[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 82 (Monday, June 4, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3674-S3677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
______
NOMINATION OF TIMOTHY S. HILLMAN TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR
THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination,
which the clerk will report.
The bill clerk read the nomination of Timothy S. Hillman, of
Massachusetts, to be United States District Judge for the District of
Massachusetts.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 30
minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, today, the Senate will vote on the
nomination of Timothy Hillman to fill a judicial vacancy in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Judge Hillman has the
strong bipartisan support of his home state Senators. His nomination
was reported with a near unanimous vote of 17 1 by the Judiciary
Committee nearly 3 months ago, with the only objection coming from
Senator Lee's customary protest vote. I thank the majority leader for
his work in securing a vote on Judge Hillman's nomination.
I would note, however, that we have passed over consideration of four
other nominees who are all listed on the executive calendar ahead of
Judge Hillman. Those nominees--Andrew Hurwitz for the Ninth Circuit,
Jeffrey Helmick for the Northern District of Ohio, Patty Shwartz for
the Third Circuit, and Mary Lewis for the District of South Carolina--
are all extremely well qualified, have the support of their home state
Senators, were reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee, and
deserve an up-or-down vote. I hope we will have a vote on them soon.
Judge Hillman could and should have been confirmed back in March when
the Majority Leader first filed cloture on his nomination. While I
regret that he was not part of the original agreement reached by the
Majority Leader and the Republican leader for a floor vote, I am glad
that an agreement was reached to consider his nomination today. Once we
vote on Judge Hillman, we need to agree to vote on the 15 other
judicial nominees stalled on the Executive calendar because there are
still far too many vacancies plaguing our courts today.
The Congressional Research Service recently released a report about
the treatment of President Obama's judicial nominations that confirms
what we already know--that Senate Republicans have held President
Obama's nominees to a different and unfair standard. For example, 95
percent of district court nominees in President George W. Bush's first
term were confirmed, while only 78 percent of President Obama's
district court nominees have been confirmed.
President Obama's nominees are also being delayed and forced to wait
far longer on the Senate floor than President Bush's nominees. The
median wait time for President Obama's district nominees after having
been reported favorably out of Committee is more than 4 times longer
than for President Bush's district nominees. The median wait time for
President Obama's circuit nominees is 7.3 times longer than for
President Bush's circuit nominees.
The simple fact is that the Senate is still lagging far behind what
we accomplished during the first term of President George W. Bush.
During President Bush's first term we reduced the number of judicial
vacancies by almost 75 percent. When I became Chairman in the summer of
2001, there were 110 vacancies. As chairman, I worked with the
administration and Senators from both sides of the aisle to confirm 100
judicial nominees of a conservative Republican President in 17 months.
Senate Democrats continued when in the minority to work with Senate
Republicans to confirm President Bush's consensus judicial nominations
well into 2004, a Presidential election year. At the end of that
Presidential term, the Senate had acted to confirm 205 circuit and
district court nominees. In May 2004, we reduced judicial vacancies to
below 50 on the way to 28 that August. Despite 2004 being an election
year, we were able to reduce vacancies to the lowest level in the last
20 years. At a time of great turmoil and political confrontation,
despite the attack on 9/11, the anthrax letters shutting down Senate
offices, and the ideologically-driven judicial selections of President
Bush, we worked together to promptly confirm consensus nominees and
significantly reduce judicial vacancies. By working together, we
lowered vacancy rates more than twice as quickly as Senate Republicans
have allowed during President Obama's first term.
In October 2008, another presidential election year, we again worked
to reduce judicial vacancies and were able to get back down to 34
vacancies. I accommodated Senate Republicans and continued holding
expedited hearings and votes on judicial nominations into September
2008.
By comparison, the vacancy rate remains nearly twice what it was at
this point in the first term of President Bush. While vacancies were
reduced below 50 by May of President Bush's fourth year, in June of
President Obama's fourth year they remain in the mid-70s. They remained
near or above 80 for nearly 3 years. We are more than 30 confirmations
behind the pace we set in 2001 through 2004. Of course, we could move
forward if the Senate were allowed to vote without further delay on the
16 judicial nominees ready for final action. The Senate could reduce
vacancies below 60 and make progress.
The recently released CRS Report also notes that in five of the last
eight Presidential election years, the Senate has confirmed at least 22
nominees after May 31. Because of how far we are lagging from President
Bush's record of confirmations, we should be working to exceed those
numbers. We can start today by confirming Judge Hillman and the other
15 judicial nominees ready for final Senate action. Another five
judicial nominees were ready for final Judicial Committee action in May
but held over by Committee Republicans. Those five nominees should be
voted out of the Committee this Thursday. In addition, we are holding a
hearing for another three judicial nominees this Wednesday. With
cooperation from Senate Republicans the Senate could make real progress
and match what we have accomplished in prior years.
