Benjamin S. Weiss
Covering Congress for Courthouse News Service in Washington, D.C. | “Mustache” - Sen. Chuck Schumer | Fmr nukes journo & unofficial Cap Hill motorsport correspondent 🏎️
bweiss@courthousenews.com
@benjaminsweiss on the other sites
- House appropriators traded blows Wed over a recent push by some Republicans to impeach federal judges, while top judiciary officials implored them to increase funding for measures to protect jurists & courthouses from rising threats. @courthousenews.bsky.social www.courthousenews.com/house-lawmak...
- Good morning from the House Appropriations Committee, where top judiciary officials from the Administrative Office and US Judicial Conference will testify about the courts’ funding needs.
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View full threadRep. Steny Hoyer pushes back on Cloud's comments: "I've been here a long time, but in the history of this country I do not think we've had in recent times the challenge to the courts' authority as we've seen in this administration."
- Cloud fires back, pointing (as has become a common GOP counterpoint) to Biden admin's intent to ignore SCOTUS ruling on student loan forgiveness. Says Congress should be able to deal w judges who issue injunctions limiting president's exec authority, "including impeachment."
- Rep. Michael Cloud is the first R to take issue with Conrad's testimony criticizing efforts to impeach federal judges, saying it's "dangerous" to equate impeachment to the safety of judges. Says impeachment is Congress' mechanism to "deal with a legal system that's gone wayward."
- Conrad says Cloud's point about impeachments & judicial security is fair, but clarified that from the judiciary's perspective "they represent two harms."
- Rep. Glenn Ivey takes aim at comments from Rs and Pres. Trump targeting federal judges. "I think it's important to not cross that line and say things that we think - or should think - could generate some sort of violent response."
- Ivey adds that lawmakers should be "sensitive" about issuing articles of impeachment against judges, saying that trying to impeach judges without any clear accusation of wrongdoing is "beneath what this institution should be doing." Impeachment largely a nonstarter for GOP leaders.
- Amy St. Eve, chair of the Judicial Conference's budget committee, tells lawmakers that the threat environment facing judges and courthouses is "dynamic and complex." She dials in on efforts to manage proliferation of judges' personal identification information on the internet.
- "The threat environment is real, it's been present for a number of years, and the judiciary and the U.S. Marshals Service takes it seriously, which is why we're asking for this funding," said Robert Conrad, director of the U.S. Courts Administrative Office.
- I previewed earlier this week how the witnesses will warn lawmakers that security funding for protecting courthouses and judges are severely lacking: www.courthousenews.com?post_type=po...
