Judicial Nominations (Executive Session)
Madam President, on Tuesday evening, I filed cloture on the nomination of Whitney Hermandorfer, of Tennessee, to be U.S. circuit judge for the Sixth Circuit, the first of President Trump's judicial nominees that we will consider this…
Madam President, on Tuesday evening, I filed cloture on the nomination of Whitney Hermandorfer, of Tennessee, to be U.S. circuit judge for the Sixth Circuit, the first of President Trump's judicial nominees that we will consider this month.
I am excited that the White House has started sending over judicial nominations and eager to get to floor confirmation of Trump's nominees.
One of the great achievements of President Trump's first term was the confirmation of some 234 judges to the Federal bench. At the start of the first Trump administration, the President and Congress were faced with well over 100 openings in the judiciary, a daunting number but an incredible opportunity to shape the Federal bench.
The administration got right to work on identifying good judicial candidates, and Leader McConnell determined that we were going to fill those slots and others that would open up--and not just fill them, of course. The President and Leader McConnell and then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley were determined to fill them with the right kind of judges, judges who would faithfully interpret the law, not attempt to legislate from the bench.
Our interest was in putting judges on the bench who would look at the law, the Constitution, and the facts of the case and rule based on those criteria and nothing else. That might seem like an obvious goal for judicial nominations, but, unfortunately, that is not always the case. In fact, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle frequently seem to prefer another kind of judge, the kind of judge who will rule in line with Democrats' policy preferences, even when the law doesn't support them.
You only have to look at Democrats' attempts to politicize and delegitimize the Supreme Court for daring to occasionally rule against Democrats' preferred outcomes to realize that Democrats aren't interested in judges who will rule according to law; they are interested in judges who will rule according to the platform of the Democratic Party. That is a very dangerous thing.
Our system is based on a belief in the rule of law. In the American system, the law is supposed to be the final, impartial arbiter. Cases are to be decided based on what the law says, not on what a particular judge feels. Sure, it might seem nice when an activist judge goes outside the meaning of the law and rules for your preferred outcome. But what happens when that same judge reaches beyond the law to your detriment? What protection do you have if the law is no longer the highest authority?
Equal justice under the law can only be maintained as long as judges actually rule based on the law and not on their personal feelings or political opinions. An activist judiciary is a threat to justice, it is a threat to the separation of powers, and it is a threat to individual liberty.
And one of the things I am proudest of in the first Trump administration is the number of judges we put on the bench who understand this--who understand that our system depends on the rule of law, not the rule of unelected judges; who understand that their job is to interpret the law, not usurp the job of the people's elected representatives by legislating from the bench.
We are not facing the number of judicial vacancies this Congress that we faced during President Trump's first term. There are currently only around 50 vacancies on the Federal bench. So our job now is to continue the good work that we began during the first Trump administration by filling those vacancies with more judges who understand the proper role of a judge, and that starts with confirming Ms. Hermandorfer.
I am grateful to Leader McConnell and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and to Lindsey Graham for their incredible efforts during President Trump's first term, and I am grateful to President Trump for the caliber of judges he has nominated and continues to nominate to the bench. I look forward to working with President Trump and Chairman Grassley to confirm more outstanding judges during this Congress.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.