[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 27, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4378-S4380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
______
NOMINATION OF J. MICHAEL SEABRIGHT TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
FOR THE DISTRICT OF HAWAII
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
The legislative clerk read the nomination of J. Michael Seabright, of
Hawaii, to be United States District Judge for the District of Hawaii.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there are 30
minutes, equally divided, for debate on the nomination.
The Senator from Hawaii.
Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I am pleased and hnored to speak in
support of J. Michael Seabright of Honolulu, Hawaii, who has been
nominated by the President to serve as a Federal district court judge
for the District of Hawaii.
Mr. Seabright graduated magna cum laude from his undergraduate alma
mater of Tulane University, before going on to attend The National Law
Center at George Washington University, where he received his juris
doctor and graduated with high honors as a member of the Order of the
Coif.
At George Washington, he further distinguished himself by serving as
the editor of the George Washington Journal of International Law &
Economics.
I have had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Seabright since he arrived in
Hawaii 20 years ago, having watched him as he successfully became a
member of the Hawaii State Bar Association, and became involved in our
community.
Now Mr. Seabright stands out as a leader in the legal side of law
enforcement, where he developed the District of Hawaii plan for
implementing ``Operation Triggerlock-Hawaii,'' a Federal-local effort
aimed at the prosecution of violent armed career criminals in Federal
court.
His broad experience in prosecution, from violent crimes to
government corruption, have provided him a balanced perspective of the
criminal justice system that will continue to serve him well as he
prepares for this most recent development in his career of public
service.
Mr. Seabright's work for Hawaii goes beyond his professional
commitments as an assistant U.S. attorney, however. He has served on
the Hawaii Supreme Court's disciplinary board since 1995 and holds the
chairmanship of its rules committee, which is charged with the drafting
proposed rules for the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct.
He was also a member of the Hawaii State Board of Bar Examiners, and
has been an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii William S.
Richardson School of Law.
This extraordinary record of achievement has now culminated with his
nomination to the Federal bench, and amply supports the favorable
reports he has received from the Hawaii State Bar Association, the
American Bar Association, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
I am confident that his record will prove equally impressive to the
full Senate, and I trust that he will become the 206th of Mr. Bush's
judicial nominees to be confirmed to the Federal bench. I hope my
colleagues will join me in voting in favor of Mr. Seabright.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii, Mr. Akaka, is
recognized.
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I join
Senator Inouye in support of the nomination of Mr. J. Michael Seabright
for the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. The Hawaii
State Bar Association has found Mr. Seabright to be highly qualified
for the position of U.S. District Court Judge in Hawaii. This is of
significant importance to me, as I value the opinion of Hawaii's legal
community in evaluating those nominated to serve as judges.
Mr. Seabright has practiced law in the State of Hawaii for over 20
years, in a number of capacities, including both private practice and
public service. Mr. Seabright has been employed by the U.S. Attorney's
Office for the District of Hawaii for the past 15 years, and he has
headed the white-collar and organized crime section since 2002.
I am very pleased that this position, after being vacant for so many
years, will now be filled by an individual as qualified as J. Michael
Seabright. For the past few years, I have heard from jurists and a
number of attorneys in Hawaii about the need to fill this judicial
vacancy. I am encouraged to see that with the consideration of this
nominee the Senate will continue its tradition of fulfilling its advice
and consent role under the Constitution.
I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of Mr. Seabright's nomination.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it has taken some time, but the Senate
Republican leadership will finally allow the Senate to consider the
nomination of Michael Seabright to be a United States District Court
Judge for Hawaii. I commend the distinguished Senators from Hawaii for
their effort in identifying this consensus nominee. When Mr. Seabright
is confirmed by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of the Senate, he will
be the 206th nominee of this President confirmed to a lifetime
appointment to our Federal courts.
This is only the second judicial nomination Senate Republicans have
been willing to consider all year. There has been no filibuster of
judicial nominees this year. Instead, it is the Senate Republican
leadership that, through its deliberate inaction, is keeping judgeships
unnecessarily vacant for months. With this nomination and with the
nomination of Judge Crotty, I was the one asking for months for the
nomination to be considered, debated, voted, and confirmed. For the
last several weeks, I have been calling upon the Republican readership
to proceed to the confirmation of Michael Seabright to the District
Court of Hawaii.
