FOX "Interview With Senator Richard Durbin" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. GALLAGHER: Let's bring in the senior senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin. He is also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, thank you for joining us, first of all.

You know, you go back in history and you look at Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito -- and the people in your party pilloried those nominees. Is there any doubt in your mind that there's about to be a little payback come August or -- or come July or September, whenever this nomination process gets under way?

SEN. DURBIN: Well, I hope that it'll be a fair process.

And you talked about the timing of it; one of the quickest nominations -- and Senator Hatch was chairman at the time -- was Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was approved -- 50 days from nomination to approval.

Some of the more controversial ones you mentioned -- Judge Bork, I think, took a little over 90 days. But the average is about 70 or 72 days. So for the president to ask for us to return this nomination before we leave for the August recess, that's not an unreasonable time frame.

MR. GALLAGHER: I want to ask you your opinion. You said -- and I'm quoting here, Senator -- that you believe the president wants a justice who applies the law in a sensible fashion. What do you mean by that?

SEN. DURBIN: Well, what I'm saying is this. There isn't a single person who comes to the Supreme Court that doesn't bring their life experience with them. Sandra Day O'Connor grew up on a ranch in Arizona, a westerner who, you know, could ride horses and could do the things that they do on ranches. Thurgood Marshall, a person who had lived through the civil-rights debate; Clarence Thomas, his own experience in that area.

There's hardly a Supreme Court justice that doesn't bring a life experience to them. For 95 percent of the Supreme Court --

MR. GALLAGHER: But isn't there a vast difference, Senator, in bringing your life experience to you -- to the Supreme Court and actually using that life experience to tilt the law, using your biases?

I mean, I guess Justice Roberts said it best when he, in his confirmation hearing, said, look, I'm the umpire. I just -- I just call the balls and strikes here. I don't look at whether the pitcher happens to be Hispanic or what his background is; I simply watch the ball go over the plate.

Whatever happened to just applying the law?

SEN. DURBIN: Well, let me just tell you something. Over the last four years, there have been a lot of questions raised about Judge Roberts' strike zone. So I'm not going to get into him particularly.

But here's the bottom line. It is just naive as can be to believe that all a Supreme Court justice does is sit up there and say, here are the facts, here are the law, that's obvious. It isn't always obvious. Many times there are cases where they have to use their own personal judgment and make a call.

The Lilly Ledbetter case was a good example. Here's a law which for years had said that a person discriminated against in the workplace could actually have a day in court and could recover for lost wages. The new court, under Roberts, Alito and some conservatives, said no: If this lady didn't discover the discrimination within six months of it happening, then she can't recover.

Well, that was a change in the law. They saw it differently. Ninety-five percent of the cases, pretty routine. But for five percent, there's going to have to be some element of common sense and life experience.

MR. GALLAGHER: You know, the president, when he was in the Senate, voted against Sam Alito, voted against John Roberts. In the time, he said, you know, there are no rules. And now the president wants this thing -- bipartisan cooperation. How do you see this going down, Senator?

SEN. DURBIN: Both of those justices -- and I opposed them as well -- were voted out of the Senate -- with bipartisan roll calls, I might add. And I would say that President Obama would like the same for Sonia Sotomayor.

I think that Jeff Sessions, as the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, will have a lot to say about the tone and the pace of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But I think she's got a great record. Look at this. This is a woman who came to the federal judiciary by appointment of President George Bush the first; this was a woman who was promoted to the federal judiciary by President Bill Clinton. Both a Republican and a Democrat. It's a pretty good start to indicate that she's a person of value.

MR. GALLAGHER: All right. Senator Dick Durbin.

Senator, thank you very much.

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