Karoline Leavitt's Response To Fox News Question Inspires Dem Amendment To Protect SCOTUS Justices

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At last Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) promoted an amendment to protect Supreme Court Justices from arrests due to ruling against the Executive Branch.

Transcript

00:00Explain his amendment. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So Fox News asked the White House

00:04Press Secretary, Caroline Levitt, the other day, would the president ever arrest a Supreme Court

00:11justice? Seems a pretty straightforward answer. She could have just said no, but she didn't answer

00:18the question. She left the door open. So I thought that this would be an opportunity for some

00:23bipartisanship to close the door on that possible question. And so I wrote a very simple amendment

00:29Mr. Chairman. It reads no funds made available. And this title may be used for the arrest,

00:35detention or criminal prosecution of any Supreme Court justice on the basis that that justice has

00:40ruled against the executive branch in any case or controversy before the justice. So it doesn't

00:46say if they committed a crime because no one's above the law, of course. It just says they won't be

00:50arrested if they rule against the administration. This should seem to be very simple. It seemed to

00:57be you should want to take it, be clear. Caroline Levitt couldn't be, this is your opportunity to

01:02clear that up, that we're not going to arrest, you know, Justice Thomas, even though he goes on planes

01:08and does stuff with Ginny, right? But we're not going to arrest him, right? We're not going to go

01:12arrest him. You should want to vote for that, right? You know, he goes on yachts and, you know,

01:18does all that. We're not going to arrest him, right? You know, because we want to make sure that

01:23it's clear. So I just figured I'd give you the opportunity, Mr. Chairman. That's the amendment.

01:31I wave back. I yield back. I mean, unless you want to talk about it.

01:35Gentleman yields back.

01:40The question occurs on the amendment of the gentleman from Georgia.

01:44Even though it seems to be nonsensical, it's actually a very sensible amendment, which I support.

01:58Just last week, we had the attorney general and the FBI to go out and arrest a sitting judge,

02:08a state court judge out of Milwaukee. Perp walked her to jail. They could have asked her to turn

02:17herself in, but the charges are dubious. She was just simply administering the affairs of her court,

02:25and they have charged her with preventing the apprehension of a alien that ICE wanted to deport

02:36out of her courtroom and courthouse. And because she took action to continue the operations of her

02:47courtroom and the rendition of justice in a manner that was suitable for the state courts,

02:55she has been charged with crime. And that was meant to send a message, not just to state court judges,

03:09but to federal court judges, and indeed to Supreme Court justices. And so it's not outlandish to think that

03:18a president who is violating all of the norms would go so far as to arrest a justice who spoke out

03:27against him and who ruled against him. And so I think this is a very common sense amendment.

03:36And it is a no-brainer. It's not going to cost anybody anything to support this,

03:42it's to go on record and say that we do not support the arrest of a sitting Supreme Court justice.

03:51There's nothing wrong with this amendment. I would urge my colleagues to support it. I do and

03:59vote yes and I yield back.

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