All Democrats on the Judiciary Committee had been prepared to vote
favorably on this nomination for some time. We were prepared to report
the nomination last year, but it was not listed by the then-chairman on
a committee agenda. I thank Chairman Specter for including Mr.
Seabright at our meeting on March 17. The nomination was unanimously
reported and has been on the Senate Executive Calendar for more than a
month. It is Senate Republicans who resisted a vote on this judicial
nominee, not Democrats. In their fashion, they did so without any
explanation akin to the anonymous ``holds'' that doomed more than 60 of
President Clinton's judicial nominees not so long ago.
Once confirmed, Mr. Seabright will be the 206th of 216 nominees
brought before the full Senate for a vote to be confirmed. That means
that 829 of the 875 authorized judgeships in the Federal judiciary, or
95 percent, will be filled. It is regrettable that Republican delay has
now pushed the Senate behind even the pace set by the Republican
majority in 1999, when President Clinton was in the White House. That
year, the Senate Republican leadership did not allow the Senate to
consider any circuit court nominees for the entire session and only 17
district court nominees were confirmed. The Republican Senate has
fallen behind that pace.
Of the 47 judicial vacancies now existing, President Bush has not
even sent nominees for 29 of those vacancies, more than half. I have
been encouraging the Bush administration to work with Senators to
identify qualified and consensus judicial nominees and do so, again,
today. The Democratic leader and I sent the President a letter in this
regard on April 5, but we have received no response.
It is now the last week in April. We are almost one-third through the
year and so far the President has sent only one new nominee for a
Federal court vacancy all year--only one. Instead of sending back
divisive nominees, would it not be better for the country, the courts,
the American people, the Senate, and the administration if the White
House would work with us to identify, and for the President to
nominate, more consensus nominees such as Michael Seabright who can be
confirmed quickly with strong, bipartisan votes?
I commend the Senators from Hawaii for their efforts to work
cooperatively to fill judicial vacancies. I only wish Republicans had
treated President Clinton's nominees to vacancies in Hawaii with
similar courtesy. Had they, there would not have been the vacancies on
the Ninth Circuit and on the District Court. The work of the Senators
from Hawaii is indicative of the type of bipartisan efforts Senate
Democrats have made with this President
[[Page S4379]]
and remain willing to make. We can work together to fill judicial
vacancies with qualified, consensus nominees. The vast majority of the
more than 200 judges confirmed during the last 3\1/2\ years were
confirmed with bipartisan support.
The truth is that in President Bush's first term, the 204 judges
confirmed were more than were confirmed in either of President Clinton
two terms, more than during the term of this President's father, and
more than in Ronald Reagan's first term when he was being assisted by a
Republican majority in the Senate. By last December, we had reduced
judicial vacancies from the 110 vacancies I inherited in the summer of
2001 to the lowest level, lowest rate and lowest number in decades,
since Ronald Reagan was in office.
The Hawaii judgeship at issue here has been vacant for more than 4
years, since December of 2000 when Judge Alan Kay took senior status.
President Clinton made a nomination to that seat in advance of the
vacancy, but the Republicans in control of the Senate refused to act on
it. They preserved the vacancy for a Republican President.
In 2002, President Bush nominated James Rohlfing to the vacancy. That
nomination failed, however, because in the view of his home State
Senators and the American Bar Association, he was not qualified for the
position. It took the White House more than 2 additional years to
agree. Finally, in May 2004 that nomination was withdrawn by President
Bush.
The administration finally got it right after consultation with the
Hawaii Senators. The President sent Michael Seabright's name to the
Senate last September. An outstanding attorney who has experience in
private practice as well as a sterling reputation as an Assistant
United States Attorney, Mr. Seabright merited consideration and swift
confirmation. Despite his reputation as a law-and-order Republican,
Republicans would not move on Mr. Seabright's nomination last Congress.
The President took his time renominating Mr. Seabright and even then it
took repeated requests to get his nomination included on the agenda of
the committee. When he was considered on March 17, he was reported with
unanimous support. Senate Democrats have long supported and requested
action on this nomination.
I have been urging this President and Senate Republicans for years to
work with all Senators and engage in genuine, bipartisan consultation.
