WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today stood up for the constitutional system of checks and balances and called out Democrats’ years long crusade against the federal court system.
In response to Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) request for unanimous consent on a resolution affirming the Constitution vests judicial power in the federal courts, Grassley noted, “I’ve made very clear that we have a separation of powers and each branch has to respect the others’ powers.” Grassley then offered an amendment to the Durbin resolution that highlighted Democratic efforts to delegitimize the courts, recognized the lawlessness of the Biden administration and acknowledged jurisdictional and constitutional limits to courts’ authority. Grassley’s amendment affirms that the executive branch must comply with all lawful federal court rulings. Durbin objected to the commonsense amendment.
Grassley pointed out Democrats have spent years degrading the federal court system, yet “now that we have a Republican president, [Democrats] appear to have a newfound respect for the courts.” He concluded by urging the Committee to review the ongoing abuse of nationwide injunctions and temporary restraining orders that Democrats have also questioned in the past.
Video and a transcript of Grassley’s remarks are below.
I’ve always advocated due respect for the federal courts. In particular, over the last few years, I’ve opposed a vicious smear campaign by Democrats designed to undermine faith in our Supreme Court and our judicial system.
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 tune.
In the last few years, Democrats have called the Supreme Court, “controlled by creepy right-wing billionaires, 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 a 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 far-right 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 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.”
In the wake of the 2024 presidential immunity decision, 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.”
I’m 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 lawyers’ advice that he couldn’t do it. He went ahead and extended it anyway, and the Court had to strike it down.
President Biden boasted 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.
You know what? I heard no complaint from my Democratic colleagues.
Although I fully agree that Congress [must] stand for the rule of law, this resolution is a partisan messaging statement.
President Trump has been clear on this. Just a few weeks ago, he said, “I always abide by the courts and then I’ll have to appeal it… 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 the separation of powers.
Some of the recent orders from 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 by both sides of the aisle, across presidential administrations. 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’re totally inconsistent. It unfairly targets President Trump, it ignores the Democratic attacks on the legitimacy of the court and it ignores President Biden’s flagrant violations of law.
So, I’m 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 that the Executive Branch must comply with lawful orders of federal courts.
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