Politics & Power Quote by John Cornyn

Cornyn’s line is a civics-class ideal weaponized as Senate-floor strategy. By insisting “Justices are not politicians,” he isn’t merely describing the judiciary; he’s trying to reframe a confirmation fight as a matter of etiquette. The sentence works because it pivots from a lofty principle (judicial independence) to a pointed rebuke (“senators should not ask them to do so”), casting the questioners - not the nominees - as the politicizers.

The subtext is defensive and preemptive. Cornyn is signaling to nominees: you’re safe if you keep your answers bloodless. And he’s signaling to the public: if a justice later votes in a way you hate, don’t blame the confirmation process for failing to extract promises; blame the people who asked for them. It’s a neat rhetorical judo move that shifts accountability away from both the nominee and the senators supporting them.

Context matters: modern confirmations are proxy wars over abortion, guns, executive power, and voting rights, with interest groups treating seats like generational legislative wins. Cornyn’s distinction between “politicians” and “Justices” is formally correct but practically selective. Justices don’t “run,” but they are chosen through intensely partisan pipelines and are often celebrated precisely for predictable jurisprudential outcomes.

The intent, then, isn’t to depoliticize the Court; it’s to police the optics. Keep the ritual intact, keep the nominee above the fray, and treat any attempt to map future rulings as improper. It’s an argument for restraint that conveniently preserves maximum ambiguity at the moment when clarity would cost the most.