[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 95 (Monday, July 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6796-S6797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will return to legislative session.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Lavenski R. Smith, of Arkansas, to be United States Circuit Judge 
for the Eighth Circuit?
  The nomination was confirmed.
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, I rise to speak about Judge Lavenski 
Smith who has been confirmed this evening for the eighth circuit court 
of appeals. This is a great evening for him and his family. He is going 
to be a great jurist. I congratulate Judge Smith tonight.
  I thank President Bush for making an excellent choice, a choice that 
I think Arkansas can feel good about, the Eighth Circuit can feel good 
about, and, indeed, the country can feel good about. Judge Smith is an 
excellent choice. He is the first African American to represent the 
State of Arkansas in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. He will do so 
with great distinction.
  I will speak, very briefly, about his career. But the hallmark of 
Judge Smith's entire career has been one of service. It has been a 
storybook tale.
  He is a native of Hope, AR. He earned both his bachelor's degree and 
his law degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He 
worked his way through college. Following law school, he clerked for 3 
years, and then he served the poorest citizens of Arkansas as the staff 
attorney for Ozark Legal Services, representing abused and neglected 
children.
  After working with Ozark Legal Services, he opened the first 
minority-owned firm in Springdale, AR, handling primarily civil cases. 
He then taught business law at John Brown University and took several 
positions in public service, including Regulatory Liaison for Governor 
Huckabee. Currently Judge Smith serves as the commissioner of the 
Arkansas Public Service Commission.
  In 1999, he was appointed to the Arkansas supreme court and served on 
the Arkansas supreme court with distinction for 2 years. As a supreme 
court justice, he presided over hundreds of cases and authored several 
dozen majority opinions. He was highly praised by all his colleagues in 
the Arkansas supreme court.
  In June of 2001, the American Bar Association reviewed Justice 
Smith's qualifications and made a ``unanimous qualified'' 
determination.
  Beyond all of his obvious legal qualifications, I want to point out 
that he has had a long history of community service. Whether it was as 
a board member of the Northwest Arkansas Christian Justice Center, a 
nonprofit organization dedicated to providing mediation and 
conciliation services, working with the Partners for Family Training, a 
group that recruits and trains foster parents, or whether it was 
raising funds for the School of Hope, a school for handicapped children 
in Hope, AR, at every stage of his life there has been this hallmark of 
service.
  This outstanding record of service is the most outwardly visible sign 
of something the people in Arkansas know well; that he is a good and 
honorable man who will serve his country well. We can all be proud of 
the vote that occurred this evening.

[[Page S6797]]

