Republican members of the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee pushed back against the majority’s efforts to subpoena private citizens connected to conservative Supreme Court justices.
The committee is conducting an investigation as it promotes Democrat-backed legislation that would impose a code of ethics on the high court. Republicans say the legislation is unconstitutional.
Republicans have suggested that Democrats—many of whom want to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices—only want to move against the court because its six-member conservative-leaning majority has been handing down decisions that they find objectionable.
Three of those six justices were appointed by President Donald Trump, a Republican.
The committee approved the ethics bill on July 20 on a party line 11–10 vote.
The probe comes after the revelation earlier this year of several alleged ethical lapses committed by conservative members of the Supreme Court, particularly Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The clash between Republicans and Democrats took place on Nov. 2 after committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) postponed until next week a scheduled vote to subpoena Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo, and Robin Arkley II in the ethics probe.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said at the hearing that Democrats have their priorities wrong.
“Have you not noticed the world is on fire? You’re spending more time trying to fix the Supreme Court than you are the border,” he said.
“Your policies across the board are not working. I’ve tried to work with you, to the point of probably my own detriment. But the underlying approach you’re taking, all of us believe is unconstitutional.
“You’re trying to manage in court—I wouldn’t let y’all manage anything. You’re trying to create a political issue that I think crosses constitutional boundaries.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the committee isn’t conducting “what you call real oversight.”
“It’s part of this whirlwind of your party’s effort to undermine the Supreme Court. It’s part of a campaign by the Left to harass the Supreme Court because you don’t like some of the recent decisions,” he said.
“This is all part of the Left’s political master plan to delegitimize the Supreme Court.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also weighed in.
“I agree with Sen. Graham. This is partly a pretext to try to conceal the utter failures of [President] Joe Biden and the Democratic Party because all of you voted for $3 trillion of spending that this country didn’t need and our government can’t afford,” he said.
“We have record-high inflation. People can’t afford their groceries. They can’t afford gas. They can’t pay the rent. They can’t make car payments.”
In a Senate floor speech on Oct. 31, Mr. Durbin, the committee chairman, described the three subpoena targets as “two billionaire mega-donors and one of their enablers—who sit at the center of the ethical crisis currently gripping the United States Supreme Court.”
“[The subpoena vote] is the next step in the committee’s ongoing investigation on the ethics of the Supreme Court. It comes only after Mr. Crow refused to comply with committee requests, and Mr. Leo and [Mr.] Arkley outright stonewalled the committee in the exercise of our constitutional authority,” Mr. Durbin said at the time.
Democrats are angry that Mr. Crow, a wealthy GOP donor, gave Justice Thomas luxurious vacations and tuition support for a grandnephew whom he raised, and purchased low-dollar real estate from the justice’s family.
Justice Thomas didn’t disclose the events at the time, saying that he was advised that it wasn’t required, but he has vowed to disclose such events going forward.
No evidence has come forward to suggest that the justice’s vote in specific cases before the court was influenced by the gifts.
The latest wrinkle in Justice Thomas’s story came last week, when The New York Times reported new information on a recreational vehicle that the justice purchased years ago with financial help from an affluent friend.
The lender ultimately forgave much of the loan, raising potential tax and ethical consequences, according to the latest NY Times report.
Mr. Leo is chairman of the Federalist Society, a lawyers’ group that favors adherence to the Constitution and that has pushed conservative, constitutionalist nominees for the bench.
Mr. Arkley is the president and CEO of the Security National Master Holding Co.; the mortgage company owner is a donor to the Republican Party.
At the Nov. 2 hearing, Mr. Durbin said that Democrats are acting because “story after story” has “emerged about lavish gifts and luxury trips that Supreme Court justices have accepted and failed to disclose. For many months, that committee has sought the voluntary cooperation of individuals and organizations who were reportedly involved in these incidents.”
But would-be witnesses “have brazenly claimed this committee doesn’t have the jurisdiction, constitutional jurisdiction, to conduct oversight,” he said.
Democrats want to move forward with the subpoenas because “billionaires who are invested heavily in influencing the Supreme Court have been caught giving enormous secret gifts to individual justices,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the principal sponsor of the ethics bill, said.
Congress, he said, is entitled to investigate despite “all the theatrical wailing and gnashing of teeth from these billionaires and their lawyers.”