Timothy Hillman was rated unanimously well qualified by the ABA's
Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, the highest possible
rating. He has been a federal magistrate judge on the court in which he
has been nominated for nearly 6 years. Prior to his service as a
magistrate judge, Judge Hillman served for 15 years as a state court
judge on the Massachusetts Superior Court and the Massachusetts
District Court. He has also spent significant time in private practice
and several years of experience as an Assistant District Attorney in
the Worcester County District Attorney's Office.
Judge Hillman is a respected and experienced jurist in Massachusetts.
His nomination has the strong support of both his home state Senators,
Senator John Kerry and Senator Scott Brown, who introduced him to the
Judiciary Committee at his hearing in February.
Senator Brown said of Judge Hillman:
We have in Judge Hillman somebody who is greatly respected
in Massachusetts and especially in the Worcester area through
his innovation and integrity and dedication to fairness. He
is really to be commended, and I want to thank he and his
wife for, obviously, putting up with the process. And I am
going to do everything in my power to encourage my colleagues
to make sure that we get a vote on this right away, because
Massachusetts needs a jurist like him right away to do the
people's business, and that is so critically important.
[[Page S3675]]
While this vote on Judge Hillman is hardly ``right away,'' as Senate
Republicans have continued to needlessly stall his nomination for close
to 3 months now, it is finally occurring. This consensus nomination is
another example of a judge's confirmation being delayed needlessly for
months and months for no good reason or purpose other than delay. Given
Judge Hillman's qualifications and significant bipartisan support, he
should be confirmed easily.
After today, we still have much more work to do to help resolve the
judicial vacancy crisis that has persisted for more than 3 years. When
the Majority Leader and the Republican leader came to their interim
understanding in March, it resulted in votes on 14 of the 22 judicial
nominations then awaiting final consideration. Because the arrangement
took months to implement what the Senate could have done in hours, the
backlog of judicial vacancies and judicial nominees continues. Today,
we have 16 judicial nominees awaiting action. Let us do what we did on
November 14, 2002, when we confirmed 18 of President Bush's judicial
nominations on a single day.
Our courts need qualified Federal judges, not vacancies, if they are
to reduce the excessive wait times that burden litigants seeking their
day in court. It is unacceptable for hardworking Americans who turn to
their courts for justice to suffer unnecessary delays. When an injured
plaintiff sues to help cover the cost of his or her medical expenses,
that plaintiff should not have to wait 3 years before a judge hears the
case. When two small business owners disagree over a contract, they
should not have to wait years for a court to resolve their dispute.
We need to work to reduce the vacancies that are burdening the
Federal judiciary and the millions of Americans who rely on our Federal
courts to seek justice. Let us work in a bipartisan fashion to confirm
these qualified judicial nominees so that we can address the judicial
vacancy crisis and so they can serve the American people.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, today, the Senate turns to another
judicial nomination, that of Timothy Hillman, to be U.S. district judge
for the District of Massachusetts. I support this nomination.
We continue to confirm the President's nominees at a brisk pace. In
fact, with today's confirmations, we will have confirmed 147 of this
President's district and circuit court nominees.
Let me put that in perspective for my colleagues. We also have
confirmed two Supreme Court nominees during President Obama's term. The
last time the Senate confirmed two Supreme Court nominees was during
President Bush's second term. And during President Bush's entire second
term, the Senate confirmed a total of only 120 district and circuit
court nominees. We have confirmed 27 more nominees for President Obama
than we did for President Bush in a similar time period.
Judge Hillman received his B.A. from Coe College in 1970 and his J.D.
from Suffolk Law School in 1973. He began his legal career in 1974 as a
staff attorney at Murphy & Pusateri. In 1975 he became an assistant
district attorney, where he prosecuted criminal cases for Worcester
County. During this time, he also conducted limited private practice,
which centered on drafting wills, representing clients in real estate
transactions, and representing plaintiffs in motor torts. He left the
D.A.'s office in 1978 and represented criminal defendants in private
practice until 1988. He also represented multiple municipalities in
this stretch of time as either city solicitor or town counsel. While
working in these capacities, he represented the municipalities in
court, gave legal advice to their boards and elected officials, and
drafted and reviewed legal documents.
In 1995 Judge Hillman was appointed to be associate judge of the
Gardner District Court, and he became presiding justice there in 1997.
