The GOP chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee reportedly scolded Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for criticizing the politicized confirmation process for new justices, accusing the jurist of being "part of the problem."
In a speech 10 days before Justice Antonin Scalia died, Roberts warned of a trend to approve qualified Supreme Court nominees along party-line votes in the Senate, saying it undermines the high court.
"The process is not functioning very well," Roberts said.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley finally answered back on the Senate floor Tuesday,
Politico reports.
"In fact, many of my constituents believe, with all due respect, that the chief justice is part of the problem," Grassley said of Roberts, Politico reports. "They believe that [a] number of his votes have reflected political considerations, not legal ones."
"The chief justice has it exactly backwards," he added. "The confirmation process doesn't make the justices appear political. The confirmation process has gotten political precisely because the court itself has drifted from the constitutional text and rendered decisions based instead on policy preferences."
According to Politico, Grassley also warned Roberts not to get involved in the Senate showdown over whether President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee,
Merrick Garland, should be confirmed this year.
"That's a political temptation that the chief justice should resist," Grassley said.
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