Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley plans to introduce a Senate motion to censure Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for attempting to intimidate Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Schumer told attendees at a Wednesday rally in front of the Supreme Court that the two justices would “pay the price” if they ruled incorrectly in an upcoming abortion-related case.
“I want to tell you Gorsuch and I want to tell you Kavanaugh,” he told the crowd. “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Reacting to the news, Hawley called Schumer’s words “disgusting, shameful, and frankly, WEAK” before promising to “introduce a motion to censure Schumer for his pathetic attempt at intimidation” of the Supreme Court.
Now @chuckschumer is threatening Supreme Court Justices personally, to the point of implying their physical safety is endangered. Disgusting, shameful, and frankly, WEAK https://t.co/4E67VWerVv
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 5, 2020
“I would call on Schumer to apologize, but we all know he has no shame,” Hawley wrote. “So tomorrow I will introduce a motion to censure Schumer for his pathetic attempt at intimidation of #SupremeCourt.”
I would call on Schumer to apologize, but we all know he has no shame. So tomorrow I will introduce a motion to censure Schumer for his pathetic attempt at intimidation of #SupremeCourt
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 5, 2020
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts called Schumer’s remarks “dangerous” and “threatening statements.”
“Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous,” Roberts said in a Wednesday statement.
Responding to Roberts, Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman compared the Senate minority leader’s words to President Donald Trump’s call for Justices Sotomayor and Ginsberg to recuse themselves from cases involving his administration. (RELATED: ‘Schumer Destroyed All Our Leverage’: WaPo Report Reveals Infighting Between House And Senate Democrats On Border Bill)
“Women’s health care rights are at stake and Americans from every corner of the country are in anguish about what the court might do to them,” he told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “For Justice Roberts to follow the right wing’s deliberate misinterpretation of what Sen. Schumer said, while remaining silent when President Trump attacked Justices Sotomayor and Ginsberg last week, shows Justice Roberts does not just call balls and strikes.”