Topic: Confrontation Between Congress and the Court
Senator: Specter
Date: SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
Contents
SPECTER: I'm going to move now to the confrontation between Congress and the court and what I consider to be denigrating comments about the Congress.
In the Morrison case, in the face of an overwhelming factual record, the court, 5-4 decision, said that parts of the legislation to protect women against violence unconstitutional because of the congressional, quote, "method of reasoning."
And then the dissent picked up the conclusion that the majority's view was, quote, "dependent upon a uniquely judicial competence," close quote, with the other side of the coin being congressional incompetence.
And then in the dissent in Tennessee v. Lane, Justice Scalia says that the court engages in ill-advised proceedings to make itself the, quote, "taskmaster," to see if the Congress has done its homework."
You commented a few minutes ago that you would be respectful of Congress. Do we have your commitment that you won't characterize your method of reasoning as superior to ours?
ROBERTS: I don't think it's appropriate...
SPECTER: In your particular case, maybe yours is, but...
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: No, no...
SPECTER: As a generalization, we've gone around this with other nominees. And after they have gone to the court, they haven't been mindful as to what they have said here. But I take umbrage at what the court has said and so do my colleagues.
SPECTER: There isn't a method of reasoning which changes when you move across the green from the Senate columns to the Supreme Court columns. And we do our homework, evidenced by what has gone on in this hearing. And we don't like being treated as school children, requiring, as Justice Scalia says, a taskmaster.
Will you do better on this subject, Judge Roberts?
ROBERTS: Well, I don't think the court should be taskmaster of Congress. I think the Constitution is the court's taskmaster, and it's Congress's taskmaster as well. And we each have responsibilities under the Constitution.
And I appreciate very much the differences in institutional competence between the judiciary and the Congress when it comes to basic questions of fact-finding, development of a record, and also, the authority to make the policy decisions about how to act on the basis of a particular record. It's not just disagreement over a record. It's a question of whose job it is to make a determination based on the record.
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