[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 77 (Thursday, May 22, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6942-S6945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
______
NOMINATION OF CONSUELO MARIA CALLAHAN, OF CALIFORNIA, TO BE UNITED
STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination,
which the clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Consuelo Maria
Callahan, of California, to be United States Circuit Judge for the
Ninth Circuit.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there are 10 minutes
evenly divided prior to the vote on the nomination.
Who yields time?
Mr. LEAHY. Have the yeas and nays been ordered on this nomination?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. They have not.
Mr. LEAHY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I express my enthusiastic support for the
confirmation of Consuelo Callahan to the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals. Justice Callahan is an outstanding nominee with broad support
on both sides of the aisle. She has the support of both of the
distinguished senators from her home state of California, and she was
unanimously approved by the Judiciary Committee the day after her
hearing.
Justice Callahan received her undergraduate degree from Stanford
University and her law degree from McGeorge School of Law. In 1976, she
began her 10-year career as a Deputy District Attorney with the San
Joaquin County District Attorney's Office where she specialized in the
prosecution of child abuse and sexual assault cases. During her 10-year
career as a prosecutor, she handled more than 50 jury trials.
Justice Callahan also has first-hand experience with breaking the
gender barrier. In 1992, she was appointed to the Superior Court in San
Joaquin County, where she was the first female and Hispanic to serve on
that court. She was also the first female member of two local social
and service organizations. In 1996, Justice Callahan became the first
judge from San Joaquin County to be elevated to the California Court of
Appeal in more than 73 years.
In addition to her outstanding career as a prosecutor and a jurist,
she has donated her time to organizations involved in addressing the
problem of child abuse and sexual assault and has received an award for
her work in this area. She has received other awards during her career,
including the Governor's award for Criminal Justice Programs and the
Susan B. Anthony award for Women of Achievement. In 1999, Justice
Callahan was inducted into the San Joquin County Mexican-American Hall
of Fame.
The Committee has received numerous letters supporting Justice
Callahan's nomination to the Ninth Circuit. The La Raza Lawyer's
Association of Sacramento described Justice Callahan's professional
qualifications in the following way: ``as a state appellate court
justice, her opinions have been detailed, thoughtful and supportive of
legal precedent. . . . She possesses both the intellect and temperament
to be an outstanding justice of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.''
The ten justices that serve with Justice Callahan on the Third
Appellate District and work with her every day also sent a letter to
the Committee praising her skills as a jurist. They write, ``During her
more than six years on our court, Connie has shown that she has the
integrity, capacity, collegiality, and diligence to serve with
distinction on the Ninth Circuit. Our only reservation in recommending
her confirmation is that it will mean a significant loss to our court.
We will miss Connie's energy and enthusiasm, her legal skills, and the
positive way in which she fulfills her responsibilities as an appellate
jurist.''
Her colleagues' loss will be the federal judiciary's gain, as I have
great confidence that the beleaguered Ninth Circuit will greatly
benefit from her confirmation. I urge my colleagues to support this
nomination.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, each of the Senators from California would
like to speak.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise in support of Justice Callahan
to go from the California State appellate court to the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals. This woman was really born in Senator Boxer's and my
backyard. She is a Bay area person. She was born in Palo Alto. She
attended Stanford, graduated with honors, attended the University of
the Pacific McGeorge Law School. She has been both a deputy city
attorney and deputy district attorney. She founded the first child
abuse unit in the DA's Office of San Joaquin County. In 1996 she was
elevated to the State Court of Appeals from the Superior Court of San
Joaquin County. She has served with distinction for the past 6 years,
has extraordinarily strong support.
I certainly believe, and I believe Senator Boxer concurs in this,
that she is going to be an excellent judge of the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals. I am delighted to support her and to recommend her and to
vote for her.
I yield the floor.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join with my
colleague, Senator Feinstein, in support of this fine nominee,
To support Consuelo ``Connie'' Callahan to be a judge for the U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Judge Callahan is a native Californian, born in Palo Alto. She is a
graduate of Stanford University and the
[[Page S6943]]
McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific.
She was the first female and the first Hispanic judge to sit on the
San Joaquin County Superior Court. She currently serves on the Third
District Court of Appeals located in Sacramento.
