At Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) debated universal injunctions against President Trump.
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00:00I now recognize Ranking Member Welch. Thank you very much. You know, the concrete issues of a
00:07universal injunction or forum shopping are things that we can address, but there is a context that
00:13we're all operating in, and this is where I disagree with my colleagues, particularly
00:18Senator Cruz and his recitation of what he saw as a judicial rampage. This moment we're in,
00:26in our country, is testing whether the separation of powers, three co-equal branches of government,
00:33shall endure. That's really the question. We've seen an abdication of constitutional responsibility
00:41by the Congress. It's appalling. Ceding to a president the ability to impound funds,
00:50something that was declared unconstitutional in the Nixon Doctrine. Ceding to the president,
00:55tariff authority, which in the Constitution belongs to the policymakers in Congress. Just two examples
01:02of Congress ceding its constitutional authority. That's done willingly by my colleagues in the House
01:13and some in the Senate. We should reassert our authority. But the second leg of that,
01:20the transfer of authority to the executive, is the rampant attack on the judiciary. And Senator Cruz
01:27gave some examples of what he thought was judicial overreach. Each one of those examples, as I see it,
01:34was the judges doing their job. They disagreed. And when they disagreed, it was asserted by the
01:40president and by the attorney general that they were monsters, they were renegades, they were out of
01:46control. It was an ad hominem attack because judges were doing their jobs. And I will say we can deal
01:56with the forum shopping, which is something the private bar gets involved in. We can deal with
02:00universal injunctions. But the all-out assault on judges, because they make decisions, which is the job
02:09it is they have to do. And the decision is, has a president exceeded his authority? The decision is,
02:15has the Congress passed a law that deviates from constitutional requirements? Those are so profoundly
02:23important to keep that separation of powers and to keep the competition between the three branches so
02:29that we don't have absolute power vested in a single person, and that's the chief executive.
02:34So when, Senator Cruz, you talk about a judge making this decision about keeping somebody here,
02:42it's called due process. I'm for due process. When we talk about judges striking down under the
02:49international trade agreement, whether the president has authority to set these tariffs,
02:56and it's a three-judge decision, one appointed by Trump, one appointed by Obama, one appointed by Reagan,
03:04and they say the president didn't have authority, I would say that is the judges doing their jobs.
03:10But what is most profoundly important for the well-being of our country is that the Congress reassert
03:17its authority to pass laws to restrict the executive or to empower the executive, but not to cede our
03:24authority to the executive ever. And it's our responsibility to do every single thing we can
03:30to validate the legitimate exercise of the decision-making authority of the judiciary.
03:36I look forward to this hearing and the testimony of the witnesses. Thank you.
03:41Thank you. I would make two brief observations.
03:44Number one, it is interesting as our Democrat colleagues defend these nationwide injunctions
03:53that neither of them made any reference to the fact that the number of nationwide injunctions
04:01issued in the first four months is greater than the entire 20th century and is greater than all of
04:06the nationwide injunctions issued against Bush, Obama, and Biden combined, nor did they address
04:16the disturbing fact that of the 40 universal injunctions that have been issued in the last four months,
04:2235 of them came from the same five judicial districts. There is a reason for this.
04:30Blue state attorneys general and radical leftist groups are seeking out affirmatively radical judges
04:39who they know will impose their own policy preferences. If it were simply, as our Democrat colleagues said,
04:46judges following the law, then you wouldn't have to keep going to the same radical judges over and over
04:52and over again because judges across the board should do that. But the litigants know exactly who the
04:58zealots are that are on the bench and that's who they are seeking out. I will also point out that the
05:04discussion about the urgency of protecting the safety of judges. Listen, I agree. We should protect the safety
05:11of every federal judge, but it is interesting because my Democrat colleagues were utterly silent during
05:18four years of the Biden administration when you had violent mobs outside the homes of Supreme Court justices,
05:24unhappy with the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs and the Biden Justice Department refused to enforce federal law and
05:33protect the justices. And my Democrat colleagues were perfectly happy with Supreme Court justices being threatened
05:39if they disliked the rulings that were coming from the Supreme Court justices. Unlike my colleagues, I believe we should
05:46protect judges regardless of whether I agree with them or not. We should protect their safety. And and every time you hear a
05:53Democrat senator talk about protecting judges from acts of violence, you ought to ask them why did they
05:59not have a word to say about the Biden Justice Department allowing mobs to threaten the families
06:05and children of Supreme Court justices night after night after night while Biden's attorney general refused to
06:12follow the law. And with that, I'll recognize the ranking member of the full committee, Senator Durbin.
06:16Senator Cruz.
06:23Thank you, Senator Cruz.
06:39So