Frank Lautenberg: “Yes, I would be pleased to. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Massachusetts, why should we be surprised they ask for…”

“Yes, I would be pleased to. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Massachusetts, why should we be surprised they ask for more protection? We have seen atrocious assaults on members of the bench and their families. What we see is, I think, the beginning of a firestorm, and the problem is that the fuel is being provided by comments made here and in the other body. I start off by reading from article III, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution. It says: The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. It is pretty clear to me. It says judicial power is vested in our courts, not in the Congress. The Constitution gives the Senate a role in the appointment of judges, and we are supposed to provide advice and consent, not direction. But once a judge is seated on the bench, his or her decisions are not subject to our approval. The Founding Fathers, in their brilliance, set it up that way on purpose. They wanted to make sure that court decisions would be based on legal grounds, not political grounds. But today there is an orchestrated effort to smear the reputation of the judiciary, especially Federal judges. And the effort is being waged by Republicans in Congress as a prelude to an attempt to change the rules for confirming judicial nominations.…”