She has been a champion of protecting children. When she served as a
prosecutor, she focused on major felony prosecutions in the area of
child abuse. She has received public recognition for her work on this
issue.
She also is a former board member and President of the San Joaquin
County Child Abuse Prevention Center. I applaud her involvement in this
very serious cause.
I am pleased to join with my colleague, Senator Feinstein, to support
this nominee. In addition to having the support of both of her home-
state senators, Judge Callahan received unanimous support from the
Judiciary Committee.
I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this well-qualified,
mainstream nominee.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today, we vote to confirm Judge Consuelo
Maria Callahan to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit. This is another judicial nominee of President Bush whom
Senate Democrats have strongly supported and whose consideration we had
expedited through the Judiciary Committee.
I thank the Democratic leader and assistant leader for supporting
Judge Callahan's nomination and working out this arrangement with the
Republican leadership so that this consensus nomination can be
considered without further delay. I appreciate that the majority leader
has been willing to work with us to allow this nomination to go forward
today.
I still do not know who on the Republican side delayed consideration
of this consensus nominee. Just as Senate Democrats last month cleared
the nomination of Judge Edward Prado to the United States Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit without delay, so, too, the nomination of
Judge Callahan to the Ninth Circuit was cleared on the Democratic side
promptly. All Democratic Senators serving on the Judiciary Committee
voted to report her nomination favorably. All Democratic Senators
indicated that they were eager to proceed with her nomination and,
after a reasonable period of debate, vote on her nomination.
Unlike the divisive nomination of Carolyn Kuhl to the same court,
both home-State Senators support the nomination of Judge Callahan and
she is expected to be confirmed by an extraordinary majority--maybe
unanimously. Rather than disregarding time-honored rules and Senate
practices, I urged my friends on the other side of the aisle to help us
fill more judicial vacancies more quickly by bringing those nominations
that have bipartisan support, like Judge Callahan, to the front of the
line for committee hearings and floor votes. I noted in a statement
last week to make the point that the nomination of Judge Callahan to
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was cleared on the Democratic side.
We still do not know who on the Republican side delayed consideration
of the consensus nomination of Judge Prado for a month. I thank the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus for its support of that nomination as
well as for its support of Judge Callahan, and for working with the
Senate to bringing fair evaluation of these nominees and for adding
their voice to the discussion of these lifetime appointments.
It is most unfortunate that so many partisans in this administration
and on the other side of the aisle insist on bogging down consensus
matters and consensus nominees in order to focus exclusively on the
most divisive and controversial of this President's nominees as he
continues his efforts to pack the courts. Democratic Senators have
worked very hard to cooperate with this administration in order to fill
judicial vacancies. What the other side seeks to obscure is our effort,
our fairness and the progress we have been able to achieve without much
help from the other side or the administration.
The fact is that when Democrats became the Senate majority in the
summer of 2001, we inherited 110 judicial vacancies. Over the next 17
months, despite constant criticism from the administration, the Senate
proceeded to confirm 100 of President Bush's nominees, including
several who were divisive and controversial, several who had mixed peer
review ratings from the ABA and at least 1 who had been rated not
qualified. Despite the additional 40 vacancies that arose, we reduced
judicial vacancies to 60, a level below that termed ``full employment''
by Senator Hatch. Since the beginning of this year, in spite of the
Republican's fixation on the President's most controversial
nominations, we have worked hard to reduce judicial vacancies even
further. As of today, the number of judicial vacancies has been reduced
to 45 and is the lowest it has been in 13 years. That is lower than at
any time during the entire 8 years of the Clinton administration. We
have already reduced judicial vacancies from 110 to 45, in 2 years. We
have reduced the vacancy rate from 12.8 percent to 5.2 percent, the
lowest it have been in the last two decades. With some cooperation from
the administration, think of the additional progress we could be
making.
Earlier this month, we were able to obtain Senate consideration of
the nomination of Judge Prado, and another distinguished Hispanic
nominee, Judge Cecilia Altonaga, to be a Federal judge in Florida. We
expedited consideration of that nominee at the request of Senator
Graham of Florida. I am told that she is the first Cuban-American woman
to be confirmed to the Federal bench. Indeed, Democrats in the Senate
have worked to expedite fair consideration of every Latino nominee this
President has made to the Federal trial courts in addition to the
nominations of Judge Prado and Judge Callahan.
