John Cornyn: “just a couple of days ago, we witnessed an unprecedented attack on the independence and integrity of the U.S. Supreme…”

“just a couple of days ago, we witnessed an unprecedented attack on the independence and integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court, a third coequal branch of government, when some reporters got their hands on a nearly 3-month-old draft of an opinion, setting off a political firestorm, creating a lot of confusion, more than a little hysteria. And all of which is, frankly, beside the point because the Court actually hasn't decided anything. But this was a stunning breach of confidentiality for an institution that relies on a private, confidential deliberative process. The Supreme Court was designed to operate, as is our judiciary, free of political and other outside influence and interference. That is why Justices are not elected; they are nominated and confirmed to serve life terms. That is why they don't have term limits. That is why you can't reduce their salary while they are in office, to make sure that politics and outside opinions have nothing to do with the way they do their job because, of course, their job is a limited but important job of saying what the law is, not making it up, not being a policy maker, but saying what the law is. It is absolutely critical to our form of government and to our separated powers and our three branches of government that the Supreme Court be protected from pressure campaigns from anyone--politicians, political activists. Anyone.…”