[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 79 (Monday, June 19, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6052-S6054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
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NOMINATION OF SANDRA SEGAL IKUTA TO BE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE FOR
THE NINTH CIRCUIT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the hour of 4 p.m.
having arrived, the Senate will proceed to executive session for
consideration of Executive Calendar No. 699, which the clerk will
report.
The legislative clerk read the nomination of Sandra Segal Ikuta, of
California, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 5
p.m. shall be equally divided between the Senator from Pennsylvania,
Mr. Specter, and the Senator from
[[Page S6053]]
Vermont, Mr. Leahy, or their designees.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, it is my understanding that at 5 o'clock
we will have the vote; is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. Under the previous
order, the Senate will vote at 5 p.m. on the nomination.
Mr. WARNER. Upon the conclusion of that vote, would the Chair advise,
are there any orders with regard to the business to be conducted then
by the Senate?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume legislative session.
Mr. WARNER. On the authorization bill for the Armed Forces?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The authorization bill is the pending
legislative business, so the answer is yes.
Mr. WARNER. I thank the Chair. It is my understanding two Senators,
both of whom are members of the Armed Services Committee, the senior
Senator from Georgia and the Senator from Rhode Island, desire to
address the Senate. I want it clearly understood, we do not wish to
have additional amendments filed. I will have to work this out in the
interim period. I will do my best to accommodate these Senators without
amendments being filed to the bill at this time.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WARNER. Momentarily, I will ask that the quorum call be
reinstated, but I ask unanimous consent that the time be allocated
equally between both sides on the pending nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WARNER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to speak on the
nomination of Ms. Sandra Segal Ikuta to be a judge for the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Ms. Ikuta was nominated by President
Bush to be a judge for the Ninth Circuit on February 8, 2006. Her
hearing was held on May 2, 2006. Thanks to the cooperation of the
distinguished ranking member, Senator Leahy, and all members of the
committee, we processed her through on May 25, 2006, and she is now
ready for a confirmation vote by the Senate.
Ms. Ikuta has an extraordinary record. She received a bachelor's
degree from the University of California, Phi Beta Kappa, a master's
degree from Columbia University School of Journalism, and a law degree
from the University of California. She clerked for Judge Kozinski of
the Ninth Circuit. Ms. Ikuta then clerked for U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Following her Supreme Court clerkship, she
went to work for O'Melveny & Myers as an associate, becoming a partner
in 1997. She specialized in environmental law, including serving as co-
chair of the firm's environmental practice group.
She then entered public service as Deputy Secretary and General
Counsel to the California Resources Agency in Governor Schwarznegger's
administration. She has written extensively in the field of
environmental law, served as chair of the environmental section of the
Los Angeles County Bar in 2001 and 2002, and she received a unanimous
``well qualified'' rating from the American Bar Association. I urge my
colleagues to confirm her.
Mr. President, before yielding to my distinguished colleague, let me
again thank him for all of his cooperation, and we will soon celebrate
a year and a half of very productive, very cooperative, very collegial
work on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished senior Senator
from Pennsylvania. He and I have been friends since the day we were
both prosecutors, and I think that has helped in running that
committee.
Today the Senate will confirm another lifetime appointment to our
Federal courts. Sandra Segal Ikuta, who has been nominated to a seat on
the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, has the support of her
home-state Senators, Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer. Her
nomination was reported unanimously by the Judiciary Committee last
month as we expedited consideration through the committee.
I am pleased that the Republican leadership has scheduled debate and
consideration of this nomination and am glad that the Republican
leadership is this month taking notice of the fact that we can
cooperate on swift consideration and confirmation of consensus
nominations. Working together, we confirmed 5 judges in 1 week earlier
this month. All of them could have been confirmed last month if the
Republican leadership had chosen to make progress instead of picking a
fight on a controversial nomination. I look forward to working with the
Republican leadership to schedule debate and consideration of Andrew
Guilford, who has been nominated to the United States District Court
for the Central District of California.
I, again, commend the Republican Senate leadership for wisely passing
over the controversial nominations of William Gerry Myers III, Terrence
W. Boyle, and Norman Randy Smith. The Republican leadership is right to
have avoided an unnecessarily divisive debate over these nominations
that were reported on a party-line vote.
During the 17 months I was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and
the Senate was under Democratic control, we confirmed 100 of President
Bush's nominees. After today, in the last 17 months under Republican
control, the Senate will have confirmed 44. With this nomination, the
Senate has confirmed 22 judicial nominations this year and equaled its
total for all of last year.
Judicial vacancies continue to hover just under the 50 mark, but more
than half of these vacancies have no nominee. I urge the White House to
work with Senators from both parties to select nominees who can be
expeditiously considered and confirmed like Ms. Ikuta.
I am particularly pleased that they have chosen to turn to the
nomination of Ms. Ikuta who, like Judge Milan Smith, is a nominee to
the Ninth Circuit. Ms. Ikuta is a consensus nominee who can be easily
confirmed. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about another pending
Ninth Circuit nominee, Norman Randy Smith. In nominating Judge Smith of
Idaho for a lifetime appointment to the Ninth Circuit, President Bush
broke with the longstanding precedent of replacing each circuit court
vacancy with a nominee from the same State, taking away a California
seat on the Ninth Circuit. Senators Feinstein and Boxer expressed their
strong opposition to this nomination in a January 30, 2006, letter to
Chairman Specter.
I have urged President Bush to resolve this impasse by doing the
right thing and nominating Judge Smith not for a California seat but
for the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Thomas G. Nelson
from Idaho. Regrettably, he has not done so.
