Marsha Blackburn Refuses To Let Up On Law Professor For Calling Supreme Court Justices 'Eveil'

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At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) had a tense exchange with University of Pennsylvania law professor Kate Shaw.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Blackburn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Professor, I do want to come to you

00:05and I want to return to the conversation about calling the Supreme Court justices evil. You

00:14host a podcast, correct? Yes, Senator. And that is called Strict Scrutiny, correct? Yes, Senator.

00:20Okay. You make those comments on your podcast and Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit the

00:28recording of that podcast for the record. Without objection. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In that

00:34podcast, you referenced, as Senator Kennedy said, to Justice Kagan, an opinion and you referred to

00:46the conservative justices as, and I'm quoting you, her evil colleagues. That is something you said

00:54on Strict Scrutiny in your podcast. And you, in that same podcast, you made a reference to Justice

01:05Alito. Do you recall that? I don't recall that. We certainly do reference Justice Alito, so I believe

01:11that, but I don't recall specifically what. Well, your comment there was that he was an

01:14abject misogynist. So, since this is your podcast that you hosted and this was your opinion on that

01:25podcast, would you like to provide explanation about why you think conservative justices are evil

01:34and why you would think Justice Alito was a misogynist? Do you care to explain yourself?

01:40I would have to look at the transcript, Senator. I think that the dismissive approach to sex

01:48equality arguments in the Dobbs case was deeply concerning. One paragraph in the opinion suggests

01:54that there's no sex equality problem with abortion restrictions or prohibitions. I think that's deeply

02:00wrong. And in the more colloquial sort of mode of a podcast conversation, that is probably what I

02:07intended to convey, that he discounted very serious sex equality concerns.

02:12You were angry and you let your emotions get the best of you, is basically what you're saying.

02:17I don't think I'm saying that, Senator. I was having a conversation, and I am sure I was

02:22criticizing Justice Alito. We frequently do on my podcast.

02:25Okay. Would you call that lack of respect?

02:29In the context of a podcast, I will stipulate that we frequently demonstrate a lack of respect for

02:39writings of the Supreme Court justices.

02:41Well, that is good to hear that from you, that you have that admission of guilt. So thank you for

02:47that. I've got a question for the entire panel. There was discussion about Section 1507 and protesting

02:55outside of judges' residences. Pardon me, justices' residences. And I've got a bill, the Protecting

03:05Our Supreme Court Justices Act. And it would deter intimidation of Supreme Court justices. And in the

03:15exchange Senator Cruz had earlier, he referenced that purposeful intimidation. This would change.

03:25It would increase the maximum term of imprisonment for violation of Section 1507 from one year

03:33to five years. And increasing the maximum jail time for a protester under 1507 is, I think,

03:43an effective way to deter this intimidation of our justices. So I'd like to hear from each

03:50of you on this. Professor Blackmon, I'm going to come to you first. And then just a very quick,

03:57short answer from each of you.

03:59Sure. I think it's a good idea. I think it should be enforced vigorously. As well,

04:02we mentioned Judge Kaczmarek before. He's had several death threats against him. They're

04:05real-time plea bargains. So I think there's a serious problem that needs to be addressed

04:08with enforcement.

04:10Okay. Professor Schell.

04:12You know, I think that any law that also touches protected First Amendment conduct would need

04:18to be scrutinized carefully. So I would need to take a look. I'm not prepared to take a position

04:21here.

04:21So you think violence outside of a-

04:22No, no. This is about protest outside of-

04:25Intimidation.

04:25Protests are-

04:25Intimidation.

04:26Okay. So violence, absolutely. I mean, if we're talking about increasing penalties for

04:29violence, I would absolutely support that. Yes.

04:31Okay. Great. Professor?

04:33I certainly think we need to carefully scrutinize the level of violence and the threats against

04:41Supreme Court justices and other judges, as we saw when there was a threat against Justice

04:45Kavanaugh's life, right, an attempted threat against him and his family. So it underscores

04:50the seriousness of the issue, and I think it's important for Congress to take a look at this.

04:53Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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