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Several high-profile Senate Democrats warned the Supreme Court in pointed terms this week that it could face a fundamental restructuring if justices do not take steps to "heal" the court in the near future. The ominous and unusual warning was delivered as part of a brief filed Monday in a case related to a New York City gun law. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., referenced rulings by the court's conservative majority in claiming it is suffering from some sort of affliction which must be remedied. "The Supreme Court...

When female senators met for dinner on Tuesday night, they hatched a plan borne out of a similar frustration: It was taking the Senate too long to vote. "This is one of the things that happen when the women get together for dinner. …There was discussion about 'why the heck is this taking so long.' So Lisa said we should all be on the floor, sit on the floor and basically shame the guys to, you know, hurry up and vote," said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). The group, which has nicknamed itself the "efficiency caucus," put the senators' strategy into...

For some reason, Democrats love to ask President Trump's judicial nominees about their religious backgrounds. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) was worried that U.S. district judge Peter Phipps, nominated to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, would be no exception. So, he launched a preemptive strike at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and asked Phipps about his membership in the Knights of Columbus (KoC), a Catholic fraternal organization, and whether it has anything to do with his nomination. After all, Democrats have obsessed over the group in recent years. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) admitted to being puzzled such line...

Democratic senators on Wednesday defended their decision to ask President Trump’s Catholic judicial nominees about their beliefs, saying it’s fair to ask whether they can separate their religious faiths from their jobs as judges. “It is never inappropriate for a member of this committee to ask whether a nominee for a lifetime position for the federal judiciary can rule fairly whatever their personal affiliations might be,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who’s frequently questioned nominees’ religious backgrounds. The issue came to the fore Wednesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on Peter Joseph Phipps, a...

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) on Friday said that the White House is a "moral dead zone" just days after her rebuke of Attorney General William Barr in a Senate hearing. “I’ve characterized what goes on at the White House as a moral dead zone," she said in an interview with MSNBC. "You enter that dead zone and you end up with an attorney general who can’t even tell me that telling the White House counsel to lie is not OK," she added. "He can’t answer that." She also reiterated Friday her belief that Barr “lied to Congress.” Barr testified before...

A miasma of defeat, desperation, and fear wafts over Washington officialdom in the aftermath of the Senate and House Judiciary hearings this week, with an undercurrent of leaked revelations of 2016 FBI spy operations abroad. Attorney General William Barr’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Department of Justice’s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election, and his refusal to testify before House Judiciary Thursday, both revealed much about the new attorney general and the Democrats who sought to question him. At their heart, clownish performances aside, the hearings confirmed what we already knew: President Trump was legitimately...

This moment in Senate history (The McCarthy Hearings) came to mind when listening to Hawaii’s Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono say the following to the Attorney General of the United States — Bill Barr — at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Said Hirono: “Mr. Barr, now the American people know that you’re no different than Rudy Giuliani or Kellyanne Conway or any of the other people who sacrificed their once-decent reputation for the grifter and liar who sits in the Oval Office. Being attorney general of the United States is a sacred trust. You have betrayed that trust. America...

Radio host Rush Limbaugh ripped Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii Wednesday over her treatment of Attorney General William Barr during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Mueller report, calling her “ignorant” and “a liar.”' Limbaugh said Hirono mischaracterized Barr's work and -- like Sen. Lindsey Graham-- accused the senator of "slandering" his integrity. "He didn’t change anything in the Mueller report,” Limbaugh said on his radio show. Barr's testimony Wednesday was wide-ranging. It covered his decision not to pursue an obstruction case against President Trump and the delay in the release of the redacted version of the report.

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono accused Attorney General William Barr of lying to Congress and called on him to resign today in a contentious exchange at a Senate hearing to review special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s interference into the 2016 presidential election. “Being the attorney general of the United States is a sacred trust. You have betrayed that trust. America deserves better. You should resign,” the Hawaii Democrat said at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

In the most fiery exchange so far during Attorney General William P. Barr’s Senate Judiciary testimony, Sen. Lindsey Graham interrupted questioning to accuse Sen. Mazie Hirono of “slandering” the Justice Department’s top official. “You have slandered this man from top to to bottom,” Mr. Graham said. “You want more of this line of questioning, you are not going to get it. The moment came while Ms. Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, was grilling Mr. Barr with questions about allegations that President Trump sought to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. But she also called Mr. Barr a liar and accused him...

After Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii (with an assist from her California colleague Kamala Harris and John Kennedy) decided to declare the Knights of Columbus a terrorist group or something, there was some significant pushback from the rest of the upper chamber. They went so far as to pass a unanimous consent decree (introduced by Ben Sasse) reaffirming the unconstitutionality of religious tests for office and rebuking the Senators raising these issues. So that probably showed Hirono the error of her ways and convinced her to slow her roll, right?Don’t be silly. She went after Sasse as some...

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono on Friday doubled down on her criticisms of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization and one of the world’s most charitable entities. Hirono and fellow Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris in December harangued a Catholic judge for his membership in the organization. Both Hirono and Harris accused the Knights of sexism and trashed the organization for adhering to Catholic doctrine on the issues of gay marriage and abortion. (RELATED: Democrats Press Judicial Nominee About Knights Of Columbus Membership) After Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse introduced a resolution reaffirming the unconstitutionality of religious tests for public...

Democratic senators quiz judicial nominee over membership in men's Catholic charitable groupSenate Democrats are facing renewed charges of anti-Catholic discrimination after quizzing a federal judicial nominee about his membership in the Knights of Columbus. Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono were accused of “religious profiling” after they zeroed in on judicial nominee Brian Buescher’s membership in the 137-year-old fraternal Catholic charitable organization earlier this month in written questions. “The Knights of Columbus has taken a number of extreme positions,” said Ms. Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, citing the group’s opposition to same-sex marriage. “If confirmed, do you intend to end your...

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have questioned a candidate for the federal bench over his membership of the Knights of Columbus, with some calling the group’s Catholic views on abortion and same-sex marriage “extreme.” Senators also questioned if belonging to the Catholic charitable organization could prevent judges from hearing cases “fairly and impartially.” Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) raised membership of the Knights as a point of concern during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of Brian C. Buescher, an Omaha-based lawyer nominated by President Trump to sit on the United States District Court for the District...

Being a Democrat must be a real burden. After all, hanging out with a bunch of ignorant rubes who don't understand the basic concepts of collectivism has to be tedious. And providing those ignorant rubes with some ejucatin is obviously more than a full-time job. And there are just so many ignorant rubes out there to be ejucatin. Look how many voted for President Trump! For some reason, us ignorant rubes just don't get it, despite the glorious public education we received. Twelve years of public education, plus four — or more — additional years in institutes of higher learning...

Three Democratic senators on Monday filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. Whitaker was appointed by Trump to lead the Justice Department after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced out of the role earlier this month. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono filed the complaint against Whitaker in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday. All three issues fiery statements. “Installing Matthew Whitaker so flagrantly defies constitutional law that any viewer of School House Rock...

Senators returned to Washington Tuesday and immediately picked up where they left off — processing President Trump’s judicial nominees, over the objections of Democrats. The Judiciary Committee held a hearing for Paul B. Matey, nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and for four district court picks. Mr. Matey’s nomination is particularly controversial because it marks another round in the fight over Senate traditions and courtesies and their abuse in the era of Mr. Trump. Mr. Matey is slated to fill a seat on the appeals court that’s traditionally ascribed to New Jersey. But that state’s senators, both...

The truth is, team — these guys: (Lindsay Graham and Donald Trump) Would love nothing more than to prevent this progressive leader from being re-elected next month in the midterm election: The only thing standing in their way is YOU. Rush a donation of $3 to Senator Mazie Hirono’s re-election campaign and help her fight back against false and nasty attacks from Donald Trump allies like Lindsey Graham. Contribute The right-wing is throwing the kitchen sink at Mazie since the Kavanaugh hearings, but nothing is going to stop her from doing her job fighting on behalf of all those who...

Full title: Sen. Hirono Condemns McConnell Calling Leftist Protestors a 'Mob', Says It 'Dangerously Underestimates' Them Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Thursday for using the word “mob” in reference to left-wing protestors that have been targeting GOP lawmakers over the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “It is the richest of ironies that the majority leader has taken to calling those opposed to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh a mob when several nights a month the president whips his supporters into a frenzy to attack his target of choice,” she said in a...

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono says she was disappointed by recent comments Sen. Lindsey Graham made on Fox News, in which he sharply criticized her role in the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Hirono said that she had been able to work with Graham on bipartisan issues in the past. “I do think Lindsey is channeling Trump to a great extent,” Hirono told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday. “I’m very disappointed because I worked with Lindsey on immigration issues and other issues … Frankly, it is so outrageous; it just shows that they will say anything to...