Senator Responds to Editorial on Judges

Your recent editorial (“The War on Judges,” April 10) misrepresents my recent remarks on the Senate floor. The full transcript of those remarks is available in the Congressional Record and on my official website for anybody who would care to read more than selected excerpts. As a former judge of 13 years, with a number of close friends who still serve on the bench today, I am outraged by recent acts of courthouse violence. So it is all the more disturbing that The Times or anyone else would construe my remarks otherwise.

There is no possible justification for courthouse violence. I personally know judges and their families who have been victims of violence and have grieved with those families. Let me be clear: I am aware of no evidence whatsoever linking recent acts of courthouse violence to the various controversial rulings that have captured the nation’s attention in recent years.

We should all be concerned that the judiciary is losing respect that it needs to serve the interests of the American people well. We should all want judges who interpret the law fairly -- not impose their own personal views on the nation. We should all want to fix our broken judicial confirmation process. And we should all be disturbed by overheated rhetoric about the judiciary from both sides of the aisle.

Sen. John Cornyn

Member, Senate Judiciary Committee

R-Texas