[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 50 (Thursday, March 27, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S4497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, while there are continuing problems caused 
by the administration's refusal to work with Democratic Senators to 
select consensus judicial nominees who could be confirmed relatively 
quickly by the Senate, today we again demonstrate what can happen when 
the administration works with us.
  In spite of the President's lack of cooperation, the Senate in the 17 
months I chaired the Judiciary Committee was able to confirm 100 judges 
and vastly reduce the judicial vacancies that had built up and were 
prevented by the Republican Senate majority from being filled by 
President Clinton. Last year alone the Democratic-led Senate confirmed 
72 judicial nominees, more than in any of the prior 6 years of 
Republican control. Not once did the Republican-controlled committee 
consider that many of President Clinton's district and circuit court 
nominees. In our efforts to turn the other cheek and treat this 
President's nominees better than his predecessor's had fared, we 
confirmed 100 judges in 17 months. Yet not a single elected Republican 
has acknowledged this tremendous bipartisanship and fairness. When 
Chief Justice Rehnquist thanked the committee for confirming 100 
judicial nominees, this was the first time this accomplishment had been 
acknowledged by anyone from a Republican background. I thanked him last 
week when I appeared before the Judicial Conference.
  Almost all of the judges confirmed are conservatives, many of them 
quite to the right of the mainstream, and many are pro-life. Many of 
these nominees have been active in conservative political causes or 
groups, but we moved fairly and expeditiously on as many as we could.
  We cut the number of vacancies on the courts from 110 to 50, despite 
an additional 60 new vacancies that had arisen. I recall that the 
chairman said in September of 1997 that 103 vacancies, during the 
Clinton Administration, did not constitute a ``vacancy crisis.'' He 
also repeatedly stated that 67 vacancies meant ``full employment'' on 
the Federal courts. Even with the vacancies that have arisen since we 
adjourned last year, we remain below the ``full employment'' level that 
Senator Hatch used to draw for the Federal courts with only 50 
vacancies remaining on the district courts and courts of appeals, 
according to the Judiciary Committee website. Unfortunately, the 
President has not made nominations to a number of those seats, and on 
more than half of the current vacancies he has missed his self-imposed 
deadline of a nomination within 180 days. Of course, several of the 
nominations he has made are controversial.
  This year the President has taken the truly unprecedented action of 
renominating candidates voted down in committee in spite of the serious 
concerns expressed by fair-minded members of this committee. That is a 
significant problem.
  This year we have had a rocky beginning with a hearing that has 
caused a great many problems we might have avoided. The chairman's 
insistence on terminating debate on the Cook and Roberts nominations is 
another serious problem. Of course, the administration's unwillingness 
to work with the Senate so that we may be provided the documents and 
information needed to proceed with a final vote on the Estrada 
nomination has already proved to be a significant problem. The 
opposition to the Sutton nomination is also extensive.
  Nonetheless, the Senate has proceeded to confirm 113 of President 
Bush's judicial nominees, including 13 this year alone. The Senate 
confirmed the controversial nomination of Jay Bybee to the Ninth 
Circuit, another pro-life judicial nominee. Already this year the 
Senate has confirmed more circuit court judges than Republicans allowed 
to be confirmed in the entire 1996 session. In addition, I note that it 
was not until September, 1999, that 13 of President Clinton's judicial 
nominees were confirmed in the first session of the last Congress in 
which Republicans controlled the Senate majority. This year we are 6 
months ahead of that schedule.
  The California nominee comes from the bipartisan selection 
commissions Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer have established in 
California and the Indiana nominee has the bipartisan support of his 
home State Senators. I congratulate the nominees and their families.

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