Senate Republicans Walkout Before Supreme Court Ethics Subpoenas

Tempers flared at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday before Democrats voted to subpoena a major conservative donor and a prominent conservative activist linked to the Supreme Court’s ethics scandals.

Republican members of the committee stormed out of the hearing room before Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called a vote on authorizing the subpoenas.

Republicans on Senate Judiciary Committee left today's meeting en masse, refusing to vote on subpoena authorizations for the Democratic-led committee's U.S. Supreme Court ethics probe.https://t.co/cqY2ovkWXo

— Ashley Murray | @ashleymurray.bsky.social (@Ashley__Murray) November 30, 2023

From The Hill:

The motion passed with 11 Democratic votes. Not a single Republican was left in the room by the time the roll call ended.

Durbin went ahead with the vote shortly before noon to prevent Republicans from delaying it until next week by invoking a rule to limit committee meetings to two hours.

The Senate Judiciary Committee investigating Supreme Court ethics votes to authorize subpoenas of Clarence Thomas benefactor Harlan Crow and Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo as Republicans walk out in protest. pic.twitter.com/Smix3Rsscs

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 30, 2023

The meeting came after weeks of partisan fighting among members of the Judiciary Committee over plans to subpoena conservative donor Harlan Crow and activist Leonard Leo, the co-chairman of the Federalist Society, in response to reporting by ProPublica that revealed the two men played roles in taking conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on luxury vacations.

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Durbin and federal courts subcommittee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) advanced the subpoenas after Crow and Leo refused to cooperate with their investigation into Supreme Court ethics.

Durbin argued that his committee staff had worked for “months” to try to get information from Crow and Leo about gifts and personal hospitality extended to Thomas and Alito.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) argued after the meeting that the subpoenas are “invalid” because they were issued in violation of Senate and committee rules.

Democrats are breaking the Senate Judiciary Committee rules to issue subpoenas as part of a witch hunt against Supreme Court justices they don’t like. pic.twitter.com/J4xquc8HED

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) November 30, 2023

Cruz pointed out that the vote to authorize the subpoenas didn’t conclude until a few minutes after noon, violating the two-hour rule that requires committees to wrap up all business within two hours unless waived.

“Under the rules, the subpoena is not valid,” Cruz declared. “The two-hour rule says you have to be concluded with your business, that nothing that happens after two hours is valid. And when they actually issued the subpoena, it was 12:02.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) set the tone of the meeting, calling the authorization of subpoenas “garbage” and Democratic efforts to address the court’s ethics a “complete joke” and “crap.”

Lindsey Graham let's Dick Durbin hear it:

"It's always our people who have our lives turned upside down!" pic.twitter.com/w8U0jjbDTx

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 30, 2023

“I don’t know who you’re trying to please. I don’t know what group is going to feel better because we’re doing this on your side but you’re pleasing like none of us,” Graham fumed. “This is about an ongoing effort to destroy this court, to destroy [conservative Justice] Clarence Thomas’s reputation.”