At today’s Judiciary Committee executive business meeting, Durbin urged members of both sides to realize that their obligation is to the Constitution, not a political party
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s executive business meeting. In his remarks, Durbin recalled yesterday’s Judiciary Committee nominations hearing in which Justice Department nominees suggested that elected officials are allowed to defy federal court orders.
Key Quotes:
“During my time on this Committee, my respect has grown for this Committee, the Senate, Congress, and the Constitution, of course. From advice and consent to the power of the purse, the founding fathers granted the legislative branch exclusive powers in the Constitution, exclusive—in part to ensure the executive branch did not become too powerful.”
“For nearly 250 years, this system has held. But let’s be honest—brutally honest. President Trump is testing the limits of our Constitution like they have never been tested in my lifetime.”
“President Trump and Elon Musk are pursuing a power grab that—if left unchecked—will leave the federal courts impotent and Congress a museum piece. That’s a fact.
“The notion that anyone can ignore a court order, particularly an elected official, really calls into question the fundamentals of checks and balances.”
“I want to caution my Republican colleagues that the precedents that the Trump Administration is establishing could be followed by a future Democratic president.”
“We now have a precedent that an incoming president can fire the FBI director and nominate a partisan campaign advisor who pledges to seek retribution against the president’s rivals.”
“We have a precedent that the Deputy FBI Director can now be someone like Dan Bongino, a partisan conspiracy theorist with no previous FBI experience… For more than 100 years, the Deputy FBI Director has been a career FBI agent. Today, we have a Deputy Director in Mr. Bongino who called the FBI ‘an oppo research firm for Democrats with an armed political enforcement branch’ and said the agency should be disbanded. He’s now the Deputy.”
“Thanks to Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, we also now have the precedent that the Justice Department’s senior ethics officials can be partisan political appointees. This is a dramatic departure from longstanding practice under previous administrations—Democratic and Republican—where a senior official had responsibility for ethics.”
“But the list doesn’t end here. President Trump is trying to establish a precedent that he can fire inspectors general and the heads of independent agencies for no reason at all, violating laws duly enacted by this Congress, even by members of this Committee on both sides of the aisle.”
“The Justice Department recently informed this Committee that it plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a 90-year-old precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor, which upheld the constitutionality of laws protecting the heads of independent agencies from being fired.”
“I hope we have a Congress that survives this process. And I hope that members of both sides will realize our obligation is to the Constitution more than any single political party.”
Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.
-30-