The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have a message for their Republican counterparts, who are leading the blockade on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee: If you care so much about giving America a voice, give us a hearing on voting rights! The nine Democrats on the committee sent a letter Friday to its Republicans leaders — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), chair of its subcommittee on the Constitution — demanding a hearing on voting rights, which the committee has not hosted since the GOP took over the Senate. They pointed to the 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act and the electoral and legal chaos that has ensued since. But they also used the letter to call out the same Republicans for refusing to grant Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland a hearing.
“It is ironic that Senate Republicans would claim to give the American people a voice, but at the same time allow sweeping voting restrictions to be enacted that would silence many of these Americans – a disproportionate number of whom are minorities,” the letter said.
The letter noted that when Democrats controlled the committee, then-Chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) held nine hearings on voting rights, in addition to the three voting rights hearings held by the subcommittee on the Constitution, which was then chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
Full Article: Senate Judiciary Dems Demand Hearing On Voting Rights.