From 1998 to 2006 Judge Hillman was a judge for the Massachusetts
Superior Court, an appointed position. In 2006 Judge Hillman was
appointed to be a U.S. magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for
the District of Massachusetts, Worcester Division. As a magistrate
judge, he manages and tries civil cases with the consent of the
parties, both jury and nonjury. He is also responsible for the
initiation and management of criminal felonies, not including trial,
and all aspects of criminal misdemeanors.
The ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated
him as ``well qualified'' for this position.
I yield the floor.
Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. Madam President, may I inquire as to how
much time remains for the two sides?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 15 minutes.
Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. Fifteen minutes per side? How much time
remains on the other side?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority has 6\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. KERRY. Madam President, is this controlled time?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Yes, there is 6\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. KERRY. The Senator, my colleague, is able to speak on Republican
time, I believe.
Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. That is correct.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct
Mr. KERRY. If he wants to go first, I am happy for him to go ahead.
Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. I will defer to the senior Senator from
Massachusetts.
Mr. KERRY. I thank my colleague.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KERRY. I thank my colleague for his courtesy. I am perfectly
happy to wait and listen to his comments.
We have a sort of Alphonse and Gaston thing going back and forth.
Madam President, I thank Chairman Leahy for his work on the Judiciary
Committee in helping bring this nomination to the floor, and,
obviously, Senator Brown and I are here, having worked together to
choose this nominee and to send his name to the White House. We are
very grateful, both of us, to President Obama for acting favorably on
this nonpartisan recommendation which we made, and we are grateful to
the other members of the Judiciary Committee who approved the
nomination and brought it to the floor expeditiously so we can fill a
very important vacancy in Massachusetts.
I think both of us believe the President could not have nominated a
more qualified individual than Judge Hillman. He is already a judge, as
we know, but a broad segment of the judicial community in Massachusetts
agrees with us completely. Senator Brown and I agreed on a team made up
of some of the top lawyers in our State who would get together and
screen these candidates before we even view them, and so this candidate
comes with the endorsement of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the
Worcester Bar Association, the Hampden Bar Association, and the backing
of this nonpartisan search committee that gave us several names to
evaluate. We sat down and interviewed the judges, and I think both of
us are extremely pleased with the results.
In Judge Hillman, we see what President Obama has recognized--a
thoughtful, fair, honest jurist who has a long record of public service
as counsel to several municipalities in Massachusetts and as a
magistrate judge in Worcester.
There is not going to be any learning curve for Judge Hillman if he
is confirmed by the Senate this afternoon. Serving on the District
Court in Worcester would be an enormous capstone to his decades of
tireless public service, and I know he will bring his signature brand
of thoughtful deliberation to the Worcester District. I am very
grateful for his many years of public service.
As the current Presiding Officer of the Senate knows, having been a
former Governor who has made her own nominations, it is tough to get
lawyers nowadays who are willing to give up the compensation of the
private sector to come and work for very little in a tireless public
way. So I wish to recognize Judge Hillman's family--his wife Kay, and
his children Zachary, Molly, and Patrick--for their contributions
toward his ability to be able to share his life in public service with
all of us.
I ask my colleagues to support his nomination this afternoon, Judge
Timothy Hillman, to the U.S. District Court of Worcester, MA.
[[Page S3676]]
I yield to my colleague.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts. Madam President, I appreciate the senior
Senator from Massachusetts setting up that process. We have worked hand
in hand to try to develop a nonpartisan, unbiased process. Quite
honestly, I was deeply impressed with the way we were able to handle it
and get some truly qualified candidates. It was good to work with my
colleague, and I look forward to doing it again. I rise also to endorse
the nomination of Judge Timothy Hillman to the U.S. District Court for
the District of Massachusetts.
As many of you know, when I was a young man, I had a run-in with the
law. It was a judge named Samuel Zoll who set me straight and served as
a role model for me. No doubt Judge Zoll served as a role model for
many young men and women in Massachusetts. My experience shows the
ability of judges to do good in their communities.
Today we are considering the nomination of a judge who will make the
Worcester, MA, area a better place. I know that for a fact, as Senator
Kerry pointed out. Judge Hillman is a man of integrity who will make us
proud as the next Federal judge in Massachusetts. He will have a chance
to shape young people's lives, much like Judge Zoll did for me.
Before I say a few words about Judge Hillman's background, once
again, I thank Senator Kerry. We have in place a process I would
recommend to other Senators so they can get good jurists in their own
States. We worked very closely on that nomination.
