Judiciary Committee Advances U.S. Attorney, Bipartisan Competition Legislation

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee today advanced the nomination of S. Lane Tucker, to be United States Attorney for the District of Alaska, by voice vote.

The Committee also advanced S. 977, No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2021, by a vote of 17-4.

Ahead of votes, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke to the recently leaked draft opinion which, if adopted as is by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, would overturn Roe v. Wade.

Key Durbin quotes:

“At least four Republican appointees who currently sit on the Supreme Court appeared as nominees before this Committee and claimed they would respect the Court’s nearly 50-year precedent on a woman’s right to choose, and treat it as settled law.  They assured us they would not be activist judges… This draft opinion tells a much different story.”

“Consider what then-Judge Alito, the draft opinion author, told me when he appeared before his 2006 confirmation hearing under oath.  I asked then-Judge Alito if he viewed Roe as settled law. He responded, and I quote, ‘If settled means that it’s a precedent that is entitled to respect as stare decisis… then it is a precedent that is protected, entitled to respect under the doctrine of stare decisis.’  President Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees paid the same lip service.”

“If this draft opinion becomes the Court’s majority opinion, these nominees will have shown again what we said for years about certain [Republican] appointees to the bench: They are, in fact, judicial activists.  They are driven by desired policy outcomes and beholden to an ideological agenda… These Justices were put on the bench by President Trump and Senator McConnell to deliver this outcome.”

“Confidence [in the Court] has been shaken this week.  I hope it can be restored.”

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.

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