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Floor Speech
Now that we have a Republican President, my Democratic colleagues appear to have a newfound respect for the courts. It wasn't very long ago that they were singing a different time and a different tune.
In the last few years, the Democrats have called the Supreme Court: controlled by a ``creepy right-wing billionaire,'' ``a radical Supreme Court,'' and ``a partisan and reactionary court.''
One of my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee said the idea that you can trust the Supreme Court has been ``blown to smithereens.'' Another committee colleague declared: ``I oppose these Justices.'' And yet another committee colleague questioned: ``How can they call it an honorable court? The Justices are cherry-picking their way through constitutional text and history to impose their own ideological agenda on the American people.''
Over the last few years, Democrats have repeatedly threatened the Court for ruling in ways that they did not like. Famously, in 2020, the Senate Democratic leader threatened the Court to influence its rulings on abortion. 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.
And in the wake of the 2024 Presidential immunity decision, the Democratic House minority leader said:
House Democrats will engage in aggressive oversight and legislative activity with respect to the Supreme Court to ensure that the extreme, far-right Justices in the majority are brought into compliance with the Constitution.
Now, I am happy that Democrats have finally discovered the importance of respecting the judiciary. They certainly didn't hold this view when President Biden was in office. President Biden ignored the Court's position that the CDC's eviction moratorium was unconstitutional and his own lawyer's advice that he couldn't do it. He went ahead and extended the moratorium anyway, and the Court had to strike it down.
President Biden boasted once that the Court's decision on student loan forgiveness ``didn't stop him.''
The Biden administration undermined the Court's 2023 decision that racial discrimination in college admissions is unconstitutional and even issued a ``Dear colleague'' letter on how to circumvent that ruling.
More broadly, President Biden flouted law after law throughout his entire administration. He ignored the plain text of our immigration laws, the parole statute, and our civil rights laws in the name of advancing his agenda.
And you know what? I heard no complaint from my Democratic colleagues.
Although I fully agree that Congress stands for the rule of law, this resolution is nothing but a partisan messaging statement. President Trump has been clear on this. Just a few weeks ago, he said: I will always abide by the courts, and then I will have to appeal.
The answer is I always abide by the courts.
There have been numerous extreme orders from various district courts improperly encroaching on core article II powers. President Trump and his administration have worked diligently to abide by those orders, no matter how outrageous, by appealing them and challenging their scope and reach. He is completely within his right to do so, and his conduct is appropriate and legitimate.
Our constitutional system has a robust system of checks and balances. The executive branch must abide by the courts, and the courts must also ensure that their rulings are respectful of jurisdictional limits and, particularly, our famous separation of powers.
Some of the recent orders of individual district judges issued on an expedited basis with very broad nationwide impact have concerned me. I think Congress needs to examine this issue closely. Concerns about nationwide injunctions and temporary restraining orders have been raised on both sides of the aisle, across Presidential administrations. And if my colleagues want to work with me on it, we will head down that route of addressing those abuses.
For today's purposes, however, this resolution is incomplete. And coming from Democrats, I think it shows that they are totally inconsistent. It unfairly targets President Trump. In turn, then, it ignores the Democratic attacks on the legitimacy of the Court, and it ignores President Biden's flagrant violation of law.
So I am offering Senator Durbin an opportunity that he can't turn down, a resolution to highlight the inappropriate attacks by Democrats against the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and to clarify the executive branch must comply with lawful orders.
So the point is that I ask that the Senator would modify his request; that the Grassley amendment to the resolution at the desk be considered and agreed to, and the Grassley amendment to the preamble at the desk be considered and agreed to.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Yes, it does.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. That is right.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Yes.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I think you need to be--we need to clarify because I think your inference is that Trump has violated some court orders. He has not. In fact, this very day, the Supreme Court ruled against him on a 5-to-4 decision that goes back to the lower court to make a firm decision.
So you can't say that the court system isn't working against President Trump as it worked against President Biden.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I have made very clear that we have a separation of powers, and each branch has to respect the other's powers.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I think what I would like to do is--do you agree with my amendment or you don't so we can move on and get to other important stuff today. I want to help you get your resolution through, and I want to just say what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
I think there are enough abuses of these nationwide orders to stop certain activity that our committee ought to be looking at and reviewing and see if they are being abused.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I would like to speak on Mr. Blanche.
Senator Durbin, I see we have an agreement.
Mr. President, I see we have an agreement that Senator Durbin speaks--that I go again.
Thank you very much, Senator Durbin.
Soon, we will begin voting on the nomination of Todd Blanche.
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