On Friday, Republican Representative Jim Jordan (OH-04), along with Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC), called for President Biden’s Supreme Court committee to turn over all documents from their time in office.

The 34-person bipartisan committee was formed by Biden after former president Trump’s controversial decision to appoint Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg so close to the 2020 presidential election.

Some Democrats viewed this as a revenge attack, considering that Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland was refused by then Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell back in 2016, also an election year.

The left has long been seeking to make amends to the judicial branch, more so once they became concerned about the growing conservative majority in the Supreme Court since Trump took office. The increased pressure from the party forced Biden to form the committee even before he took over the White House.

Of the total of nine members, conservatives currently stand six to three, worrying both sides of the political spectrum on how fair current Supreme Court decisions are.

Supporters of the committee sought to figure out how to even out the conservative-liberal divide in the Court.

Biden’s committee was disbanded in late 2021 after failing to find a solution. Some of the suggestions proposed by progressives include adding more federal judges, known as court packing, or imposing term limits. However, their final more moderate suggestion was to establish a “new code of ethics and increased court transparency.”

There was bipartisan opposition to the expansion of the Supreme Court, saying that “it gained little meaningful traction.”

A Formal Request

Jordan, Grassley, and Graham sent a formal letter to former co-chairs of the committee, Robert Bauer and Cristina Rodriguez, requesting copies of a number of documents including emails, letters, and text messages, between any member of the committee and Rodriguez or any representative acting on her behalf. 

“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of radical efforts to pack the Supreme Court and undermine judicial independence,” the letter reads, continuing that “To date, we have not received acknowledgment that you have taken any steps in response to our letter. Accordingly, as we begin the 118th Congress, we write to you again to ask that you produce material related to the Commission’s work.”

All records and documents related to any discussions or meetings involving Rodriguez and the committee or its members are also enquired about.

The letter further requests that the committee provides information on its process for selecting potential nominees and any criteria or factors that it considers in making its recommendations to the president.

Jordan, Grassley, and Graham have given Rodriguez until March 10th to comply with the request. 

No comment from Bauer or Rodriguez have been issued in response.

Is Biden Being Fair?

Republicans have criticized Biden for launching the commission in the first place, more-so now considering that he has now appointed 105 federal judges, more than Trump, Bush, and even Obama.

Many conservatives are claiming that Democrats are seeking to change the judicial branch makeup and voicing support for the turnover of the committee’s documents.

However, as The Hill notes, others are arguing that there is an attempt from both political parties to overturn the system. Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of the Take Back the Court Action Fund claims, “Jordan’s right about one thing: there’s an effort afoot to undermine the Court’s independence, but that call is coming from inside the house, with the justices blatantly colluding with Republican special interests and violating ethics norms.”

It is this view that prompted Biden and the Democratic supporters to form the committee in the first place.