  It is a storybook tale, but it is a storybook tale that has not yet 
had the last chapters written. There are going to be a lot of wonderful 
chapters in the years ahead as he, as a young man, has a long time to 
serve on the Federal bench.
  It will be a wonderful culmination to what has already been a great 
story and a great career. I stand with Arkansas this evening in pride.
  I thank Senator Blanche Lincoln for her cooperation, for her support, 
and all that she has done over the last year to make tonight's vote 
possible.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Arkansas for 
those kind words.
  I rise to express my gratitude to all of my colleagues tonight for 
their support of the cloture motion before the Senate this evening of 
the nomination of Judge Lavinski Smith of Arkansas to fill a vacancy on 
the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  I am certainly pleased that the majority leader has taken a step 
which demonstrates a commitment of the Democratic leadership in the 
Senate to move the nomination process forward and to fulfill our 
obligation under the Constitution.
  As one of those who signed the cloture motion to bring forward Judge 
Smith's nomination, I am proud of my colleagues for joining in with an 
excellent vote in supporting this fine Arkansan to the bench.
  I want to say a special thanks to the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee for his hard work over the last year to reduce the number of 
judicial vacancies which will ensure our Federal courts can operate 
efficiently. He has tirelessly worked in the Judiciary Committee to be 
fair and to be expeditious.
  There has certainly been a good deal of heated debate surrounding the 
pace of judicial confirmations in recent months. However, I can say 
from personal experience that the chairman has been highly responsive 
to my inquiries regarding this nomination. I am grateful for his 
efforts and those of the committee staff in trying to move the process 
forward expeditiously and fairly.
  I also thank my colleague, Senator Hutchinson from Arkansas, for his 
work in this arena.
  For the benefit of my colleagues who are not familiar with Judge 
Smith, I am pleased to offer a few words of introduction.
  As my colleague from Arkansas mentioned, Lavinski Smith is a lifelong 
resident of Hope, Arkansas, as many people from Arkansas have been 
recognized being from Hope. After graduating from high school, Judge 
Smith moved north to Fayetteville, where he received both his BA and JD 
from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
  Since that time, Judge Smith has enjoyed an impressive career as a 
practicing attorney, as my colleague mentioned, with great service 
through the legal services to the indigent, a State supreme court 
judge, a professor, and, most recently, a member of the Arkansas Public 
Service Commission.
  This would be an impressive list of accomplishments for anyone, but 
at the age of 43, Judge Smith's record is a good indication that he has 
many years of productive service in his future.
  Since President Bush announced the appointment of Judge Smith last 
year, I have heard from dozens of Arkansans from across the political 
spectrum who support his nomination. In fact, my support for Judge 
Smith's nomination is based in large part on the enthusiastic 
endorsement he has received from those who know him the best: his 
colleagues and friends who have firsthand knowledge of his professional 
and personal attributes, those who have worked with him in the legal 
field who have sent their recommendations to me.
  Those who have indicated strong support for Judge Smith in Arkansas 
include Arkansas supreme court chief justice ``Dub'' Arnold and 
Arkansas NAACP president Dale Charles. In addition, I believe it is 
important to note that Judge Smith received a unanimous ``qualified'' 
rating for this position by the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal 
Judiciary.
  Even though Judge Smith and I may not agree on every issue, that is 
not the test I apply to determine an individual's fitness for the 
Federal judiciary. I evaluate judicial nominees based on skill, 
experience, and ability to understand and apply established precedent, 
not on any one particular point of view a nominee may hold. 
Fundamentally, I am interested in knowing that a nominee can fulfill 
his responsibility under the Constitution in a court of law.
  I am satisfied that Judge Smith has met that standard, and I, 
therefore, thank my colleagues for supporting his nomination and the 
cloture motion to move that forward.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.


                           Passage of S. 2673

  Mr. DASCHLE. I thank all of my colleagues for the tremendous work 
done in the past week. I especially compliment the distinguished 
Senator from Maryland, the chairman of the Banking Committee, for the 
extraordinary leadership he has shown in getting us to this point. I am 
sure there were few who have ever guessed this could have passed so 
overwhelmingly as it did tonight.
  That is the accounting legislation. I am very grateful to all who had 
a significant role to play. I thank the staff of the Banking Committee 
and so many of my colleagues. I also acknowledge the fine work done by 
Senator Leahy on the enforcement aspects of this legislation.
  The combination of the contribution made by the Judiciary Committee, 
along with the Banking Committee, makes this a historic moment for the 
Senate, a historic moment for corporate governance, and a real 
recognition that at long last we are going to be rebuilding the 
confidence and trust we need in our free enterprise system.
  We made a contribution in that regard today. I am very hopeful we can 
get this work done very soon.
  It would be my hope, given the President's support for the Sarbanes 
bill, and Speaker Hastert's support, as he indicated just last week, 
that the House consider taking up the Sarbanes bill and passing it 
free-standing so we could send it directly to the President in time to 
afford the President the opportunity to sign it very quickly. That 
would be the quickest way, and given the broad bipartisan support this 
legislation now enjoys, and given Speaker Hastert's support for the 
legislation, I would think this would be a tremendous opportunity to 
demonstrate in a bipartisan way how quickly we can respond as we did 
today. But more than how quickly, how effectively we can respond to the 
needs of our Nation when it comes to restoring that confidence.

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