{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/09/30/2026/durbin-delivers-opening-statement-during-senate-judiciary-committee-nominations-hearing", "Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Committee Nominations Hearing", "2026-09-30", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "IL", "Richard J. Durbin", "D000563", "www.durbin.senate.gov", "durbin", "https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "During his opening remarks, Durbin also reflected on yesterday\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring testimony from former Special Counsel Jack Smith\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 During today\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee nominations hearing, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered an opening statement in which he outlined the extreme judicial nominees the Trump Administration has nominated, including the nominees before the Committee today.\n\nToday\u2019s Committee hearing considered the nominations of: Lee Rudofsky, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; Robert Long, to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida; Peter Mansfield, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana; and Jesus Osete, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.\n\nAfter commenting on today\u2019s judicial nominees, Durbin reflected on yesterday\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring testimony from former Special Counsel Jack Smith.\n\nKey Quotes:\n\n\u201cPresident Trump has made it clear he believes judges appointed by him should be reliable votes for the MAGA agenda. He said, \u2018it\u2019s really OK for them to be loyal to the person that appointed them\u2019\u2026 When judges don\u2019t rule his way, President Trump attacks them, calling them \u2018rogue judges that are criminals,\u2019 and demanding that Republicans pass a \u2018tough crime bill that\u2026cracks down on rogue judges.\u2019 He has repeatedly attacked his own Supreme Court appointees, most recently saying, \u2018they are merely a shell of their original selves.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cFor President Trump, it\u2019s not enough that a judicial nominee be a principled conservative. Nominees must now demonstrate fealty to him and his MAGA agenda. So, President Trump has resorted to nominating ideologically extreme nominees in some cases\u2014regardless of whether they have the qualifications to serve as a lifetime appointee.\u201d\n\n\u201cLook no further than today\u2019s panel. One of the nominees has only been out of law school for a decade and has been practicing for a grand total of seven years. Why should litigants have faith in these nominees that they\u2019ll have the knowledge and expertise to adjudicate the cases? That is not a matter of concern to the President. He only cares if they will be loyal.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat loyalty is particularly important to President Trump at a time when jurists nominated during the first Trump Administration have been ruling against this President, including dozens who have ruled against this Administration\u2019s illegal mandatory immigration detention.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd judges across the country, nominated by Presidents of both parties, have found the Trump Administration is repeatedly defying court orders. As Judge Patrick Schiltz\u2014a George W. Bush appointee who clerked for Justice Scalia\u2014found, ICE violated hundreds of court orders in Minnesota alone.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn rare interviews earlier this month, Judge Schiltz and other judges spoke out about the \u2018grave threat to the rule of law\u2019 posed by this Administration\u2019s attacks. Last week, Chairman Grassley chastised Judge Schiltz and others, claiming that they violated the judicial canons by granting these interviews. In fact, the Advisory Opinion that the Chairman cited specifically permits \u2018the measured defense of judicial colleagues from illegitimate forms of criticism and attacks that risk undermining judicial independence or the rule of law.\u2019\u2026 Judges don\u2019t give up their First Amendment rights when they assume the bench, particularly when it comes to preserving the rule of law.\u201d\n\nDurbin then spoke about yesterday\u2019s hearing, in which former Special Counsel Jack Smith testified before the Committee.\n\n\u201cI\u2019d like a minute to reflect on yesterday\u2019s hearing. We have been trying for a year to get Mr. Jack Smith, the Special Counsel, to appear before this Committee under oath\u2026Since October of last year, we have been waiting for the chance. Yesterday was that moment. Mr. Smith came before us, took the oath, and submitted himself to questioning from both sides of the aisle for a lengthy period of time.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat I found curious was the underlying charges which he was investigating\u2014the instigation of the January 6 attack on the Capitol of the United States, as well as questioning the results of the 2020 election, together with the disposition of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in Florida\u2014was never raised on the Republican side of the aisle.\u201d\n\n\u201cThose substantive issues, which led to indictments, were not contested or questioned. Rather, it was Mr. Smith who was on trial for acting as a prosecutor in this case.\u201d\n\nVideo of Durbin\u2019s opening statement is available here.\n\nAudio of Durbin\u2019s opening statement is available here.\n\nFootage of Durbin\u2019s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-10-01T11:23:28Z", "2026-10-01T11:25:15Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/09/30/2026/durbin-delivers-opening-statement-during-senate-judiciary-committee-nominations-hearing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3794318549335003, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}