On the recordJune 23, 2010
There is insufficient time to go over them now, but most of them are 5-4 decisions. The Supreme Court decides everything from life to death, Roe vs. Wade to the death penalty cases and double jeopardy. These cases involve the integration issue, religious freedom, freedom of speech, collective bargaining, the antitrust laws, and all of the cutting-edge questions are decided. It is my hope that we will find time on the Senate's agenda--with as many quorum calls as we have had we ought to find some time--to take up the issue of televising the Supreme Court. And as we approach next Monday's hearings on Solicitor General Kagan, we will be pursuing these very important issues. In the remaining time available, one other matter which I wish to comment about--and I have sent Solicitor General Kagan three letters setting forth the areas of questioning which I intend to make--is a remarkable, perhaps unprecedented, action by the Supreme Court invalidating the Arizona clean elections law. Arizona set up a law to provide matching funds. The District Court in Arizona declared it unconstitutional, but the Ninth Circuit overturned the district court. The district court had issued an injunction--that is, to prevent the law from being carried out--on matching funds. The Ninth Circuit reversed that. The Supreme Court--in an unusual decision, to put it mildly--earlier this month, on June 8, put the injunction back into effect.