As I have noted throughout the last 2 years, the Senate is able to
move expeditiously when we have consensus nominees to consider. In a
recent column, David Broder noted that he asked Alberto Gonzales if
there was a lesson in Judge Prado's easy approval, but that Mr.
Gonzales missed the point. In Mr. Broder's mind: ``The lesson seems
obvious. Conservatives can be confirmed for the courts when they are
well known in their communities and a broad range of their constituents
have reason to think them fair-minded.'' Judge Consuelo Callahan is
another such nominee.
With this confirmation, the Senate will have confirmed 126 judges,
including 24 circuit court nominees, nominated by President Bush, 100
in the 17 months in which Democrats comprised the Senate majority. The
lesson that less controversial nominees are considered and confirmed
more easily was the lesson of the last 2 years, but that lesson has
been lost on this White House and the current Senate leadership.
One hundred judicial nominees were confirmed when Democrats
controlled the Senate for 17 months, and 26 have been confirmed in the
other 12 months in which Republicans have controlled the confirmation
process under President Bush. This total of 126 judges confirmed for
President Bush is more confirmations than the Republicans allowed
President Clinton in all of 1995, 1996 and 1997 the 3 full years of his
last term. In those 3 years, the Republican leadership in the Senate
allowed only 111 judicial nominees to be confirmed, which included only
18 circuit court judges. We have already exceeded that total by 13
percent and the circuit court total by 33 percent before Memorial Day
and with 7 months remaining to us this year.
Today's confirmation makes the seventh court of appeals nominee
confirmed by the Senate just this year. That meets the annual average
achieved by Republican leadership from 1995 through the early part of
2001. The Republicans have now achieved as much in less than 5 months
for President Bush as they used to allowed the Senate to achieve in a
full year with President Clinton. They are moving two to three times
faster for this President's nominees, despite the fact that the current
appellate court nominees are more controversial, divisive and less
widely supported than President Clinton's appellate court nominees
were.
Understand that if the Senate did not confirm another judicial
nominee all year and simply adjourned today, we would have treated
President Bush more fairly and would have acted on more of his judicial
nominees than Republicans did for President Clinton in
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1995 to 1997. In addition, the 45 vacancies on the Federal courts
around the country are significantly lower than the 80 vacancies
Republicans left at the end of 1997. Of course, the Senate is not
adjourning for the year and Chairman Hatch continues to hold hearings
for Bush judicial nominees at between two and four times as many as he
did for President Clinton's.
Unfortunately, far too many of this President's nominees raise
serious concerns about whether they will be fair judges to all parties
on all issues. Those types of nominees should not be rushed through the
process. I regret the administration's refusal to work with us to end
the impasse it has created in connection with the Estrada nomination.
The partisan politics of division that the administration is practicing
with respect to that nomination are not helpful and not respectful of
the damage done to the Hispanic community by insisting on so divisive a
nominee.
I invite the President to work with us and to nominate more
mainstream individuals like Judge Prado and Judge Callahan with proven
records and bipartisan support. In connection with the unexplained
Republican delay before consideration of the nomination of Judge Prado,
some suggested that Judge Prado had been delayed because Democratic
Senators were likely to vote for him and thereby undercut the
Republican's shameless charge that opposition to Miguel Estrada is
based on his ethnicity.
We all know that the White House could have cooperated with the
Senate by producing Mr. Estrada's work papers. This would have enabled
the Senate to have voted on the Estrada nomination months ago. The
request for his work papers was sent last May 15 and has been
outstanding for more than a year. Rather than respond as every other
administration has over the last 20 years and provide access to those
papers, this White House has stonewalled. Rather than follow the policy
of openness outlined by Attorney General Robert Jackson in the 1940s,
this administration has stonewalled. And Republican Senators and other
partisans could not wait to claim that the impasse created by the White
House's change in policy and practice with respect to nominations was
somehow attributable to Democrats being anti-Hispanic. The charge would
be laughable if it were not so calculated to do political damage and to
divide the Hispanic community. That is what Republican partisans hope
is the result. That is wrong.
