Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer listens during a news conference following the weekly Democratic caucus luncheon, March 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. Image by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

By Aiden Pink March 5, 2020

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was criticized after saying Wednesday that President Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, would “pay the price” for ruling against abortion rights in a high-profile case currently before the justices.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer said. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Many interpreted the comments by Schumer, who is Jewish, as calling for violence should they rule in favor of Louisiana’s anti-abortion law, which was debated before the court Wednesday.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Later that day, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts scolded Schumer, saying in a statement that the senator’s comments were “inappropriate” and “dangerous.” (Roberts made a similar statement in 2018 when he criticized President Trump for describing liberal justices as “Obama judges,” but had stayed silent during other Trump attacks on judicial figures.)

Some liberals criticized him too. “Having watched the Schumer clip a few times, it really was out of line!” tweeted Chris Hayes of MSNBC. “Not just for norms reasons (though I think those matter) but also because idle threats are dumb and expose impotence.”

But Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman denied that this was the senator’s intention, telling The Washington Post that the “price” was actually a political price to be paid by Senate Republicans who had voted to confirm the justices.

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount