Getty Grassley calls out John Roberts on Senate floor

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized John Roberts on the Senate floor Tuesday, accusing the chief justice of contributing to the growing politicization of the Supreme Court.

In a speech about 10 days before Justice Antonin Scalia died, Roberts warned that the trend of approving qualified Supreme Court nominees along party-line Senate votes undermines the legitimacy of the court. "The process is not functioning very well," Roberts said.


Sen. Chuck Grassley, who as Judiciary chairman is a key figure in the battle over Merrick Garland's nomination, shot back at Roberts, essentially advising the chief justice to look in the mirror.

"In fact, many of my constituents believe, with all due respect, that the chief justice is part of the problem," Grassley said of Roberts, who has at times incensed conservatives with his votes to uphold Obamacare and other rulings. "They believe that [a] number of his votes have reflected political considerations, not legal ones."

"The chief justice has it exactly backwards," Grassley also said. "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."

The Iowa Republican went on to warn Roberts not to inject himself into the Senate showdown over whether Garland should be confirmed this year, which Republicans have vowed will not happen. Grassley said Roberts has been encouraged by some academics to urge the Senate to take up Garland's nomination.

"That's a political temptation that the chief justice should resist," Grassley said. "I can't think of anything any current justice could do to further damage respect for the court at this moment than to interject themselves into what [Vice President Joe] Biden called the political cauldron of an election-year Supreme Court vacancy."

Responding to the speech, a spokesman for Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called Grassley "unglued" and said his remarks represent "an epic display of buck-passing."

