Jennifer Rubin: Dems picked the wrong senator for Senate Judiciary leadership

They need a fighter like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) on the committee, not a go-alonger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/07/durbin-ranking-member-judiciary/

https://archive.ph/TA5Rw

At a White House ceremony last week, then-Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) couldn’t stop congratulating themselves on the Senate’s confirmation of 235 federal judges during Joe Biden’s presidency. Durbin declared, “We are proud of the fact that these nominees have bipartisan support. More than 80 percent of them received bipartisan support.” (It was not clear why it should matter that Republicans supported some of them.) Schumer praised Durbin for “nudging him” to get judges confirmed. Given their self-regard, it is hardly a surprise that Durbin was selected as the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee now that his party has moved into the minority. This was a mistake, and their celebration was excessive.

Democrats were in the majority (albeit just with Vice President Kamala Harris’s vote for the first two years) throughout Biden’s tenure. Of course they should have confirmed the president’s nominees. They should also have confirmed a batch of others whom they instead abandoned: 3rd Circuit nominee Adeel Mangi, 4th Circuit nominee Ryan Park, 6th Circuit nominee Karla Campbell and 1st Circuit nominee Julia Lipez. Republicans waged a reprehensible Islamophobic smear campaign against Mangi and got away with it. As for Park, a vote was never scheduled, effectively allowing Republicans to prevail. This left some legal experts exasperated:



This was part of a familiar pattern. Durbin time and time again refused to use the full powers of his position to defend the rule of law and rein in the rogue Supreme Court. In 2023, he politely sent a letter asking Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to appear before the committee to answer questions about an ethics mandate. Roberts declined to come; Durbin did not press the issue. The next year Durbin asked Roberts for a meeting regarding Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s egregious ethics missteps (a meeting that Roberts also declined) — and then, again, let it drop. To no avail, Durbin pleaded with Alito to recuse himself from cases concerning the failed Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. As I wrote last May, “The long-term imperative must be to educate the public about the extent to which the court has been compromised. Only then can democracy defenders build consensus for serious reform such as term limits or the appointment of additional judges to rebalance the court and restore its stature.”

Durbin failed in this regard. The notion that Durbin could either get lots of judges confirmed or use the bully pulpit is misguided. A competent and aggressive chairman can do both. After all, the majority gives you the full array of powers to render advice and consent and conduct oversight. “Senator Durbin was a distinct disappointment as Chair of Senate Judiciary when Democrats were in the majority and is a far weaker choice than Senator Whitehouse would have been as ranking member of that key Senate Committee now that the Republicans are in the driver’s seat,” constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe told me in an email. “Damage control will be essential with Trump and Musk driving the agenda on judicial appointments and Justice Department issues. There’s every reason to worry that Durbin will be a lackluster leader of the opposition to the MAGA wrecking ball as it smashes against our fragile system of checks and balances.”

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