That process leads to the nomination, confirmation, and appointment of
consensus nominees with reputations for fairness. The Seabright
nomination, the bipartisan support of his home State Senators, and the
committee's action by a unanimous bipartisan vote is a perfect example
of what I have been urging.
I have noted that there are currently 29 judicial vacancies for which
the President has delayed sending a nominee. In fact, he has sent the
Senate only one new judicial nominee all year. I wish he would work
with all Senators to fill those remaining vacancies rather than through
his inaction and unnecessarily confrontational approach manufacture
longstanding vacancies. It is as if the President and his most partisan
supporters want to create a crisis.
Over the last weeks, we have heard some extremists call for mass
impeachments of judges, court-stripping, and punishing judges by
reducing court budgets. Now we are seeing an effort at religious
McCarthyism by which Republican partisans inject religion into these
matters. Rather than promote crisis and confrontation, I urge the
President to disavow the divisive campaign and, instead, do what most
others have and work with us to identify outstanding consensus
nominees. It ill serves the country, the courts and, most importantly,
the American people for this administration and the Senate Republican
leadership to continue down the road to conflict.
The Seabright nomination shows how unnecessary that conflict really
is. Let us join together to debate and confirm consensus nominees to
these important lifetime posts on the Federal judiciary.
It is the Federal judiciary that is called upon to rein in the
political branches when their actions contravene the constitutional
limits on governmental authority and restrict individual rights. It is
the Federal judiciary that has stood up to the overreaching of this
administration in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
It is more and more the Federal judiciary that is being called upon
to protect Americans' rights and liberties, our environment and to
uphold the rule of law as the political branches under the control of
one party have overreached. Federal judges should protect the rights of
all Americans, not be selected to advance a partisan or personal
agenda. Once the judiciary is filled with partisans beholden to the
administration and willing to reinterpret the Constitution in line with
the administration's demands, who will be left to protect American
values and the rights of the American people?
The Constitution establishes the Senate as a check and a balance on
the choices of a powerful President who might seek to make the Federal
judiciary an extension of his administration or a wholly-owned
subsidiary of his political party. Today, Republicans are threatening
to take away one of the few remaining checks on the power of the
Executive branch by their use of what has become knows as the nuclear
option. This assault on our tradition of checks and balances and on the
protection of minority rights in the Senate and in our democracy should
be abandoned. Eliminating the filibuster by the nuclear option would
destroy the Constitution's design of the Senate as an effective check
on the Executive. The elimination of the filibuster would reduce any
incentive for a President to consult with home State Senators or seek
the advice of the Senate on lifetime appointments to the Federal
judiciary. It is a leap not only toward one-party rule but to an
unchecked executive.
Rather than blowing up the Senate, let us honor the constitutional
design of our system of checks and balances and work together to fill
judicial vacancies with consensus nominees. The nuclear option is
unnecessary. What is needed is a return to consultation and for the
White House to recognize and respect the role of the Senate
appointments process.
The American people have begun to see this threatened partisan power
grab for what it is and to realize that the threat and the potential
harm are aimed at our democracy, at an independent and strong federal
judiciary and, ultimately, at their rights and freedoms.
Mr. President, I commend the two Senators from Hawaii, Mr. Inouye and
Mr. Akaka, for their support and their work with the White House in
getting this nominee to the floor. I commend the White House for
working with them.
This nominee was confirmed unanimously in the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Republicans and Democrats joined alike. I urge on our side
of the aisle that all Senators vote for him.
I have been advised by the distinguished members of the Republican
side of the aisle that they are willing to yield back their time. So I
ask that all time on either side on this nominee be yielded back so we
can go to a vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. LEAHY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination
of J. Michael Seabright, of Hawaii, to be United States District Judge
for the District of Hawaii?
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Montana (Mr. Baucus) and
the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 98, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 111 Ex.]
YEAS--98
Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Allen
Bayh
Bennett
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Burr
Byrd
Cantwell
Carper
Chafee
Chambliss
Clinton
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Cornyn
Corzine
Craig
Crapo
Dayton
DeMint
[[Page S4380]]
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Feinstein
Frist
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Isakson
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Rockefeller
Salazar
Santorum
Sarbanes
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Talent
Thomas
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Wyden
NOT VOTING--2
Baucus
Biden
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the President shall
be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
____________________