Streamed Live on April 6, 2016
Washington, DC – Senate Democrats hosted a roundtable discussion with state and local officials about the legal significance of a fully functioning Supreme Court.
The legal practitioners talked about the challenges of having an evenly divided court that is unable to decide issues and provide guidance to state and local governments. Conflicting opinions from different courts, without a final arbiter, leave many state and local government officials unable to act and undermines confidence in the law and its enforcement.
Participants:
- Anthony Johnstone, former Solicitor General, State of Montana
“The rule of law does not wait for the next election….If the Senate does not do its job to act on the President’s nominee, the Supreme Court cannot do its job to resolve some of the most divisive legal issues we face in the states.”
- Bill Marshall, former Solicitor General, State of Ohio
“Not having a ninth justice doesn’t just affect four to four decisions…it creates that kind of confusion…in which there can be divergent opinions on the same issue from state to state, from district to district, from court of appeals to court of appeals.”
- Sally Pederson, former Lieutenant Governor, State of Iowa
“Judicial independence is essential to our democracy. If we undermine the public’s faith in our courts, we undermine democracy.”
- Carolyn Shapiro, Solicitor General, State of Illinois
“It is crucial for law enforcement to know what the rules are, and it is crucial for the citizenry to have confidence that law enforcement is following the rules and is doing so uniformly….It is possible that the same search could be held unconstitutional in a state court, but constitutional in a federal court, or the other way around….State and local government, law enforcement, and the citizenry depend on a functional [Supreme Court] to provide clarity and certainty in areas of law that affect people on an everyday basis.”
- William Smith, Jr., Member, Maryland House of Delegates
“In Maryland…we are completely reworking our criminal justice system…we are dealing with a lot of privacy issues…serious 4th amendment implications, all the way through consumer protection…we look to the court for that type of equal application of the law….If you wait until the next election…you’re looking at 20 months or more before you get that next justice in place to lend some sort of streamlined guidance that you can offer to state and local lawmakers so that we can go about our business in making laws at the local level.”
