[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 191 (Thursday, December 13, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S15568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Amul R. Thapar

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the Senate continues, as we have all year, 
to make progress filling judicial vacancies by considering yet another 
nomination reported out of committee this month. The nomination before 
us today for a lifetime appointment to the Federal bench is Amul R. 
Thapar, to the Eastern District of Kentucky. He has the support of both 
home State Senators. I acknowledge the support of Senators McConnell 
and Bunning, and want to thank Senator Whitehouse for chairing the 
hearing on this nomination.
  In November, the Judiciary Committee reached a milestone by voting to 
report our 40th judicial nominee this year. That exceeds the totals 
reported in each of the previous 2 years, when a Republican-led 
Judiciary Committee was considering this President's nominees.
  I am delighted to promptly consider the nomination of Mr. Thapar. The 
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association wrote to us in support 
of his nomination, which is the first of a South Asian American to be 
an Article III judge by this President. When confirmed, he would become 
only the seventh Asian Pacific American Article III judge in our 
Nation's history.
  Amul R. Thapar is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of 
Kentucky in Lexington, KY. Before that, he served as an Assistant U.S. 
Attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and in the District of 
Columbia. He worked in private practice at the law firms of Squire, 
Sanders & Dempsey and Williams & Connolly LLP and worked as a general 
counsel for Equalfooting.com. Mr. Thapar served as a law clerk for 
Judge Nathaniel R. Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth 
Circuit and for Judge S. Arthur Spiegel on the District Court for the 
Southern District of Ohio. He graduated from Boston College and the 
University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law.
  When we confirm the nomination we consider today, the Senate will 
have confirmed 37 nominations for lifetime appointments to the Federal 
bench this session alone. That exceeds the totals confirmed in all of 
2004, 2005, and 2006 when a Republican-led Senate was considering this 
President's nominees; all of 1989; all of 1993, when a Democratic-led 
Senate was considering President Clinton's nominees; all of 1997 and 
1999, when a Republican-led Senate was considering President Clinton's 
nominees; and all of 1996, when the Republican-led Senate did not 
confirm a single one of President Clinton's circuit nominees.
  When this nomination is confirmed, the Senate will have confirmed 137 
total Federal judicial nominees in my tenure as Judiciary chairman. 
During the Bush Presidency, more circuit judges, more district judges--
more total judges--were confirmed in the first 24 months that I served 
as Judiciary chairman than during the 2-year tenures of either of the 
two Republican chairmen working with Republican Senate majorities.
  The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will list 45 judicial 
vacancies and 14 circuit court vacancies after today's confirmations. 
Compare that to the numbers at the end of the 109th Congress, when the 
total vacancies under a Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee were 
51 judicial vacancies and 15 circuit court vacancies. That means that 
despite the additional vacancies that arose at the beginning of the 
110th Congress and throughout this year, the current vacancy totals 
under my chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee are below where they 
were under a Republican led-Judiciary Committee. They are almost half 
of what they were at the end of President Clinton's term, when 
Republican pocket filibusters allowed judicial vacancies to rise above 
100 before settling at 80. Twenty-six of them were for circuit courts.
  When the President consults and sends the Senate well-qualified, 
consensus nominations, we can work together and continue to make 
progress as we are today.
  I congratulate the nominee and his family on his confirmation today.

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