In their letter to Chairman Specter, Senators Feinstein and Boxer
expressed their concerns that the confirmation of Judge Smith to the
Ninth Circuit would transfer a judgeship from California to Idaho,
violating historical precedent. Judge Smith has been nominated to fill
the seat last occupied by Judge Stephen Trott, an appointee of
President Ronald Reagan from California, whose retirement in 2004
created this vacancy. Judge Trott was from California, where he had
practiced for much of his career prior to becoming a judge. In fact, he
was nominated to fill the seat of another Californian, Judge Joseph
Sneed. At the time of his nomination, while he worked at the Department
of Justice in Washington, the Senators from California were consulted
and it was understood to be a California seat.
While an agreement can sometimes be worked out among Senators and the
White House to proceed with someone from another State within the
circuit
[[Page S6054]]
first, so long as the subsequent nomination comes from the first State,
I do not know of any precedent for shifting a circuit seat based on a
judge's personal decision to change his or her personal residence. If
that were to become the rule, I expect that Vermont might well benefit
from judges initially named as from New York or Connecticut recognizing
the beauty and lifestyle that Vermont has to offer and moving to the
Green Mountain State. But that is not the rule and has never been the
rule. Instead, we have worked out circuit court allocations among the
States based on tradition and history.
Of course this White House has attempted to steal a seat before, when
it attempted to replace a Maryland Fourth Circuit judge with someone
from Virginia. That attempt was unsuccessful. That was the ill-fated
nomination of Claude Allen, a White House insider who has since
resigned his high-ranking position and been arrested on charges of
retail theft.
I am sensitive that every State within a circuit should have at least
one judge come from that State. I supported legislation to ensure that
and to afford Hawaii a seat on the Ninth Circuit. I will defend Idaho's
right to a seat on the Ninth Circuit, just as I defend Vermont's right
to a seat on the Second Circuit. However, Judge Smith was not nominated
to Idaho's seat. If the President would take my suggestion and
renominate him to that Idaho vacancy, that would resolve this problem.
Judge Ikuta will occupy a California seat on the Ninth Circuit
previously held by Judge James R. Browning. Judge Browning was an
extraordinary jurist for whom the Ninth Circuit's building in San
Francisco was recently named. She has a great tradition to uphold an I
wish her well. I congratulate her and her family on her confirmation.
While I am pleased that the Senate will today confirm Ms. Ikuta to
the Ninth Circuit, I note that President Bush has yet to nominate a
single Asian-Pacific American candidate to any of the dozens of
vacancies that have arisen on our federal circuit courts. Indeed,
President Bush has nominated only one Asian-American candidate out of
the hundreds of Federal judicial nominees he has named overall. There
are many, many qualified Asian-American attorneys and judges. There is
no quota or requirement that the Federal bench be diverse, but it is
surprising that given the nominations he has had the opportunity to
make, which are approaching 300, I can remember only a single Asian-
Pacific American judicial nominee, and not one Asian-Pacific American
appellate nominee. This lack of diversity in nominees is quite a
contrast with the record of President Clinton, who appointed several
Asian-Pacific nominees to the district and appellate courts. President
Clinton appointed Judge Denny Chinn, Judge George H. King, Judge
Anthony W. Ishii, and Judge Susan Oki Mollway to Federal district
courts in New York, California and Hawaii, and who elevated Judge A.
Wallace Tashima to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit. The current President is more interested in naming White House
insiders and ideologues. In fact, he has nominated more people
associated with the Federalist Society than African-American, Hispanic,
and Asian-Pacific American nominees combined.
With the retirement of Judge Tashima from the Ninth Circuit, there
are no Asian-American circuit court judges. Despite the opportunity
presented with two Supreme Court vacancies in the past year to make the
Nation's highest court better reflect America's diversity, the
President has made the Supreme Court less diverse, failing even to fill
the seat of the Court's first female Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, with
a qualified woman. Of course he was forced by the extreme faction of
his own party to withdraw his nomination of his friend and counsel
Harriet Miers before she even had a hearing.
President Clinton sought to add diversity to the Federal bench. This
President is more focused on guaranteed results and making sure certain
circuits will be stocked with those who tilt the courts to the right
and rule in his favor.
Mr. President, if I have remaining time, I yield it back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). Under the previous order, the
hour of 5 p.m. having arrived, the Senate will proceed to vote on the
nomination.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, have the yeas and nays been ordered?
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 question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination
of Sandra Segal Ikuta, of California, to be United States Circuit Judge
for the Ninth Circuit?
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators were necessarily absent: the
Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Santorum), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Burns), the Senator from
Louisiana (Mr. Vitter), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. DeMint),
the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Enzi), the Senator from Mississippi (Mr.
Lott), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Martinez), the Senator from
Arizona (Mr. McCain), and the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from South Carolina (Mr.
DeMint) would have voted ``yea.''
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), the
Senator from Washington (Ms. Cantwell), the Senator from Illinois (Mr.
Durbin), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), the Senator from Vermont
(Mr. Jeffords), the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), the
Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry), the Senator from New Jersey
(Mr. Menendez), and the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Rockefeller)
are necessarily absent.
I further announce that if present and voting, the Senator from
Washington Ms. (Cantwell), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), and
the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) would each vote ``yea.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 81, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 175 Ex.]
YEAS--81
Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Carper
Chafee
Chambliss
Clinton
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
Dayton
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Ensign
Feingold
Feinstein
Frist
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Kennedy
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
McConnell
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Salazar
Sarbanes
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Talent
Thomas
Thune
Voinovich
Warner
Wyden
NOT VOTING--19
Biden
Brownback
Burns
Cantwell
DeMint
Durbin
Enzi
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kerry
Lott
Martinez
McCain
Menendez
Murkowski
Rockefeller
Santorum
Vitter
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the President will
be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
____________________