On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled, "Protecting a Precious, Almost Sacred Right: The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act" (a.k.a. H.R. 4 / S.4).  Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke testified before the Committee in attempt to defend the proposed partisan power grab and federal takeover of our elections.

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled, "Texas’s Unconstitutional Abortion Ban and the Role of the Shadow Docket." As Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn pointed out during the hearing, the Senate Democrats are more focused on intimidating the federal judiciary than dealing with the myriad of crises the Biden Administration faces.

The September 13th protest by liberals in front of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home was too much even for Senate Democrats. 

Senate Judiciary Committee members from both parties denounced a protest targeting the Maryland home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, saying the families and homes of government officials are not fair game.  . . .

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) similarly criticized protests targeting public figures’ homes.

“We all know that you have to have a tough mental hide to be in this business,” Durbin said. But “it is absolutely unacceptable from my point of view to involve and major public figure’s family or their home, or to involve yourself in criminal trespass in the name of political freedom of speech.”

“There are proper venues to express yourself and I don’t believe a person’s home or their family should be fair game in this business,” he added.

The more that comes to light about Myrna Pérez, the more it is obvious that any fair-minded person would oppose her nomination to the Second Circuit due to how progressive and highly partisan she is as a judicial nominee. Myrna Pérez is an extremist with views on felon re-enfranchisement that even Democrat caucus Senators like Angus King, who widely support felon re-enfranchisement, would never entertain.

On Wednesday, Senator Mike Lee accused liberal law professor Rick Hasen of testifying untruthfully before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on The Constitution and demanded that he apologize. In his testimony, Hasen made personal attacks on the integrity of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, asserting that they intentionally misconstrued the Voting Rights Act in Brnovich for the ulterior objective of making it difficult for citizens to obtain legal protection for their right to vote.

Since Kristen Clarke was nominated to lead the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, RNLA has highlighted concerns with her record including inconsistencies with her testimony given to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon have uncovered another inconsistency in Clarke's testimony:

Clarke told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that she merely provided "logistical support" for a 1999 Columbia University conference, "Black America vs. The Prison Industrial Complex." But an itinerary from the conference shows Clarke moderated a panel on alleged human rights violations in the prison system. . .

Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee hosted its first set of judicial confirmation hearings since Joe Biden took office. The first panel featured the nominations of Ketanji Brown Jackson to be United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi to be United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit.

The most high-profile nomination considered during the first panel was that of Ketanji Brown Jackson. As RNLA previously noted, Judge Jackson has appeared on liberal dark money group Demand Justice's Supreme Court short list. The group is also supporting her nomination to the D.C. Circuit.

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights held a hearing entitled, "Supreme Court Fact-Finding and the Distortion of American Democracy." The two witnesses called by the Republican members of the Committee were Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher and the Cato Institute's Ilya Shapiro. As Shapiro pointed out during the hearing and in his prepared remarks, the title of the hearing itself is overblown:

I actually think that the hearing title is a bit loaded: first, because the Supreme Court doesn’t generally engage in fact-finding in the way trial courts do, but rather applies the law to novel facts, as any appellate court is supposed to; and second, because however much one thinks American democracy is “distorted,” the Supreme Court, a reactive institution, is hardly at fault. Indeed, the court is the most respected government institution other than police and the military, so hand-wringing over its role in governance—or broader questioning of its legitimacy—principally arises when the justices rule in ways that disagree with progressive orthodoxy or, more broadly, when progressives are frustrated that there’s a major institution they don’t control. The chairman himself filed a brief in last year’s Second Amendment case admonishing the Court to “heal itself before the public demands it be restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.”

Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee considered the controversial nomination of Vanita Gupta to be associate attorney general. The vote on Gupta's nomination ended in a tie. As reported by CNN:

The Senate Judiciary Committee was in the spotlight today as Merrick Garland, President Biden's nominee for Attorney General, was advanced out of the committee. The next stop is a confirmation vote by the full Senate. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin opined on his new role. But as the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Ed Whelan points out, Durbin's interview distorts the reality that he inherited.

Dick Durbin’s Distortions https://t.co/H0ShRcpp4K

— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) March 1, 2021