Comment Of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,
On Republican Objections To
Committee Hearings
June 11, 2008
This morning an all too familiar
pattern was underscored when a hearing on a topic our Republican
colleagues did not like was cut short, without warning, by an
anonymous Republican objection. Today’s hearing was scheduled
to examine the impact on real people – on all Americans – of
Supreme Court decisions that have stripped protections for
American workers and consumers. The hearing began with the
Ranking Member noting how important it is that we discuss these
issues, and he was right. In recent decisions, the Supreme
Court has misconstrued our laws, ignored the intent of Congress,
and ultimately prevented state court juries from providing
redress for misconduct that has harmed ordinary Americans.
The anonymous Republican objection
prematurely shut the hearing down in the middle of Senator
Whitehouse’s first round of witness questioning. I share the
sentiments Senator Whitehouse expressed before recessing the
hearing – this behavior is a disgrace to the Senate, and it is
especially shameful given that the victims who traveled a long
way to tell their stories to the Committee did not get a full
hearing.
Republicans in the Senate earlier
this year blocked Senate action on a bill to remedy one of these
egregious Supreme Court decisions, and now they will not even
listen to ordinary Americans who have been hurt. This objection
signals that Republicans were perhaps concerned that, through
today’s hearing, Americans will understand that “activist
judges” include those conservative Supreme Court Justices who
are misconstruing laws intended to protect American consumers?
Whose side are our Republican colleagues on when they turn off
the microphones of ordinary Americans trying to tell us what we
need to hear about the injustice they have endured? Whosever
bidding they were doing in shutting this hearing down, it was
not done on behalf of the American people.
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