John Cornyn: “I yield myself 15 minutes out of the majority time, the manager's time, to address a different subject, but one that is…”

“I yield myself 15 minutes out of the majority time, the manager's time, to address a different subject, but one that is timely given some developments earlier today. On July 3, the Washington Post reported that Democrats signaled that whoever the nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court is, their three likely lines of attack will be to assert that the White House did not consult sufficiently, to paint the nominee as ideologically extreme, and to finally assert that the Senate has not received sufficient documents about the candidate. I will address the second prong of this three-prong attack. That has to do with ideology and the personal views of the nominee, or perhaps asking the nominee to predict how they would likely rule on an issue were it to come before the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the past few days, some Members on the other side of the aisle have stated their intention to ask whomever the President nominates to the Supreme Court a series of questions on where that nominee stands on controversial political issues. For example, yesterday the senior Senator from Massachusetts said he wants to know whether the nominee supports laws related to the environment, civil rights, and abortion. The senior Senator from New York today said he wants to know what the nominee thinks about any one of a number of things, including the appropriate role of religion in government and how to balance environmental interests against energy interests.…”