{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=38E31512-AF02-42D7-B6CD-3096D4BD8B98", "McConnell On Judges Un-Retiring: \u2018If You Play Political Games, Expect Political Prizes.\u2019", "2024-12-02", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding judicial nominees:\n\n\u201cJust before Thanksgiving, the Senate reached a deal on judicial nominees.\n\n\u201cRepublicans would forego our available procedural roadblocks on the remaining nominations to district courts\u2014which have the votes to be confirmed\u2014and in exchange the Democratic Leader won\u2019t bring any of the remaining nominations to circuit courts to the floor\u2014because they don\u2019t have the votes to be confirmed.\n\n\u201cAs a result, President Biden is getting around a dozen more district judges and the next president will get four more circuits to fill. At least, I expect he will.\n\n\u201cWe have already seen two partisan Democrat district judges \u2018un-retire\u2019 after the American people voted to fire Democrats last month. This is noteworthy. Looking to history, only two judges have ever \u2018un-retired\u2019 after a presidential election\u2014one Democrat in 2004, and one Republican in 2009.\n\n\u201cBut now, in just a matter of weeks, Democrats have already met that all-time record.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to conclude that this is anything other than open partisanship.\n\n\u201cThey rolled the dice that a Democrat could replace them and now that he won\u2019t, they\u2019re changing their plans to keep a Republican from doing it.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a brazen admission. And the incoming administration would be wise to explore all available recusal options with these judges, because it\u2019s clear now that they have a political finger on the scale.\n\n\u201cThis sort of partisan behavior undermines the integrity of the judiciary. It exposes bold Democratic blue where there should only be black robes.\n\n\u201cBut it would be especially alarming if either of the two circuit judges whose announced retirements created the vacancies currently pending before the Senate\u2014in Tennessee and North Carolina\u2014were to follow suit.\n\n\u201cNever before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election. It\u2019s literally unprecedented. And to create such a precedent would fly in the face of a rare bipartisan compromise on the disposition of these vacancies.\n\n\u201cIt was no surprise to hear the New York Times bemoan this deal. But its editorial didn\u2019t doubt that these vacancies now properly belong to the next President.\n\n\u201cTo borrow from President Obama, elections have consequences. But those consequences are for the political branches of government. For sitting judges to change their announced retirement plans because of presidential election results or the Senate Executive Calendar puts them three zip codes away from their proper judicial role.\n\n\u201cIf these circuit judges unretire because they don\u2019t like who won the election, I can only assume they will face significant ethics complaints based on Canons 2 and 5 of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges, followed by serial recusal demands from the Department of Justice. And they\u2019ll have earned it.\n\n\u201cAs I have repeatedly warned the judiciary in other matters, if you play political games, expect political prizes.\n\n\u201cSo let\u2019s hope these judges do the right thing and enjoy their well-earned retirements.\n\n\u201cLeave the politics to the political branches, where we just demonstrated that even on an issue as contentious as judicial nominations, both sides can still come together for a good deal.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "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.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=38E31512-AF02-42D7-B6CD-3096D4BD8B98"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4339080080389977, "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"}