I wish to also thank the judicial nominating committee we comprised.
We have, as was said, some of the most respected and experienced
attorneys in Massachusetts trying to bring something very special to
our State, and that is a balanced judiciary. The attorneys on the panel
came from all walks of life and different areas of our State, and the
judicial nominating committee reviewed many applications and
interviewed nearly every applicant, took their assignment very
seriously, and we are both deeply appreciative of their time and
effort.
Ultimately, this bipartisan committee made several recommendations,
and Senator Kerry and I then interviewed each and every one of them. It
was clear during his interview that we were immediately impressed by
his poise and intellect. Clearly, he understands the proper role of a
judge and is deeply committed to achieving justice.
In his interview, he lived up to his reputation as a thoughtful and
thorough jurist with deep ties to the community, which makes it even
all the more fitting that he will remain in Worcester to do good for
the people of Worcester. They respect him as one of their own and trust
that he will serve them well.
Since Senator Kerry and I recommended Judge Hillman to President
Obama, we have received an outpouring of support for Judge Hillman from
the Worcester bar and its residents, and we are both thankful for that.
His legal background also makes him uniquely qualified for this
position. He is currently a magistrate judge in Worcester, MA. In that
role he has been indispensable to the Federal judiciary in
Massachusetts. If confirmed he will seamlessly integrate with the other
members of the District of Massachusetts courts.
The bar in Worcester has a tremendous amount of confidence in him, as
both Senator Kerry and I do as well. They know when they appear before
the judge, they are going to get a fair shake and that he has a sharp
legal mind.
In addition to his role as magistrate judge, he generously gives a
significant amount of his time to bar activities. For example, in 2008,
in partnership with the U.S. Probation Office, Judge Hillman
established a Federal reentry court program called RESTART for high-
risk ex-offenders who have been released from prison. Judge Hillman's
goal in establishing RESTART was to reduce recidivism and to focus on
employment skills for ex-offenders. Judge Hillman should be proud that
only after a few years, RESTART is becoming a national model for
reentry courts, and for that we are also thankful.
In 2009 he was appointed as the national cochair of a group of judges
and support staff who are responsible for the design and implementation
of the next generation of the Federal courts case management and
electronic filing system.
Prior to his service as a magistrate, he served as a State trial
court judge for 16 years. Before becoming a judge, Judge Hillman spent
14 years in private legal practice, giving that up, as Senator Kerry
referenced, to do good public service. He served as town councilman to
three towns also in Massachusetts. So it is rare to find a nominee with
the diversity of experience of Judge Hillman.
It will actually also affect the people in the Presiding Officer's
State who work in Massachusetts--and I would encourage and seek the
Presiding Officer's vote as well. For that reason, he is a superb
choice.
In closing, I enthusiastically support Judge Hillman's nomination as
a Federal judge. I will be standing right up there encouraging each and
every Member of both sides of the aisle to see if we can get him
through almost unanimously.
I have had the opportunity to support a stellar candidate to the
Federal bench before, and I am excited to do it again. I thank Senator
Kerry once again for the process. We have appointed two great judges to
the judicial bar back home, and it is good for Massachusetts.
Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I believe there is a vote due at this
hour, is there not? I ask for the yeas and nays with respect to the
Hillman nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination
of Timothy S. Hillman, of Massachusetts, to be United States District
Judge for the District of Massachusetts? The yeas and nays have been
ordered, and the clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Iowa (Mr. Harkin), the
Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator from New
Jersey (Mr. Menendez) are necessarily absent.
Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator
from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Georgia (Mr.
Chambliss), the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Coats), the Senator from
South Carolina (Mr. DeMint), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Heller), the
Senator from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Portman),
and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from South Carolina (Mr.
DeMint) would have voted ``nay.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hagan). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 88, nays 1, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 114 Ex.]
YEAS--88
Akaka
Alexander
Ayotte
Barrasso
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Bingaman
Blumenthal
Blunt
Boozman
Boxer
Brown (MA)
Brown (OH)
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Franken
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hagan
Hatch
Hoeven
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson (SD)
Johnson (WI)
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lugar
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Merkley
Mikulski
Moran
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (NE)
Nelson (FL)
Paul
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Snowe
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Toomey
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
[[Page S3677]]
Vitter
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
NAYS--1
Lee
NOT VOTING--11
Burr
Chambliss
Coats
DeMint
Harkin
Heller
Kirk
Lautenberg
Menendez
Portman
Rubio
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to
reconsider is made and laid upon the table, and the President will be
immediately notified of the Senate's action.
____________________