Derek Schmidt Calls On Congress To 'Step In' And 'Restore Balance' To Slow Nationwide Injunctions

2 days ago

At a House Republican press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. Derek Schmidt (R-KS) spoke about the authority of the Judiciary branch.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Chairman McClain, and thank you all for coming out this morning.

00:07My name is Derek Schmidt.

00:08I'm glad to be with you today.

00:09We have a couple of bills on the floor this week that I want to offer some perspective

00:14on.

00:15First, with respect to Representative Issa's bill, the Mill Road Ruins bill, the Nationwide

00:19Injunctions bill, I do think it's important to stay focused on what we are debating.

00:25We are debating the universe of remedies that are available to a single district court

00:31judge when a plaintiff walks into the courtroom and asks them to disable some federal action,

00:37either federal law, a federal regulation, or a federal action by a federally elected

00:43official like the President of the United States.

00:45We are not debating whether people who are aggrieved can walk into court and seek redress

00:49for themselves.

00:51We are not debating whether a district judge has the ability to resolve a case or controversy

00:56properly brought in front of them.

00:58But this notion that a litigant seeking relief for themselves can walk into any district

01:03court in the country where they have standing and ask a judge, and perhaps other litigants

01:08sit similarly coordinated and situated and go into a different district court and ask

01:11a judge, and another in a different district court and ask another judge, and only one

01:16of those district court judges has to find a sufficient basis to enter an injunction

01:21that applies nationwide grants relief to all of those litigants in every court and stops

01:26the actions of the President of the United States over a federal act or a newly enacted

01:30federal law or regulation, that is an extraordinary power.

01:33And that's why it's been used sparingly throughout most of our history.

01:36It's a relatively new concept in the past half century or so.

01:39I think the second Bush administration faced about half a dozen of those.

01:43The numbers vary a little because the definitions vary a little, but Harvard suggests half

01:47a dozen.

01:48There were 12 in the Obama administration.

01:50There were something like 70 in the first Trump administration.

01:52It dropped down to 14 under Biden.

01:54Now we've had at least 15 so far in the first two months of this Trump administration.

01:59It is an extraordinary remedy that is being abused.

02:02And so it's time for Congress to step in if the courts won't do it and restore balance

02:08so that this rare tool is in fact used sparingly.

02:11And that's exactly what this bill does.

02:13With respect to the SAVE Act, which also will be on the floor this week, I have some experience,

02:17perhaps a bit unique.

02:19I was Attorney General of Kansas when we were in a position of our state having enacted

02:23a nearly identical statute.

02:25We were one of the first in the country that adopted a different acronym for it, but it

02:28was the same thing, Documentary Approval of Citizenship, at the time of first registering

02:33the vote.

02:34It was interesting because at the time that was adopted in Kansas, almost 15 years ago

02:38now, it was a broadly bipartisan measure.

02:40It was supported overwhelmingly in our legislature.

02:42It was supported by Democrat leadership in the legislature.

02:45And then, for some reason, folks in the other party had to change their part.

02:50They turned on it.

02:51They became bitter opponents and actually wound up backing the litigants who challenged

02:55it in court.

02:56We defended that all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which denied cert

03:01of the case.

03:02We didn't handle the case all along.

03:03It was handled by others in certain iterations.

03:05We had a computer record we had to deal with, a perfect record that we had to deal with.

03:09But here's the important point for this week.

03:12What the court said is that federal law preempted the state from requiring proof, documentary

03:20proof, more than just somebody's word on an affidavit, that they are a citizen lawfully

03:25qualified to vote just once.

03:27Just once.

03:28Not every time.

03:29Just once at the time you show up to first register.

03:32We have the ability to fix that federal law by withdrawing the preemption.

03:37That is what this bill does.

03:38It actually replaces it with a requirement.

03:40Look, it really is this simple.

03:42This is about enforcing the law that is already on the books that prohibits non-citizens from

03:46voting, particularly in federal elections.

03:49You don't say you've got to be 21 years old to drink, and therefore when you show up and

03:52want to go in the bar, you sign an affidavit saying I'm 21.

03:56You said show us your ID.

03:57Show us documentary proof.

03:59Surely we should have at least that standard in place for protecting the sanctity of our

04:04elections.

Derek Schmidt Calls On Congress To 'Step In' And 'Restore Balance' To Slow Nationwide Injunctions

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