Grassley Opens Judiciary Committee Executive Business Meeting

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, April 30, 2026

On today's agenda, we have 14 nominations and six bills.

Today, we'll vote on four judicial nominations: Sheria Clarke for the District of South Carolina, Kathleen Lane for the District of Montana, Evan Rikhye for the District of the Virgin Islands and Kara Westercamp for the Court of International Trade.

We'll also vote on Kenneth Sorenson to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii and Johnson Teehee to serve as U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

After that, we're voting on three bills: S. 1572, the Federal Carjacking Enforcement Act, S. 3062, the GUARD Act and S. 3966, TREY's Law.

The other bills and the remaining nominations will be held over for future consideration.

Before we turn to the votes, I'd like to say a few words about the American Bar Association, or the ABA.

In recent decades, the ABA's inserted itself into divisive political topics.

Since the 1960s, the ABA has taken positions hostile towards the Second Amendment.

It also passed a pro-abortion resolution, which forced thousands of its members to leave in protest.

And it issued rules recommending sanctions for attorneys who publicly state that there are only two genders.

As one former White House Counsel stated, the ABA "takes public positions on divisive political, legal and social issues that come before the courts."

And it's damaged the ABA's credibility in rating judicial nominees.

Its evaluation process lacks transparency, and historically, a poor ABA rating has reflected a bias against conservatism.

In fact, the ABA gave at least a minority "Not Qualified" rating to many great conservative judges, including Frank Easterbrook, William Pryor, Timothy Tymkovich and many others.

Meanwhile, the ABA has heralded liberal judicial nominees.

One Biden nominee, Charnelle Bjelkengren, could only list six cases that she'd litigated in her career.

At her hearing, she couldn't remember what Articles II or V of the Constitution were.

How did the ABA assess her nomination?

Qualified.

Let me say that again, the ABA rated as "Qualified" a Biden nominee who lacked basic knowledge about the same Constitution that she'd swear an oath to uphold.

To the ABA, it's long appeared that political affiliation is more important than legal competency.

So, it's no surprise that the ABA recently rated Ms. Lane, who works for the RNC, managing a docket of more than 100 cases, as "Not Qualified."

However, like other judges who received poor ABA ratings, Ms. Lane is a great nominee.

She spent years working with Montana's Solicitor General.

She's litigated dozens of appeals, including briefs before the Supreme Court.

And she's uniquely qualified to serve in Montana because of her experience in rural cases involving land use, grazing rights and coal mining leases.

Once confirmed, I hope Ms. Lane wears her ABA rating as a badge of honor.

Based on the history of stellar judges who received poor ABA ratings, she's likely to become one of our nation's finest jurists.

On our legislative agenda today, we're considering three bills.

First, we'll vote on Senator Blackburn's bipartisan Federal Carjacking Enforcement Act.

This important bill will give federal prosecutors the tool they need to bring these violent offenders to justice.

We'll also consider two bipartisan civil bills, the GUARD Act and Trey's Law.

These bills advance the important issue of child safety.

These measures, if enacted, would protect kids from being harmed or exploited.

Finally, I'd like to take a minute to recognize some of the families who are here today with us.

Their children were victims of harmful manipulation by Character.AI, one of these chatbots.

Please know your families are in my prayers.

I look forward to these bills being discussed and voted on by our committee.

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