Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Denouncing Donald Trump’s Radical And Inexperienced Judicial Nominees

Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Denouncing Donald Trump’s Radical And Inexperienced Judicial Nominees

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to denounce the judicial nominations of Joshua Divine and Cristian Stevens of Missouri, whose qualifications were measured simply through their brazen, unquestioned fealty to Donald Trump. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today, Republicans will spend the day ramming through more of Donald Trump’s extreme judicial nominees.

When choosing his judges, one thing matters to Donald Trump: unquestioned fealty to him.

Brazen, unquestioned fealty.

It doesn't matter what the law is. It doesn't matter about judicial independence, or precedent, or even the Constitution.

The only thing Donald Trump cares about in a judge – we've seen this, we know it, our Republican colleagues who just march in lock step to vote for these awful judges know it – is unyielding fealty to him, and he says it brazenly.

We have never seen such a disturbing litmus test for judges in American history.

The judges before the Senate today are no different than the previous ones: radical, inexperienced, and chosen not for their fairness, but for their ideological fealty to Donald Trump and the hard-right.

The first nominee, Joshua Divine of Missouri, is a political operative – a political operative – with no judicial experience, who made a career attacking everything from voting rights, to commonsense gun safety, to defending government overreach into people’s private lives.

It's said that Donald Trump wants to make sure that no one who gets nominated has ever shown any independence. He looks through their campaign finances, he looks through who they've worked for. No independence.

Mr. Divine hasn’t even been out of law school ten years and spent less than half of that time practicing as an attorney.

The next nominee, Cristian Stevens, also of Missouri, similarly made a name for himself by undermining racial justice efforts in our judicial system and siding almost relentlessly with corporations in cases of worker discrimination.

That's who Donald Trump puts in. If the average American has the ability to go to court and fight their boss or anything else, Donald Trump wants nominees who will always side with the big shots and with the well-connected.

Nominees like Mr. Divine and Mr. Stevens should frighten anyone who cares about a strong, independent judiciary.

They have failed to show the American people that they won’t just be Donald Trump’s foot soldiers in black robes.

The Senate should reject their nominations.

###