Under fire from her party’s left wing, veteran Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has chosen to give up her position as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee when the new Congress meets in January.
“After serving as the lead Democrat on the Judiciary Committee for four years, I will not seek the chairmanship or ranking member position in the next Congress,” Feinstein said in a statement on Monday.
She did not say why. But it’s clear that her decision was prompted largely by criticism of her longstanding style as a cordial deal-maker with Republicans in a time of intense partisanship in the Senate and the nation.
At 87, Feinstein is the oldest member of the Senate. For the past four years, she has been the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel — widely regarded as the Senate’s most partisan committee.
“Feinstein, first elected in 1992, has been a powerful force in the Democratic Party and is the former chairwoman of the intelligence panel,” says the Associated Press. “She has not shied from bipartisanship even as her state has become increasingly liberal and both parties have become more polarized.”
The situation reached a climax in October during the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, a GOP-backed conservative who is now an associate justice on the high court.
Feinstein hit Barrett with a series of pointed questions, but she also praised Republicans — and Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in particular — for their handling of the hearings.
“A photograph of the California Democrat hugging [Graham] after Barrett’s nomination was approved ricocheted across the internet, drawing condemnation from liberal groups,” reports the New York Times.
The Times quotes Brian Fallon, director of the progressive group Demand Justice, which called for Ms. Feinstein’s removal after the hearings, as pointedly warning that her replacement as top Democrat on the committee “cannot wishfully cling to a bygone era of civility and decorum.”
“It will take someone committed to undoing the damage Trump and [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell have done to our courts, no matter what it takes.” Fallon said. Over the past four years, McConnell led a Trump-supported and largely successful campaign to pack the federal courts with conservatives.
Feinstein will remain a member of Judiciary and three other influential Senate committees (Intelligence, Appropriations and Rules), she said, to “work with the Biden administration on priorities like gun safety, immigration reform and addressing inequities in criminal justice.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) hopes to replace Feinstein as Judiciary’s top Democrat. He’s third in seniority on the panel, after Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who is currently the top Democrat on the Appropriations committee.
