[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 18 (Monday, March 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1198-S1199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

    NOMINATION OF RICHARD L. YOUNG, OF INDIANA, TO BE UNITED STATES 
          DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now 
go into executive session to consider the nomination of Richard L. 
Young, of Indiana, to be United States District Judge for the Southern 
District of Indiana.
  The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Richard L. 
Young, of Indiana, to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District 
of Indiana.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Debate on the nomination is limited to 10 
minutes, equally divided in the usual form.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I know that the Senate will, very soon, go 
to a vote on another judge. It is March. For those who are keeping 
track, that makes the sixth judge confirmed this year in the third 
month. Let me see, three into six, as I recall, goes twice. So that's 
two judges a month. I don't want to strain the capabilities of the U.S. 
Senate, but there are 85 vacancies. There are 85 vacancies and now, in 
March, we will confirm the sixth Federal judge.
  Justice denied is justice lost.
  We are not seeing our responsibility to the Federal judiciary. As 
long as the Senate maintains a stall on the confirmation of Federal 
judges, we are not being responsible, we are not even upholding our 
oath of office. I commend the distinguished chairman of the Senate 
Judiciary Committee for getting another judge here to be confirmed. I 
ask the Senate to remember that we have responsibilities to the 
Constitution, and we have a responsibility to the integrity and 
independence of the third branch of Government. We are not fulfilling 
it.
  Mr. President, I am going to withhold the rest of my time because the 
distinguished chairman is not here.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be allowed to withhold its 
time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, with the 
time not charged against either side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CHAFEE. It is my understanding, Mr. President, that the ranking 
member of the committee would like to make some comments. I suggest he 
proceed.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, how much time is there for the Senator from 
Vermont?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Each side has 5 minutes.
  Mr. LEAHY. I certainly won't take any more than that.
  Mr. CHAFEE. I suggest then that the Senator have 5 minutes, and then, 
if a Member from this side wishes 5 minutes thereafter, we will face 
that problem then. So why don't we have 5 minutes for the Senator from 
Vermont?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is 
so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I understand that I am taking 5 minutes 
that was there for me in any event. Is that correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am delighted that the Senate has decided 
to take up the nomination of Richard L. Young to the U.S. District 
Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
  This is one of seven judicial nominations that is currently pending 
before the Senate. I spoke a little earlier this afternoon about this.
  I want to note that, unfortunately, the Senate continues to pass over 
the

[[Page S1199]]

nominations of G. Patrick Murphy for a vacancy on the Federal bench of 
the Southern District of Illinois and Michael P. McCluskey for a 
judicial emergency vacancy on the Federal bench for the Central 
District of Illinois.
  Nor is the Senate today taking action on the nomination of Edward 
Shea to the Federal bench for the Eastern District of Washington, Judge 
Jeremy Fogel to the judicial emergency vacancy on the Federal bench for 
the Northern District of California or Margaret McKeown to a judicial 
emergency vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
  Judge Young has been with the Vandenburgh Circuit Court of Indiana 
since 1990. After Senator Lugar came to the Judiciary Committee to 
testify in his behalf, Judge Young was reported by the Committee 
without a single dissenting vote. The American Bar Association gave 
Jude Young its highest rating.
  I believe there will be a unanimous vote in support of this 
nomination and want to congratulate him and his family.
  The Senate returns this week facing 85 Federal court vacancies--85. 
Despite the Senate's dismal record for 2 years running in acting on 
judicial nominations, I finally saw reason to hope that the extremism 
that has bedeviled this process might be losing a tiny bit--a tiny 
bit--of its hold on the Senate.
  Few nominees have been targeted as heavily for defeat as was Margaret 
Morrow, a superbly qualified nominee for a district court judgeship in 
Southern California. She endured waves of questions, protracted 
stalling and mysterious holds that prevented an up-or-down vote. 
Finally, 2 years after she was nominated, she got an overwhelming, 
super majority, positive vote here in the Senate. I wanted to take that 
as a signal that public concerns about these logjams were beginning to 
register with the Senate.
  But, unfortunately, that nomination was the last nomination confirmed 
by the Senate in February. We closed out our first 2 months this year 
with only five confirmations for article III judges.
  Chief Justice William Rehnquist spoke forcefully on the judicial 
vacancy crisis that is plaguing the Federal courts. He warned: 
``Vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without 
eroding the quality of justice that traditionally has been associated 
with the Federal judiciary.''
  Justice delayed means justice denied, because without judges courts 
cannot try cases, sentence the guilty or resolve civil disputes. 
Partisan and narrow ideological efforts to impose political litmus 
tests on judicial nominees and to shut down the judiciary must stop.
  We began this year facing vacancies in about one out of every 10 
judgeships, and about one-third were judicial emergency vacancies which 
have been empty for more than a year and a half.
  Mr. President, if all we are going to do so far is two judges a 
month, and we have 85 vacancies, the Senate is not living up to its 
responsibilities. The Senate is not upholding the Constitution of the 
United States and not fulfilling our responsibilities to the judicial 
branch or the American people.
  The first week of this session I challenged the Senate to maintain 
the pace that it reached last fall when we confirmed 27 judges in the 
last nine weeks of the session. In the first four weeks of this new 
session, however, we have acted to confirm only five judges. Judge 
Young will be the sixth judge confirmed in this our fifth week in 
session. We are well short of the mark and not measuring up to the pace 
this very Senate attained last fall. I, therefore, urge the Majority 
Leader to take up the nominations of G. Patrick Murphy, Michael P. 
McCluskey, Edward F. Shea, Jeremy D. Fogel and M. Margaret McKeown 
without further delay.
  Mr. President, I withhold my time remaining, and, if we are ready to 
go for a vote, I will yield it.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, we have time on this side. I am prepared 
to yield all that time and go to a vote.
  Mr. LEAHY. I yield time on this side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded. The question is, Will the 
Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Richard L. Young to be 
United States District Judge for the Southern District of Indiana? On 
this question, the yeas and nays have been ordered, and the clerk will 
call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the 
Senator from New York (Mr. D'Amato), the Senator from North Carolina 
(Mr. Faircloth), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Helms), the 
Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. 
Murkowski), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Nickles), the Senator from 
Alabama (Mr. Shelby), the Senator from Maine (Ms. Snowe), and the 
Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), are necessarily absent.
  Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), the 
Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. 
Cleland), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Dorgan), the Senator from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry), the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Kerrey), the 
Senator from Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu), the Senator from Maryland (Ms. 
Mikulski), and the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Moseley-Braun) are 
necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Grams). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber who desire to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 81, nays 0, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 18 Ex.]

                                YEAS--81

     Abraham
     Akaka
     Allard
     Ashcroft
     Baucus
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coverdell
     Craig
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hollings
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kempthorne
     Kennedy
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Reed
     Reid
     Robb
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Sessions
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Torricelli
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--19

     Bennett
     Biden
     Boxer
     Cleland
     D'Amato
     Dorgan
     Faircloth
     Helms
     Inhofe
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Landrieu
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Warner
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If there is no objection, the motion to 
reconsider is laid on the table, and the President will be immediately 
notified of the Senate's action.

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