[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 2, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S936]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATION OF BARBARA KEENAN

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, today the Senate confirmed Justice 
Barbara Keenan to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 
Fourth Circuit by a vote of 99-0. But the vote took place only after an 
unsuccessful Republican filibuster of her nomination.
  This is just the latest example of the new low to which Republicans 
have sunk when it comes to the treatment of judicial nominations.
  When the Democrats were in the minority under President Bush, we 
voted against cloture on a handful of his judicial nominees, but only 
the most controversial and only those for appellate court positions.
  Under President Obama, Senate Republicans have filibustered and 
stalled almost every judicial nominee sent forward, regardless of the 
court and regardless of the controversy.
  Take the case of Virginia State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Keenan. 
You would be hard pressed to come up with someone less controversial 
for this Fourth Circuit vacancy.
  Justice Keenan had the strong support of her home State Senators, Jim 
Webb and Mark Warner. She sailed through the Senate Judiciary Committee 
without a single vote of opposition. She received the highest possible 
rating from the American Bar Association. And she will be the first 
woman from Virginia to sit on the Fourth Circuit.
  Yet here we are--over 4 months after Justice Keenan was reported 
unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee--and the Republicans refused 
to agree to have an up-or-down vote on the Keenan nominee and forced 
the Democratic majority to waste time filing and voting on a cloture 
motion. They have used similar tactics with other judicial nominees.
  Why are the Republicans making us jump through all these procedural 
hoops?
  It is simple: the Republicans are trying to make us burn precious 
Senate floor time so we are unable able to work on pressing legislative 
business for the American people like job creation.
  Justice Keenan had to wait 124 days between her Senate Judiciary 
Committee vote and her floor vote. Some other circuit court nominees of 
President Obama had to wait even longer than that. Fourth Circuit Judge 
Andre Davis was forced to wait 158 days--over five months--between his 
committee vote and his floor vote. Seventh Circuit Judge David Hamilton 
was forced to wait 168 days.
  How does this compare with the treatment of President Bush's circuit 
court nominees?
  Under President Bush, 61 judges were confirmed to the appellate 
courts. Their average wait time from committee vote to floor vote was a 
mere 29 days, according to statistics from the Congressional Research 
Service.
  Justice Keenan was forced to wait over four times longer than the 
average Bush circuit court nominee who was confirmed.
  This is part of a larger pattern of obstruction on judicial 
nominations. During President Obama's first year in office, due to 
Republican filibusters and holds, the Senate confirmed only 12 lower 
court judges. Only 12.
  You have to go back to President Eisenhower to find a President who 
had so few judicial confirmations. President Eisenhower only had nine 
judicial confirmations during his first year in office. But President 
Eisenhower only made nine judicial nominations that year.
  Every other President in the modern era had more judicial 
confirmations than President Obama during their first year in office.
  President George W. Bush had 28, and that was with a Democratic 
Senate majority. President Clinton had 27, President George H.W. Bush 
had 15, President Reagan had 41, President Carter had 31, President 
Ford had 22, President Nixon had 25, President Johnson had 18, and 
President Kennedy had 56. But President Obama had only 12, due to 
unprecedented Republican obstruction.
  Today is March 2. By this time in his Presidency, President George W. 
Bush had 39 judicial confirmations. And, it bears repeating, that was 
with a Democratic Senate majority. By contrast, President Obama has 
only 16 judicial confirmations, less than half as many as his 
predecessor.
  There are 15 judicial nominations pending on the Senate floor. Most 
of them were approved in committee without a single vote of opposition. 
Yet, due to anonymous Republican holds, many have been waiting months 
and months for a vote.
  This Republican obstructionism is unacceptable and it must be 
exposed.

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