Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
June 24, 2021
Today we’re reporting out two bills and
voting on three nominees. I support the two bills, S. 807, the Cameras in the
Courtroom Act of 2021, and S. 818, the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2021.
I am a longstanding proponent of Cameras
in the Courtroom. I have been introducing legislation to open up our courtrooms
to the American people for over 25 years now. I think if the American people
can see how justice is done, they’ll have a better appreciation for it. Right
now the working of the courts is a remote process that most people don’t really
know about unless they’re lawyers or criminals. These bills would help change
that.
The Cameras in the Courtroom Act tells the
Supreme Court to televise its hearings absent a vote by a majority of the Court
that doing so would violate due process. The Sunshine in the Courtroom Act
allows presiding judges to televise their proceedings subject to various
protections for security and due process.
There’s a lot of talk these days about
“reforming” the courts in a way that’s just a preemptive threat against the
Justices for ruling in ways people may not like. These bills aren’t that. These
are actual reforms to get actual transparency and improve civic health. I hope
we can report out these bills today and bring greater transparency to the
workings of the third branch.
We also have three nominees. I am opposing
all of them.
Margaret Strickland is a nominee to the
District of New Mexico. She is an accomplished criminal-defense attorney, like
the vast majority of Biden’s nominees. Also like the vast majority of Biden’s
nominees, Ms. Strickland won’t admit to having a judicial philosophy. At the
same time, when Ms. Strickland applied to be a district judge, her reaction was
apparently to call Chris Kang at Demand Justice for advice. To borrow from one
of my Democratic friends, I can’t help but notice coincidences sometimes.
If you reach out to Demand Justice about
getting a judgeship and you then get the judgeship, the burden is on you to
show me that you’re a bill of rights judge and not a criminal defense judge.
Ms. Strickland unfortunately doesn’t satisfy that burden.
I will also be opposing the nomination of
Ms. Jaddou to be Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I’ve
long had concerns about DHS’s unlawful use of parole authority to grant parole
to broad classes of people. In my view, this is a clear violation of the
Immigration and Nationality Act’s requirement that parole be granted “only on a
case-by-case basis.”
In my exchange with Ms. Jaddou during her
confirmation hearing and in her responses to my questions for the record, she
did not appear to share that view. She also refused to rule out the use of
executive authority to bypass Congress and grant parole-in-place to broad
classes of people who meet eligibility criteria in bills Congress has either
rejected or refused to pass.
As an example, in my questions for the
record, I specifically asked Ms. Jaddou if she supported a plan put forward by
then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris to bypass Congress and grant
parole-in-place to potentially millions of Dreamers who have not been granted a
path to legal status by Congress. She refused to answer.
Given ongoing debates in Congress about
offering a path to legal status to various groups of people living in the
United States illegally, her refusal to endorse any real limits on the
executive branch’s use of parole authority greatly concerns me.
Lastly, we have David Chipman to be head
of the ATF. Ever since Mr. Chipman’s nomination was announced I have been
hearing from law-abiding gun owners in Iowa who are concerned about his
nomination. He hasn’t dispelled these concerns during his confirmation process.
Mr. Chipman wants to ban assault weapons
but can’t seem to explain what an assault weapon is. Mr. Chipman has repeatedly
mocked gun owners as rubes and klutzes. Mr. Chipman has been described by CNN
as “a fierce advocate for gun control.”
Indeed there isn’t a prominent gun controller he hasn’t worked for. This
nomination is like a Republican putting the NRA in charge of ATF.
Aside from Mr. Chipman, ATF has also
failed to fully respond to my and Senator Johnson’s oversight requests
regarding the October 2018 Hunter Biden firearm incident. That’s when Hunter
Biden’s gun was discarded near a school. In response, ATF used the Freedom of
Information Act as a shield to not produce records. That position shows an
incompetent agency in need of reform. But instead of getting a reformer, it’s
getting an activist.
I will be opposing his nomination.
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