[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 154 (Friday, September 26, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9593-S9595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     NOMINATION OF ERIC F. MELGREN

  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I rise today to express my gratitude for 
the Senate's confirmation of Eric F. Melgren as Federal District Judge 
for the District of Kansas.
  It is important that we deliver solid judges to our court system. 
With that said, I believe Eric Melgren is qualified for this important 
responsibility. Since 2002, he has been serving as U.S. attorney for 
the District of Kansas. Between 2002 and 2003, the District of Kansas 
had a fourteen percent increase in the number of criminal cases filed 
in U.S. District and State courts.
  Eric's nomination will be of great benefit to the District of Kansas. 
Due to an increase in caseload, a temporary judgeship was created in 
the District of Kansas in 1990. Since the temporary judgeship was 
created, we have seen an increase in the caseload for the District of 
Kansas.
  Currently, Kansas has five active Federal district judges. With 
Eric's confirmation, we will now have six active judges. However, one 
of these judgeships is temporary and set to expire on November 21 of 
this year. If the temporary judgeship would have expired before the 
Senate confirmed Eric and another judge took senior status this year, 
the District of Kansas would only have four active judges. Therefore, 
with the increase in caseload, it was vital that we confirmed Eric 
before the expiration of this temporary judgeship.
  Again, thank you for confirming the nomination of Eric Melgren. He is 
a man of integrity and sound judgement. Eric's passion for the law will 
be of great benefit to the State of Kansas and the rest of the Nation.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise to express my pleasure at the 
confirmation today of Clark Waddoups to the U.S. district court in Utah 
and my thanks to all those, in particular the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, Senator Leahy, who facilitated this result.
  Clark Waddoups will be a truly outstanding judge.
  He graduated from the University of Utah law school where he was 
president of the Utah Law Review and has been practicing law in Utah 
for nearly 35 years, a majority of it in Federal court.
  More than that, he has participated in the life of the law in our 
State, serving on the board of visitors of the law school at Brigham 
Young University and for 17 years on the Advisory Committee to the Utah 
Supreme Court on the Rules of Evidence.
  Not surprisingly, the Utah chapter of the Federal Bar Association has 
recognized Clark as Utah's outstanding lawyer and the American Bar 
Association unanimously gave him its highest well qualified rating to 
serve as a Federal judge.
  Not only is Clark Waddoups an outstanding lawyer, but he is a good 
man.
  He is active in his church and for many years served on and led the 
board of the Family Support Center of Utah.
  Federal courts across America are very busy today, and no more so 
than in Utah.
  Utah has just five U.S. district court seats and our population has 
increased by more than 50 percent since the last one was created in 
1990.
  Because this vacancy occurred when Judge Paul Cassell resigned to go 
back to teaching, there was no senior judge available to help out.
  So the service of such an outstanding judge will be welcome indeed.
  My colleague and friend from Utah, Senator Bennett, and I worked 
together to recommend the very best candidate to replace Judge Cassell.
  Clark Waddoups stood out from the many qualified and experienced 
lawyers we considered.
  He is known and respected through the legal community and will be a 
fair and wise jurist who will live up to the highest standards of the 
American legal system.
  As everyone knows, the confirmation process, especially for judicial 
nominees, has its share, perhaps more than its share, of tension and 
controversy.
  As a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I know there are 
many competing demands and expectations.
  But Chairman Leahy nonetheless scheduled not one but two hearings 
this month to consider a total of 10 additional nominees to the U.S. 
district court.
  And he made sure that they got on the Judiciary Committee agenda, 
reported to the floor yesterday, and confirmed today.
  So I am deeply grateful to President Bush for nominating Clark 
Waddoups and to Chairman Leahy for facilitating his progress through 
the confirmation process.
  Utah and America will be better off with Judge Clark Waddoups on the 
bench.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as this Congress winds down, we need to 
focus on confronting the worst financial crisis we have experienced 
since the Great Depression, one that has exposed the American taxpayers 
to trillions in losses. But just as I continued to hold hearings on 
nominations on September 13, 2001, in the wake of the attacks of 9/11, 
I have continued deep into this Presidential election year to hold 
hearings and take action on both executive and judicial nominees. 
Indeed, yesterday the Judiciary Committee reported out 13 nominations, 
including 10 nominations for lifetime appointments to the Federal 
bench, and the nomination of Greg Garre to be Solicitor General of the 
United States, one of the highest and most prestigious positions at the 
Department of Justice.
  I went the extra mile to hold two expedited hearings this month on 
judicial nominations--despite the Thurmond Rule that Republicans 
created and followed with Democratic Presidents, despite the practices 
they followed in 1996 and 2000, and despite the record of Republicans 
in filibustering and raising objections to important bills with broad 
bipartisan support.
  I held a hearing just 3 days ago as an accommodation to Senator 
Specter, the ranking republican member of our committee and a former 
chairman. I have accommodated Senator Hatch, another former chairman. I 
also accommodated the Senator from Kansas and included the nominee from 
Kansas at a hearing Tuesday afternoon, even though his nomination has 
raised concerns. We also have proceeded with hearings on another 
nominee from Virginia, a nominee from California, and the two nominees 
from Colorado. I continue my practice of working with Senators on both 
sides of the aisle.
  Today I have continued to do so, and the Senate has confirmed all 10 
of these Bush judicial nominations: Clark Waddoups of Utah, Michael 
Anello of California, Mary Stenson Scriven of Florida, Christine 
Arguello and Phillip A. Brimmer of Colorado, C. Darnell Jones II, 
Mitchell S. Goldberg, and Joel H. Slomsky of Pennsylvania, Anthony J. 
Trenga of Virginia, and Eric Melgren of Kansas.
  I have said throughout my chairmanship that I would treat President 
Bush's nominees better than Republicans treated President Clinton's, 
and I have done so. In the 17 months I served as chairman of this 
committee during President Bush's first term with a Democratic 
majority, the Senate confirmed 100 of the President's judicial 
nominations. In the 38 months I

[[Page S9594]]

have served as Judiciary Committee chairman, the Senate has now 
confirmed 10 more nominees than it did during the more than 4 years 
Republicans led the committee, 168 nominees compared to 158.
  Even before the August recess, we had confirmed more judicial 
nominations in this Congress than were confirmed during the previous 2 
years when a Republican Senate majority and Republican chairman of this 
committee did not have to worry about the Thurmond Rule and an 
abbreviated session due to a Presidential election. With the 
confirmations today we have confirmed 68 this Congress, 14 more than in 
the last Congress with a Republican majority.
  My approach has been consistent throughout my chairmanships during 
the Bush presidency. I submit that the results have been positive. Last 
year, the Judiciary Committee favorably reported 40 judicial 
nominations to the Senate, and all 40 were confirmed. That was more 
than had been confirmed in any of the 3 preceding years when a 
Republican chairman and Republican Senate majority managed the process. 
Even though this is a Presidential election year, we confirmed more of 
President Bush's nominees this year--28--than the Republican-led Senate 
confirmed in 2005 and virtually the same number as in 2006, both non-
Presidential election years.
  Indeed, the contrast between our productivity on judicial nominations 
by confirming 10 judicial nominees late in this Congress and the flurry 
of activity undone by Republican obstructionism at the end of the last 
Congress is significant. Although we wasted many months during the 
109th Congress debating a handful of President Bush's most extreme 
failed nominees, the Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee 
worked especially hard as time ran down in that Congress to be 
accommodating on judicial nominations. We agreed to the request of 
Senator Specter, then the committee chairman, to hold four hearings in 
September 2006 on nominations and numerous extra business meetings. But 
our work to be accommodating and move nominations forward was to no 
avail when holds by Senator Brownback and other Republicans stopped the 
Senate from confirming 14 judicial nominees. Included in these were 
three nominees to fill judicial emergency vacancies in the Western 
District of Michigan, a situation not resolved until this Congress, 
when the Michigan Senators and the White House worked together with us 
to fill those vacancies.
  Despite our efforts to step away from the tit for tat of the 
nomination battles of the past and the work we have done to 
dramatically lower judicial vacancies by approving the nominees of a 
President from the other party, our efforts have yet to be 
acknowledged. After today, we will have cut the judicial vacancies from 
I encountered in the summer of 2001 after years of pocket filibusters 
of moderate and qualified nominees of President Clinton by Republican 
Senate leadership, to about a third, from 110 to as low as 34 today. In 
the 6 years of Senate Republican majority control during the Clinton 
administration, the pocket filibusters and obstruction of moderate, 
qualified nominees more than doubled circuit court vacancies. By 
contrast, we have cut circuit court vacancies by two-thirds, from 32 to 
a low of 9 this summer.
  We have broken through longstanding logjams in the Fourth, Fifth, and 
Sixth Circuits and lowered vacancies in virtually every circuit from 
when President Bush took office. With the recent confirmations of 
Helene White and Ray Kethledge to seats on the Sixth Circuit, that 
circuit, which had four vacancies after the Republican pocket 
filibusters, now has none. The Fifth Circuits had a circuit-wide 
emergency due to the multiple simultaneous vacancies during the Clinton 
years, when Republicans controlled the Senate. The Fifth Circuit now 
has no vacancies. We have succeeded in lowering vacancies in the Fourth 
Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, the Eighth Circuit, the 
Ninth Circuit, the Tenth Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit, the DC Circuit, 
and the Federal Circuit.
  Judicial vacancies that rose steadily and dramatically under 
Republican Senate control with a Democratic President have fallen 
dramatically with a Republican President when a Democratic Senate 
majority was in charge. I recall that as the Presidential elections in 
2000 drew closer, Republican pocket filibusters resulted in the 
judicial vacancy rate rising to 10 percent. Democrats have reversed 
that course. We have now lowered that number to 34, less than a third 
of where they stood after Republican pocket filibusters and 
obstruction. The vacancy rate is below 4 percent vacancy now. As 
unemployment for ordinary Americans has now risen about 6 percent 
nationwide and much higher in some States and communities, we have cut 
the judicial vacancy rate dramatically.
  I suspect many of these facts have been lost among the Republican 
election-year gambits and grumblings about judicial nominations that 
always seem loudest when we are moving forward on nominations. Partisan 
Republican critics ignore the progress we have made on judicial 
vacancies. They also ignore the crisis that they had created by not 
considering circuit nominees in 1996, 1997, and 1998. They ignore the 
fact that they refused to confirm a single circuit nominee during the 
entire 1996 session. They ignore the fact that they returned 17 circuit 
court nominees without action to the White House in 2000. They ignore 
the public criticism of their actions by Chief Justice Rehnquist during 
those years. They ignore the fact that they were responsible for more 
than doubling circuit court vacancies through pocket filibusters of 
moderate and qualified Clinton nominees or that we have reduced those 
circuit court vacancies by more than two thirds.
  In the 1996 session, the Republican majority confirmed only 17 of 
President Clinton's judicial nominees, and none were circuit court 
nominations. In stark contrast, under Democratic leader in this 
election year, the Senate has confirmed 28 judicial nominees, 4 of them 
to prestigious circuit courts.
  I have yet to hear explanations for why they did not proceed with the 
nominations of Barry Goode, Helene White, Alston Johnson, James Duffy, 
Elena Kagan, James Wynn, Kathleen McCree Lewis, Enrique Moreno, Allen 
Snyder, Kent Markus, Robert Cindrich, Bonnie Campbell, Stephen 
Orlofsky, Roger Gregory, Christine Arguello, Andre Davis, Elizabeth 
Gibson, and so many others.
  One of those many nominees blocked by the Republican abuses of those 
years was finally confirmed today. I was happy to accommodate Senator 
Salazar's request that we add two Colorado nominees to the first of our 
September hearings, after he and Senator Allard reached an agreement. 
That agreement led Senator Allard finally to return the blue slip for 
Ms. Arguello. Of course, Ms. Arguello was nominated by President 
Clinton to the Tenth Circuit, but a Republican pocket filibuster in 
2000 stalled her nomination. Ms. Arguello, like Judge Helene White, who 
was confirmed to the Sixth Circuit earlier this year, has now been 
nominated by Presidents of both parties. I thank the committee for 
completing the work on her nomination we should have completed a decade 
ago, and I am pleased that she was confirmed today.
  I am also pleased that today we confirmed the nomination of Darnell 
Jones, who has been a highly regarded judge on the Philadelphia Court 
of Common Pleas for more than 20 years, serving as the President Judge 
of that court for the last two. Judge Jones will now become just the 
88th African-American Federal judge or justice, out of 875 seats, and 
the 72nd African-American district court judge.
  There is still much work to be done. In his two terms, President Bush 
has nominated only 25 African-American judges to the Federal bench, 
compared to 77 African-American judges nominated by President Clinton 
in his two terms, more than three times as many. President Bush's 
failure to nominate an African-American judge from Mississippi even 
though that State has the highest percentage of African-American 
residents of any State is disappointing and inexplicable. I have urged, 
and will continue to urge, this President and the next one to nominate 
men and women to the Federal bench who reflect the diversity of 
America. Racial diversity remains a pillar of strength for our country 
and one of our greatest natural resources. Diversity on the bench helps 
ensure

[[Page S9595]]

that the words ``equal justice under law,'' inscribed in Vermont marble 
over the entrance to the Supreme Court, is a reality and that justice 
is rendered fairly and impartially.
  Another aspect of the problem created by Republicans that we have 
worked hard to improve is a dramatic reduction in the number of 
judicial emergency vacancies. Nearly half of the judicial nominees the 
Senate has confirmed while I have chaired the Judiciary Committee have 
filled vacancies classified by the Administrative Office of the Courts 
as judicial emergency vacancies. Eighteen of the 27 circuit court 
nominees confirmed while I have chaired the committee filled judicial 
emergency vacancies, including 9 of the 10 circuit court nominees 
confirmed this Congress. When President Bush took office, there were 28 
judicial emergency vacancies. Now that number is 13, fewer than half.
  Of course, we have made this progress even while devoting extensive 
time and attention to rebuilding the Justice Department in the wake of 
the scandals of the Gonzales era and the Bush-Cheney administration.
  At the beginning of this Congress, the Judiciary Committee began its 
oversight efforts. Over the next 9 months, our efforts revealed a 
Department of Justice gone awry. The leadership crisis came more and 
more into view as I led a bipartisan group of concerned Senators to 
consider the U.S. attorney firing scandal, a confrontation over the 
legality of the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, the 
untoward political influence of the White House at the Department of 
Justice, and the secret legal memos excusing all manner of excess and 
subverting the rule of law.
  What our efforts exposed was a crisis of leadership that took a heavy 
toll on the tradition of independence that has long guided the Justice 
Department and provided it with safe harbor from political 
interference. It shook the confidence of the American people. Through 
bipartisan efforts among those from both sides of the aisle who care 
about Federal law enforcement and the Department of Justice, we joined 
together to press for accountability. That resulted in a change in 
leadership at the Department, with the resignations of the Attorney 
General and virtually all of its highest ranking officials, along with 
several high ranking White House officials.
  Earlier this month the Judiciary Committee held its ninth hearing to 
restock and restore the leadership of the Department of Justice in the 
last year alone, including confirmation hearings for the new Attorney 
General, the new Deputy Attorney General, the new Associate Attorney 
General, and so many others. We have already confirmed 35 executive 
nominations so far this Congress and are poised to add to this total, 
having reported out of committee this month another six high-level 
executive nominations, including the nomination of Greg Garre to be 
Solicitor General of the United States, one of the highest and most 
prestigious positions at the Department of Justice, and of J. Patrick 
Rowan to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the National 
Security Division.
  The reduction in judicial vacancies is one of the few areas in which 
conditions have actually improved over the last couple of years. I wish 
we could say the same about unemployment or the price of gas or food, 
or the condition of our financial markets and housing markets. The 
economy has experienced job losses every month this year, and they now 
total more than 650,000. Compare the progress we have made on filling 
judicial vacancies with what has happened to cost of gasoline, food 
prices, health care costs, inflation, the credit crisis, home 
mortgages, and the national debt. All those indicators have been moving 
in the wrong direction, as is consumer confidence and the percentage of 
Americans who see the country as on the wrong track.
  The American people are also best served by a Federal judiciary they 
can trust to apply the law fairly regardless of who walks into the 
courtroom. The judiciary is the one arm of our Government that should 
never be political or politicized, regardless of who sits in the White 
House. I have continued to work in the waning days of this Congress 
with Senators from both sides of the aisle to confirm an extraordinary 
number of nominees late in the election year. I will continue to work 
with the next President to ensure that the Federal judiciary remains 
independent and able to provide justice to all Americans, without fear 
or favor.

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