MaddowBlog-Why Chuck Grassley's weird answer about ICE and judicial warrants matters

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The chair of the Judiciary Committee should have some interest in the question of whether ICE agents should be able to enter homes without a warrant.

Why Chuck Grassley’s weird answer about ICE and judicial warrants matters: www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
#USNews #NowReading #Politics #ChuckGrassley #DHS #ICEthugs #HomeInvasion #Iowa #ICEagents

— Neptune InIowa (@neptune78.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T21:21:24.496Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-chuck-grassleys-weird-answer-about-ice-and-judicial-warrants-matters

This came to mind nearly a year later, as HuffPost’s Igor Bobic asked Grassley whether it was appropriate for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter homes without judicial warrants.

“Ask a constitutional lawyer,” the GOP senator reportedly replied. “I’m a farmer.”

Whether or not one is inclined to describe the 92-year-old Iowan as “a farmer,” he also has a very different kind of title: Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which should probably take at least some interest in the question of whether ICE agents should be able to enter American homes without a warrant.....

If the Judiciary Committee chairman wanted to defend the president’s agenda, it would at least open the door to a substantive conversation. But to answer key questions with a shrug is to offer a timely reminder about the current Congress’ willingness to embrace its own irrelevance.

[rsdsharp]

1. Ironically, that very argument may be why we have Joni Ernst as a Senator.

In March of 2014, then Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley told a group of trial lawyers at a fundraiser for his Senate campaign that if Republicans controlled the Senate, a farmer (Grassley) would become chair of the judiciary committee. That wasn’t Braley’s only gaffe, but it hurt him badly.