U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced late Monday that he would seek the minority leader spot on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee after U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) announced she did not plan to retain the position in 2021.

“I intend to seek the top Democratic position on the Judiciary Committee in the 117th Congress. I have served on the Committee for 22 years, and I am its most senior member who does not currently serve atop another Senate Committee. We have to roll up our sleeves and get to work on undoing the damage of the last four years and protecting fundamental civil and human rights,” Durbin said in a statement.

“For the last four years, Republicans leading the Senate Judiciary Committee have turned a blind eye to the worst abuses of the Trump era.  While President Trump assaulted the Constitution, the Judiciary Committee abdicated its oversight responsibilities and became little more than a conveyor belt to rubberstamp ideological and largely underqualified judicial nominees. The to-do list for the Senate Judiciary Committee is long, and of critical importance to the future progress of our country.”

Recently, the committee was the focus of media attention during the nomination hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. In those hearings, both Durbin and Feinstein voted against her nomination, but the latter faced criticism for her appeals to bipartisanship during the hearings.

Allison Richard