, the President's nominee not be subjected to personal attacks from an increasingly agitated and vitriolic Democratic Party. My frustration is that we used to debate an individual nominee's qualifications, but, as with the Gorsuch nomination, we have seen that anybody whom President Trump would nominate would be uniformly opposed by our friends across the aisle.
Based on what we have seen so far, we know that the confirmation process will certainly be contentious. We hope that people will remind themselves of the benefits of civility and decorum. We have seen some of our friends across the aisle talk about the battle lines that are being drawn, and we have heard other hyperbolic language. They have indicated their unwavering opposition to President Trump's nominee no matter who he or she is and before they even know who he or she is. That is extremely disappointing.
Our colleagues' pledge to stop the nominee at all costs is not encouraging, to say the least. Yet I assure you we will not back down from the fight, and we will see President Trump's nominee confirmed on a timely basis, consistent with the confirmations of previous nominees. The stakes are too important, and the character of the eventual nominee, we expect, will be too high to allow these sorts of things to happen without our pushing back. The American people deserve better.
During the first 18 months of this administration, President Trump has nominated and we have confirmed 42 members of the Federal judiciary, including Justice Gorsuch. We look forward to another outstanding selection, and we will move efficiently and thoroughly throughout the confirmation process. Like I said, we will vote to confirm the President's nominee this fall.
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Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Nebraska (Mrs. Fischer), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).
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