WASHINGTON – On Monday, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) joined Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and 12 of their Republican colleagues in sending a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), expressing concerns over “unprecedented attacks” on the Supreme Court, including Sen. Wyden’s April 24, 2023 letter to Harlan Crow requesting tax return information from a private citizen as an attempt to further smear Justice Clarence Thomas and to bully the Supreme Court into acting as “a super legislature to implement progressive policies.”
The senators stated: “We reject this manufactured ‘ethics crisis’ at the Supreme Court as a ploy to further Democrats’ efforts to undermine public confidence and change the makeup of the court.”
The senators criticized attempts to withhold $10 million in security funding for the Court: “It is shocking that the Democrats would try to leverage the physical security of Supreme Court justices and their families to force the Court to bend to its demands.”
The letter also defended Justice Clarence Thomas: “Justice Thomas is an honorable man, a principled jurist, and one of our nation’s greatest justices…But because he refuses to compromise his principles, the left has increasingly sought to discredit him.”
The senators called for an end to the attacks on the justices and their families: “These attacks on the Supreme Court and the justices must end. They are undermining the rule of law, endangering the security of the justices and their families, and inflicting incalculable damage on our country.”
Senators Johnson and Lee are joined on this letter by U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.).
The full text of the letter can be found here.