Unfortunately, in the case of Mr. Estrada, the administration has
made no effort to work with us to resolve the impasse. Instead, there
has been a series of votes on cloture petitions in which the opposition
has grown and from time to time the support has waned. Recently, there
have been press reports indicating that Mr. Estrada asked the White
House months ago to withdraw his nomination. I understand his
frustration. If this administration is not going to follow the practice
of every other administration and share with the Senate the government
work papers of the nominee--the very practice this administration
followed with its own EPA nominee in 2001--then I can understand him
not wanting to be used as a political pawn by the administration to
score partisan, political points. That the administration has not
acceded to his reported request but has plowed ahead to force a
succession of unsuccessful cloture votes and to foment division in the
Hispanic community for partisan gain is another example of how far this
administration is willing to go to politicize the process at the
expense of its own nominees.
Judge Callahan is a fine candidate for elevation to the appeals
court. She has years of experience serving on the bench in the state of
California, first on the California Superior Court and then on the
California Court of Appeal. She enjoys the full support of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Not a single person or organization has
submitted a letter of opposition or raised concerns about her. No
controversy. No red flags. No basis for concern. No opposition. This
explains why her nomination was voted out of the Judiciary Committee
with a unanimous, bipartisan vote on an expedited basis.
During President Clinton's tenure, 10 of his more than 30 Latino
nominees, including Judge Rangel, Enrique Moreno, and Christine
Arguello to the circuit courts, were delayed or blocked from receiving
hearings or votes by the Republican leadership. Republicans delayed
consideration of a well-qualified Hispanic nominee to the Ninth
Circuit, Judge Richard Paez for over 1,500 days, and 39 Republicans
voted against him. The confirmations of Latina circuit nominees
Rosemary Barkett and Sonia Sotomayor were also delayed by Republicans.
Judge Barkett was targeted for delay and defeat by Republicans based on
claims about her judicial philosophy, but those efforts were not
successful. After significant delays and an unsuccessful Republican
filibuster, 36 Republicans voted against the confirmation of Judge
Barkett. Additionally, Judge Sotomayor, who had received the ABA's
highest rating and had been appointed to the district court by
President George H.W. Bush, was targeted by Republicans for delay or
defeat when she was nominated to the Second Circuit. She was eventually
confirmed, although 29 Republicans voted against her.
The fact is that the Latino nominations that the Senate has received
from this administration have been acted upon in an expeditious manner.
They have overwhelmingly enjoyed bipartisan support. Under the
Democratically led Senate, we swiftly granted hearings for and
eventually confirmed Judge Christina Armijo of New Mexico, Judge
Phillip Martinez and Randy Crane of Texas, Judge Jose Martinez of
Florida, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alia Ludlum, and Judge Jose Linares of
New Jersey to the district courts. This year, we also confirmed Judge
James Otero of California, and we would have held his confirmation
hearing last year if his ABA peer rating had been delivered to us in
time for the scheduling of our last hearing. As I have noted, we also
have recently confirmed Judge Cecilia Altonaga and Judge Edward Prado
with unanimous Democratic support.
Judge Callahan's nomination was delayed on the Senate executive
calendar unnecessarily in my view. I am pleased to see that at the
urging of the Democratic leadership--the Republican majority has agreed
to bring up this uncontroversial Latina nominee for a vote. I
congratulate Judge Callahan and her family on her confirmation.
Mr. President, I thank both the majority leader and the distinguished
Democratic leader for clearing this action. We have tried on this side
of the aisle for some time to clear this nomination. I appreciate my
friends on the Republican side lifting their hold. I support the
nominee and yield back all time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back. The question is,
will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Consuelo Maria
Callahan, of California, to be United States Circuit Judge for the
Ninth Circuit? On this question, the yeas and nays have been ordered,
and the clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry)
is necessarily absent.
I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) would vote ``aye.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 99, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 195 Ex.]
YEAS--99
Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Cantwell
Carper
Chafee
Chambliss
Clinton
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Cornyn
Corzine
Craig
Crapo
Daschle
Dayton
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Edwards
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Feinstein
Fitzgerald
Frist
Graham (FL)
Graham (SC)
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hollings
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Miller
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Nickles
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Rockefeller
Santorum
[[Page S6945]]
Sarbanes
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Talent
Thomas
Voinovich
Warner
Wyden
NOT VOTING--1
Kerry
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the President shall
be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
____________________