-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today the Senate will vote to confirm Jennifer Lee Mascott, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Ms. Mascott is a nominee who was selected for her loyalty to President Trump and her extreme view on expansive Presidential power, which she has advocated for many years.
At a Federalist Society event in 2018, she agreed with John Eastman, President Trump's disgraced and disbarred lawyer, in stating that any independence of independent Agencies is ``too much.'' And just days before she joined the White House Counsel's Office, she stated that the Supreme Court should overrule Humphrey's Executor, the landmark 90-year precedent establishing the constitutionality of laws protecting the heads of independent Agencies from being fired. She claimed that ``the President needs to be able to . . . get rid of folks who don't follow his instructions'' at independent Agencies.
If Ms. Mascott's arguments carry the day, President Trump will be free to continue his holy war against bipartisan independent Agencies entrusted with protecting the rights and safety of Americans like the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. If he succeeds, something as important as consumer protection will be based on the whims of the political party in power, not the valued expertise of subject matter experts.
Just last year, Ms. Mascott told this committee that the Supreme Court's outrageous decision granting sweeping immunity to President Trump was ``modest.''
I am also troubled by Ms. Mascott's selection process for this Delaware seat. Nominees are required to provide details about how they were selected, but Ms. Mascott failed to provide the dates when she was interviewed by the White House Counsel's Office. Notably, the Delaware Senators suggested to the White House several well-qualified conservative jurists who had strong ties to the Delaware legal community. Ms. Mascott was selected although she has never lived in Delaware nor any State in the Third Circuit; she is not licensed to practice in Delaware; and she was only admitted to the Third Circuit this May.
For all these reasons, I urge my colleagues to oppose her nomination.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source