[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

                                 ______
                                 

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the quorum call be rescinded.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.

                          ____________________