[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 26 (Monday, February 25, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S799-S800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BACHARACH NOMINATION

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of the 
nomination of Magistrate Judge Robert Bacharach of Edmond, OK, to be 
the next judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Bacharach 
is well-qualified for this position and has received widespread support 
and accolades from across the State of Oklahoma, including members of 
academia and members of both the Oklahoma and Federal Bar Associations. 
In fact, last year, the Oklahoma Bar Association passed a resolution 
praising Judge Bacharach's legal abilities and supporting his 
confirmation.

[[Page S800]]

  This broad array of support is indicative of his exceptional legal 
background. Judge Bacharach received his B.A., with high honors, from 
the University of Oklahoma in 1981 and his J.D. from Washington 
University School of Law in 1985. Judge Bacharach began his legal 
career as a law clerk for fellow Oklahoman, Chief Judge William J. 
Holloway, Jr., on the Tenth Circuit; thus, he is already quite familiar 
with those chambers. Following his two-year clerkship, he joined the 
outstanding Oklahoma-based law firm Crowe & Dunlevy, becoming a 
shareholder in 1994. After 12 years of private practice, he was 
appointed by the judges of his district court as a United States 
Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma where he 
currently presides. In addition to serving as a magistrate judge, Judge 
Bacharach also served as an adjunct professor at the University of 
Oklahoma School of Law and received a number of outstanding awards and 
recognition for his years of scholarship and service.
  In addition to his clear legal qualifications, even more important to 
my decision to support Judge Bacharach's nomination are the strong 
testimonies to his integrity and commitment to service outside of his 
judicial role. He is currently the Vice President of the Federal Bar 
Association (FBA) for the Tenth Circuit and formerly served the 
Oklahoma City Chapter of the FBA as President, Vice President, and a 
member of the Board of Directors.
  Furthermore, Judge Bacharach serves the Oklahoma legal community 
beyond his professional capacity. One of his primary areas of service 
to his colleagues is through his involvement with the Oklahoma Bar 
Association's Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee, which helps attorneys 
who are experiencing personal problems such as depression, alcoholism, 
and drug dependency. He has served on the committee for three years and 
also joined the Board of Directors of the Lawyers Helping Lawyers 
Foundation. Judge Bacharach serves Oklahoma outside of the legal 
profession as the Director and Executive Committee Member of Big 
Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Oklahoma City and on the Board of 
Trustees of the Temple B'nai Israel.
  I believe Judge Bacharach will uphold the highest standards and 
reflect the best in the American judicial tradition by joining the 
Tenth Circuit as a distinguished and respected member of the Oklahoma 
legal community. The Judiciary Committee received many letters of 
support for Judge Bacharach's nomination, including recommendations 
from judges, deans and professors from Oklahoma law schools, several 
bar associations, and attorneys from Judge Bacharach's former law firm, 
Crowe & Dunlevy.
  Equally important to Judge Bacharach's qualifications is his judicial 
philosophy. I believe his record and his hearing testimony demonstrate 
that he respects the limited role our founders intended judges and the 
federal government to play in our constitutional democracy.
  Based on all of these factors, I believe Judge Bacharach will be an 
excellent addition to the Tenth Circuit, and I urge my colleagues to 
support his nomination.
  I offer my congratulations to Judge Bacharach and his family on this 
momentous occasion of his confirmation and wish him well in his new 
endeavor.
  Judge Bacharach's nomination got caught up in the political 
shenanigans the majority leader and the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee carried out at the end of the last Congress. Never before has 
a circuit court nominee come to the floor without notification of the 
very members of the Judiciary Committee who sponsored their nomination 
in the committee. So it was purely a political trick. And for that I 
think the Senate owes Judge Bacharach an apology for the delay. I have 
no doubt he will be confirmed, and I doubt there will be anybody who 
will vote against him.
  That leads me to two other comments I wish to make. I have sat on the 
Judiciary Committee for four Supreme Court nominees, and so what I am 
about to say may strike some people as hyperbole, but it is not. The 
four Supreme Court nominees who appeared while I sat on the Judiciary 
Committee displayed great qualities, and what I am about to say doesn't 
diminish their characteristics or qualities at all, but I must say that 
Judge Bacharach has the two qualities that are at such a high level 
that we should want each and every judge who sits on our Federal bench 
to have them.
  The first is personal integrity. Now, those words are used a lot in 
our country, but this man has demonstrated it with his life, with his 
commitments to other people, his commitment to helping other people, 
with the way he spends his time, with his commitment to his family and 
to his faith. You cannot find a blemish on this man in terms of his 
personal integrity, and very rarely can we say that about anybody. He 
is actually a stellar individual, exactly the type of individual our 
Founders had in mind, someone who has the kind of personal life that 
exemplifies the characteristics and qualities that built this country, 
a love for the law, and an understanding that the rule of law is the 
glue that holds our society together.
  That leads me to the second quality. I have interviewed a lot of 
candidates for the Supreme Court and for judgeships and circuit court 
positions, and I have never met anybody who knows the Constitution, its 
limitations, and its intent better than Judge Bacharach. I think he 
quite assuredly impressed every member of the Judiciary Committee with 
his knowledge, his insight, and his background.
  So Judge Bacharach brings together the two qualities that are so 
important and represent the upper end of all the candidates I have seen 
in my 9 years in the Senate of those whom we would ask to fulfill some 
of the most important positions in our country and in our society.
  I believe Judge Bacharach is the first judge I will have voted for 
whom I have no doubt of his absolute fidelity to the U.S. Constitution. 
So I sleep well at night. I wish we had 100 Judge Bacharachs--100--to 
put on the bench today. I don't believe he can be influenced by 
anything other than stare decisis, precedence, and the U.S. 
Constitution and the statutes. His personal life gives reflection and 
insight into how he is going to be a judge, how he will carry himself, 
how he will act in this position of power. When you meet him, what you 
find is one of the humblest of men with one of the greatest intellects 
I have ever known in my life.
  So I will just say that I fully support his nomination. I 
congratulate him because I know he is going to be approved, and I say, 
Mr. President, bring us more Robert Bacharachs.
  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. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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