[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 167 (Wednesday, December 21, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14291-S14292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Nomination of Virginia Mary Kendall

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, included in the nominations just approved 
by the Senate is the nomination of Virginia Mary Kendall of Illinois to 
be the U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois. She 
is replacing the retired Susanne Conlon. This is an extraordinary woman 
who will make a great contribution to the Federal judiciary.
  She is strongly supported by Senator Obama and myself, as well as 
Speaker Dennis Hastert. On a bipartisan basis, we reviewed many fine 
candidates for this vacancy and found Virginia Kendall to be the best. 
With the approval of the White House, she moved through the Senate 
Judiciary Committee.
  I am anxious, as soon as I finish these remarks, to go to the 
cloakroom, place a phone call, and give her a Christmas present and let 
her know her nomination has been approved by the Senate.
  I would like to thank Judiciary Committee Chairman Specter, as well 
as Ranking Member Leahy, for expediting the consideration of Ms. 
Kendall's nomination. I also want to thank Senator Obama for the 
significant role that he played in the selection process. Finally, I 
want to thank House Speaker Hastert for his role in the process and for 
his willingness to continue an Illinois tradition of seeking bipartisan 
cooperation in the recommendation of Federal district court nominees 
for presidential consideration.
  Virginia Kendall is a highly respected federal prosecutor in Chicago 
with a stellar reputation for diligence, intelligence, and integrity. 
She has been in the U.S. Attorney's office in the Northern District of 
Illinois for the past decade, and she has a great depth of experience.
  She is one of the leading prosecutors in the country in the area of 
child exploitation over the Internet, and she was the lead counsel in 
the first Internet kidnaping case brought by the Department of Justice. 
She has also prosecuted domestic terrorism and corporate fraud cases.
  Ms. Kendall has helped reduce Chicago's murder rate, by creating a 
novel program that emphasizes better outreach by law enforcement to 
parolee gun offenders and to at-risk students in the Chicago Public 
Schools. She has been the lead prosecutor in cases involving the sale 
of weapons over the Internet to minors.

[[Page S14292]]

  Ms. Kendall has also been extremely active in pro bono work. She has 
created programs in which Federal prosecutors go into Chicago high 
schools and educate students about the dangers of gun violence and the 
workings of the criminal justice system. One of her programs received 
an award from the Department of Justice as the most outstanding 
volunteer program in the country. Ms. Kendall and her husband have 
worked closely with students from the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, an 
amazing success story of a high school in Pilson, a low-income Latino 
neighborhood in Chicago.
  In addition, Ms. Kendall has served as an adjunct law professor at 
Loyola University law school for the past 12 years. Some of her former 
law school students contacted me and said she was the best professor 
they ever had. That speaks very well of Ms. Kendall's ability not only 
to understand the law, but to teach it.
  One of Ms. Kendall's biggest supporters is her boss--Patrick 
Fitzgerald--the United States Attorney in the Northern District of 
Illinois. He wrote me a long letter singing her praises, and he 
concluded:

       I can also assure you that Ginny is a warm and 
     compassionate person who is very attentive to the human needs 
     of those she works with and supervises. Ginny's combination 
     of legal talents, experience as a prosecutor, supervisor and 
     instructor, and commitment to bettering the communities most 
     in need of help would stand her in great stead if she were 
     selected as a federal judge in this district.

  I am pleased to report that Ms. Kendall also receives high marks from 
her opposing counsel and has an excellent reputation in the criminal 
defense bar. One of her opposing counsel described her as ``honorable, 
decent, ethical, and someone with an ideal temperament.'' Another 
opposing counsel said Ms. Kendall was ``down to earth, honest, 
straightforward, reliable, and full of integrity.''
  I was not surprised to learn that a substantial majority of the 
American Bar Association's judicial nomination review committee gave 
Ms. Kendall their highest possible rating of ``Well Qualified.'' I am 
confident that, as a judge, Ms. Kendall will serve with honor, courage, 
and distinction on the Federal bench in the Northern District of 
Illinois for many years to come.

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