Congress takes action after Supreme Court protests

Sen. Bob Menendez, DN.J., called for a quick floor vote Thursday on his bill to allow judges and other federal judges to demand that their personal information, such as home addresses, be erased from the internet . The bill was approved by the Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support in December.

Argument of Menendez: the urgency expressed Monday for the bill of protection of the Supreme Court. “It was lightning fast, it didn’t even have a hearing, it didn’t go through the Judiciary Committee process like this bill,” Menendez said.

But something more typical of the Senate happened: Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, who wants the bill to give that power to members of Congress as well, blocked the floor action. Paul cited the mass shootings in 2011 that injured the then rep. Gabrielle Giffords during a constituent event and attack in 2017 that seriously injured Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.

During a House Judiciary Committee markup on Wednesday, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., tried twice to get unanimous consent to vote on a House version of the privacy protection bill. Supreme Court. Presidential Representative Jerrold Nadler, DN.Y., opposed it.

Issa, who introduced the bill on Tuesday, called the protests outside the judges’ homes an “imminent threat” to their safety. And Issa said the bill comes “at a time when the threat is real, and it’s current, and it’s clearly bullying.”