{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=41C9543D-BF0D-44B8-9A30-72EE24682CA6", "Thune: Providing COVID Relief and Confirming Qualified Judges Among Senate Republicans\u2019 Top Priorities", "2020-11-18", "2020", "2020-11", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed the need for Congress to pass additional COVID relief legislation and Senate Republicans\u2019 effort to work with Senate Democrats to find common ground on targeted, fiscally responsible legislation to help the American people. He also expressed his disappointment in Senate Democrats as they continue to insist on including their liberal wish list agenda as part of a COVID relief bill. Thune also discussed judicial nominations and the Senate\u2019s responsibility to confirm qualified judges who interpret the law as written instead of legislating from the bench. Thune noted that over the last four years, the Senate has confirmed nearly 230 judges to federal courts, an accomplishment he attributes to the majority leader\u2019s commitment to leaving no vacancy behind.\n\nExcerpts of Thune\u2019s remarks are below:\n\n\u201cI believe what we should be doing is sitting down and working on a reasonable bill, a targeted bill, a fiscally responsible bill, and Republicans have been more than willing to do that, and more than willing to compromise.\n\n\u201cBut the Democrats, both in the House and the Senate, continue to insist upon a multi-trillion dollar bill, which consists, again, of a bunch of liberal wish list items, taxpayer bailouts for blue states, tax cuts for millionaires across this country, and putting money into diversity studies on cannabis, instead of the targeted things, the things that are really going to be necessary to help [the] American people and our economy recover from the coronavirus.\u201d\n\n****\n\n\u201cMr. President, a couple of weeks ago, we confirmed one of the most qualified Supreme Court judges in living memory to the bench.\n\n\u201cThis week we will confirm five district court judges, bringing the total number of judges we\u2019ve confirmed over the last four years to nearly 230.\n\n\u201cMr. President, confirming good judges is one of our most important responsibilities as senators.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s a responsibility I take very seriously.\n\n\u201cIn fact, one of the main reasons I was first elected to the Senate was to make sure outstanding judicial nominees were confirmed to the federal bench.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine now, but confirming judges used to be a pretty bipartisan affair.\n\n\u201cFor the better part of two centuries, both parties generally got the majority of their judicial nominees confirmed to the bench.\n\n\u201cBut all of that changed back in the early 2000s.\n\n\u201cAfter George W. Bush\u2019s election, Democrats decided that the president\u2019s judicial nominees might not deliver the results Democrats wanted.\n\n\u201cAnd so they decided to adopt a new strategy \u2013 blocking judicial nominees on a regular basis.\n\n\u201cI was one of the many Americans upset by the blockade of talented, well-qualified nominees.\n\n\u201cAnd it was one of the main reasons I ran for the Senate.\n\n\u201cI promised South Dakotans that if they elected me, I would help put outstanding judges on the bench.\n\n\u201cAnd I\u2019m proud to have delivered on that promise.\n\n\u201cThe list of outstanding judicial nominees we\u2019ve confirmed over the past four years is long.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve confirmed brilliant, accomplished men and women with superb qualifications.\n\n\u201cBut most importantly, we\u2019ve confirmed men and women who understand the proper role of a judge.\n\n\u201cWho know that the job of a judge is to interpret the law, not make the law.\n\n\u201cTo call balls and strikes, not rewrite the rules of the game.\n\n\u201cAnd Mr. President, it\u2019s here that Republican judicial philosophy diverges from the judicial philosophy of a lot of Democrats.\n\n\u201cRepublicans believe that the job of a judge is to look at the law and the Constitution, and then rule based on how those things apply to the facts in a particular case.\n\n\u201cJudges, we believe, should leave their politics and their personal opinions at the courtroom door, and base their opinions solely on what the law and the Constitution say.\n\n\u201cDemocrats think differently.\n\n\u201cFor Democrats, what matters is not how judges reach their conclusion \u2013 not whether or not they apply the law \u2013 but what outcomes they deliver.\n\n\u201cIf a judge can deliver the right outcome by following the plain meaning of the law, then great.\n\n\u201cBut if she can\u2019t, then Democrats want a judge to reach beyond the plain meaning of the statute to deliver what Democrats see as an appropriate result.\n\n\u201cThen presidential candidate Barack Obama said in 2007, and I quote, \u201c[W]hat you\u2019ve got to look at is, what is in the justice\u2019s heart? What\u2019s their broader vision of what America should be?\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s a very dangerous standard.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not the job of a judge to impose his or her \u201cbroader vision of what America should be.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s the job of a judge to determine what the law says, and then apply the law to the particular case before him.\n\n\u201cPresident Obama famously said he wanted judges with empathy.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s all very well, until you\u2019re the party in a case and you have the law on your side, but the judge empathizes with the opposing party.\n\n\u201cWhat happens then?\n\n\u201cMr. President, the only way to preserve the rule of law in this country is to confirm judges who understand that their allegiance must be to the law \u2013 not to their personal feelings, their political beliefs, or their \u201cbroader vision of what America should be.\u201d\n\n\u201cOtherwise you\u2019ve replaced the rule of law with the rule of a bunch of individual judges.\n\n\u201cSo I am very thankful that we have confirmed so many judges who understand that the job of a judge is to apply the law, not make it \u2013 and who won\u2019t try to usurp the job of Congress by legislating from the federal bench.\n\n\u201cI want to thank the majority leader for making judicial confirmations such a priority.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-28T00:39:51Z"]], "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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=41C9543D-BF0D-44B8-9A30-72EE24682CA6"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8098040707409382, "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"}