Thus far, the Supreme Court has resisted efforts by the Senate Judiciary Committee to engage on ethics reform beginning with Chief Justice Roberts, who has rebuffed information requests and an invitation to discuss this important oversight matter.
Now, Justice Alito is providing speculative public commentary on a bill that is still going through the legislative process.
Let’s be clear: Justice Alito is not the 101st member of the United States Senate.
His intervention in Article I activity is unwise and unwelcome.
The ethical conduct of Supreme Court Justices is a serious matter within this Committee’s jurisdiction.
Ensuring ethical conduct by the justices is critical to the Court’s legitimacy.
I’m disappointed in the Supreme Court’s ruling effectively barring the use of race as a factor in college admissions.
A thread.
The Court’s conservative majority just upended nearly 50 years of established precedent in a move that undermines the progress our country has made advancing racial justice.
America’s ever-evolving commitment to the fundamental right to live free from discrimination requires us to acknowledge historical wrongs.
Tearing down support for historically marginalized populations makes our country less equal, not more.
What we heard today from Donald Trump’s lawyers is that he can no longer be held accountable for his actions to provoke a terrorist mob to violently overthrow a legitimate government process because he is no longer a sitting President. That’s wrong.
To my colleagues who believe the First Amendment was designed to protect the efforts of a lame duck President to overthrow our government, you might as well create a recipe for a democracy to die of its own accord.
No one, not even the President of the United States, has a First Amendment right to incite an insurrection against our government. That’s not a right—it’s a high crime.
Last night, I had the honor of speaking with 100 Black Men of Chicago, the Chicago chapter of 100 Black Men of America, a 25,000-member volunteer organization that works to enhance quality of life and educational and economic opportunities for African Americans.
I was originally asked to speak about gun violence and its impact on our youth, but the conversation naturally turned to Minneapolis and the death of Mr. George Floyd. His death was a reprehensible, heartbreaking moment.
The images of Mr. Floyd on the ground, with an officer with a knee on his neck, broke my heart and it enraged me at the same time. And we cannot forget that his death followed the recent brutal killings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, & far too many...
Senate Republicans are doing untold damage to our federal judiciary by rubber-stamping so many of President Trump’s radical & unqualified judicial nominees. Today, it was Lawrence VanDyke. Here is some of what we know about Mr. VanDyke:
The American Bar Association’s peer review process found Mr. VanDyke “not qualified” and described him as “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice.” Americans deserve qualified, non-ideological judges with proper temperament.
Emails show that Mr. VanDyke has let the gun lobby shape his litigation decisions. And during his unsuccessful campaign for the Montana Supreme Court, he sought the NRA’s endorsement, saying that gun control laws are “misdirected.” He prejudged the issue.
Today, I am calling for the initiation of a formal impeachment inquiry by the House of Representatives of President Donald Trump.
His admission that he solicited negative info from the Pres. of Ukraine concerning his potential opponent, Joe Biden, while withholding $250M in US security aid for Ukraine is beneath the dignity of any President & by any reasonable legal standard merits an impeachment inquiry.
Because the White House refuses to respond to Congressional subpoenas, I feel a formal impeachment inquiry is the only way to pursue this critical investigation, which I believe will ultimately be tested in the courts.