[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 84 (Wednesday, June 24, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7008-S7009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                JUDICIAL NOMINEES DESERVE FAIR TREATMENT

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we are in the midst of a disturbing 
slowdown in the confirmation of judicial nominations, especially when 
the nominees are women or minorities. A few days ago, on June 22, the 
Senate finally confirmed, by a vote of 56 to 34, Susan Oki Mollway, a 
Japanese-American nominated by President Clinton almost 3 years ago to 
serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
  Ms. Mollway was first nominated in the 104th Congress and was 
renominated again in the 105th Congress. She was favorably reported out 
of the Judiciary Committee, not once but twice. It took 3 years for 
Republicans to bring her nomination to the Senate floor despite the 
fact that a judicial emergency was declared in her district.
  I am particularly concerned about the lack of progress in the 
consideration of Hispanic judicial nominees before the Senate Judiciary 
Committee. Of the 36 judges confirmed in 1997, none were Latino, 
although six Latinos had been nominated. Thus far in 1998, 2 of the 26 
judges confirmed were Latino and five are currently awaiting 
confirmation. It took the Senate 32 months to confirm Ms. Hilda Tagle, 
the only Hispanic woman the Senate confirmed this year. Why are the 
nominations of these qualified individuals taking so long? These 
nominees and the American people deserve an explanation.
  The nominations of Emilio Cividanes, Richard Paez, Jorge Rangel, 
Annabelle Rodriguez, and Sonia Sotomayor have been pending before the 
Senate for months. Two of these 5 nominees had to be renominated this 
Congress because their nominations expired in the 104th Congress 
without Senate action.
  Sonia Sotomayor, a nominee for Second Circuit Court of Appeals, was 
reported out of committee on March 5, 1998. Nominee Richard Paez for 
the Ninth Circuit was reported out of committee on March 19, 1998. No 
Senate action has been taken or scheduled on either nominee, and no 
explanation of the delay has been forthcoming. My colleague, Xavier 
Becerra, Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said it best 
when he stated, ``This is a crisis. . . . Only two Latino judges have 
been confirmed this Congress out of a total of 62 confirmations.''
  The Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, 
has come to the floor 3 times in the past month to demand Senate 
Republican action. He pointed out that ``We are having hearings at the 
rate of one a month, barely keeping up with attrition and hardly making 
a dent in the vacancies crisis . . . confronting the judiciary.''
  The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist, calls that 
``vacancy crisis'' a ``most serious problem.'' He warns that 
``vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without 
eroding the quality of justice that traditionally has been associated 
with the federal judiciary.''
  We cannot wait for the judicial system to collapse before the Senate 
acts. I call upon Senate Republicans to reject partisan politics and 
significantly

[[Page S7009]]

accelerate the pace of scheduled judicial confirmations before the 
Senate adjourns in October.

                          ____________________