Secret Donors & Secret Ballots

Sheldon Whitehouse sounds off on impeachment, court packing and “getting to 67 votes”

- Roger Parloff

SHORTLY BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT’S NEW term began this month—one that promises to be a blockbuster—Senator Sheldon Whitehouse thrust himself into the spotlight. A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he confronted the High Court with a shockingly blunt friend-ofthe-Court brief. “The Supreme Court is not well,” he wrote. “And the people know it. Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be ‘restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.’”

A chorus of critics denounced his submission as a brazen threat to pack the Court, with the Wall Street Journal editorial board dubbing it “an enemyof-the-Court” brief.

In a candid interview with Newsweek on October 15, Whitehouse defended his filing, expounded further on Supreme Court partisanship, and warned of the “nightmare” influence that secret donors might be having on judicial selections and decision-making.

He also addressed impeachment.

He described Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as a “wily cat” who “treads carefully through uncertainty,” and opined that there might already be “enough horror and resentment in the Republican Senate caucus to get us to 67 for conviction on the impeachment articles, given a secret ballot.”

A Democratic senator since 2007, Whitehouse, 64, is in his third term. Previously, he served as his state’s U.S. attorney and attorney general. He is married to marine biologist and environmental activist Sandra Thornton Whitehouse, and they have two children. Edited excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Let’s start with impeachment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has basically said there won’t be removal on his watch.