[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 170 (Sunday, December 19, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10706-S10725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NOMINATION OF RAYMOND JOSEPH LOHIER, JR., TO BE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT 
                      JUDGE FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to the consideration of the following nomination, which the 
clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Raymond Joseph 
Lohier, Jr., of New York, to be United States Circuit Judge for the 
Second Circuit.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 2 
minutes of debate prior to the vote, equally divided and controlled 
between the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, and the Senator from 
Alabama, Mr. Sessions, or their designees.
  The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I yield my time to the senior Senator from 
New York.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, over the last few days, the Senate has 
finally begun to vote on judicial nominations that have been waiting on 
the Executive Calendar for months. There are currently three judicial 
emergency vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit 
and the Judiciary Committee has reported qualified nominees to fill 
each one.
  With the consideration of Ray Lohier's nomination, the Senate will 
finally fill one of those for the people of Vermont, Connecticut, and 
New York. For the past 13 years, Mr. Lohier has served as a Federal 
prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of 
New York and is currently special counsel to the U.S. attorney. He 
previously served as the chief and deputy chief of both the Securities 
and Commodities Task Force, which investigates and prosecutes offenses 
on Wall Street, and the narcotics unit.
  He has the strong support of Senator Gillibrand and myself. The 
Judiciary Committee unanimously reported his nomination on May 13.
  I urge confirmation of the nomination.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I am pleased to stand in support of 
Raymond J. Lohier, Jr., who is President Obama's nominee to serve on 
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ray is a 
highly talented and accomplished New Yorker, and I applaud President 
Obama for this excellent choice.
  Ray Lohier has dedicated his career to public service and protecting 
the rule of law. For nearly a decade, Ray has served with distinction 
as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, 
where he has been successfully involved in some of the Nation's most 
challenging and complex cases. He has led that office's efforts to 
prosecute securities fraud, commodities fraud, insider trading and 
Ponzi schemes. Notably, he served on the team that successfully 
prosecuted Bernard Madoff for a Ponzi scheme that defrauded billions of 
dollars from New Yorkers and individuals across the country. Prior to 
his service as an assistant U.S. attorney, Ray worked as a senior trial 
attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of 
Justice.
  In addition to his impressive professional career, Ray Lohier is 
actively involved in his community, serving on Brooklyn Community Board 
6, where he is currently the first vice chairman and chairman of the 
Public Safety Committee. While he worked as an attorney in private 
practice in New York, Ray was a member of his firm's pro bono 
committee, while also serving the State of New York on the 
Gubernatorial Task Force on Judicial Diversity on the Bench and the 
Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the 
Court, Subcommittee on Court Appointments. He has also been a member of 
the National Black Prosecutors Association.
  Ray is a cum laude graduate of Harvard College and an alumnus of the 
New York University School of law, where he earned his juris doctorate 
and was awarded the Vanderbilt Medal. He also has served as editor-in-
chief of the Annual Survey of American law.
  In addition to all of these outstanding professional and educational 
accomplishments, he has been married for the past 10 years to his wife 
Donna,

[[Page S10725]]

a professor at CUNY Law School and former chair of the New York Asian 
Women's Center. Together they are raising two children, William who is 
8 and John who is 6.
  I am confident that given his extraordinary background of 
professional accomplishment, Ray Lohier will be an excellent addition 
to the U.S. Circuit Court for the Second Circuit. He was unanimously 
supported by the Judiciary Committee on May 13 of this year, and I urge 
all of my colleagues to support his confirmation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we yield back our time, and 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 Raymond Joseph Lohier, Jr., of New York, to be United States Circuit 
Judge for the Second Circuit?
  The yeas and nays have been ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. 
Shaheen), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Specter), and the Senator 
from Oregon (Mr. Wyden) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. 
DeMint), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from 
Illinois (Mr. Kirk), and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Voinovich).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. 
Bunning) would have voted ``yea'' and the Senator from South Carolina 
(Mr. DeMint) would have voted ``yea.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 92, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 284 Ex.]

                                YEAS--92

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bennett
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Brown (MA)
     Brown (OH)
     Brownback
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Johanns
     Johnson
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     LeMieux
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lugar
     Manchin
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--8

     Bunning
     DeMint
     Isakson
     Kirk
     Shaheen
     Specter
     Voinovich
     Wyden
  The nomination was confirmed.

                          ____________________