[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 168 (Monday, November 16, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7963-S7964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today we will vote on the nomination of 
LaShann Hall to be a Federal district judge in the Eastern District of 
New York. She was nominated over a year

[[Page S7964]]

ago, and her nomination was voted out of the Judiciary Committee by 
unanimous voice vote more than 5 months ago. Ms. Hall is an outstanding 
African-American attorney who will fill a judicial emergency vacancy. 
There is no reason Senate Republicans should have delayed her 
confirmation for this long.
  The Senate this week should also vote on the next nominee on the 
calendar, who was nominated on the same day over a year ago as Ms. 
Hall. Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo will be the first ever Hispanic judge 
from Pennsylvania on the third circuit. Judge Restrepo has strong 
bipartisan support from his home State Senators, Senator Toomey and 
Senator Casey, and there is an urgent need to fill the emergency 
vacancy on the third circuit to which he has been nominated. I have 
heard no objection to his nomination, and Senator Toomey has said he 
not only strongly supports Judge Restrepo's confirmation, but he also 
recommended him to the President. I hope the majority leader will 
finally schedule his vote this week.
  In the 11 months that the Senate has been under Republican control 
this year, the Senate has only voted to confirm nine judges. This 
obstruction has resulted in needless delays for hard-working Americans 
who seek justice in our Federal courts. Currently pending on the Senate 
floor are nominees who would fill judicial emergency vacancies in 
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Minnesota, New Jersey, Iowa, New York, and 
California. Senate Republicans have refused to alleviate the urgent 
needs in those States. It does not have to be this way. When Senate 
Democrats were in the majority during the last 2 years of the Bush 
Presidency, we had already confirmed 36 judges by this same time. We 
made sure that we fulfilled our constitutional duty to provide advice 
and consent to ensure that the American people had a fully functioning 
Federal judiciary.
  Senate Republicans' obstruction has caused judicial vacancies to pile 
up across the country. Since Senate Republicans took over the majority 
at the beginning of the year, judicial vacancies have increased by more 
than 50 percent. The number of ``judicial emergency'' vacancies since 
Senate Republicans took the majority has risen by a stunning 158 
percent. The American people deserve better.
  We should follow well-established Senate precedent by confirming all 
consensus nominees before the end of the year. Each of the judicial 
nominees pending on the Executive Calendar was reported out of the 
Judiciary Committee by unanimous voice vote. And each has the backing 
of their home State Senators, including Republican Senators. In fact, 
the next nominee after Ms. Hall and Judge Restrepo is Travis McDonough 
who has been nominated to fill a judicial vacancy on the Eastern 
District of Tennessee. Next week will mark the 1-year anniversary since 
Mr. McDonough was nominated, but it appears there is no relief in sight 
as his nomination continues to be held up by Senate Republicans, 
despite the strong support he has from his home State Senators, Senator 
Alexander and Senator Corker. I see no reason why he and the rest of 
the nominees pending should not be confirmed before we recess at the 
end of the year. As the New York Times put it in an editorial last 
Friday urging confirmation votes on all pending judicial nominees, 
``With each day that passes without a vote on Judge Restrepo and other 
nominees, Republicans undermine the justice system, and the biggest 
victims are ordinary Americans who cannot count on fully functioning 
courts.'' I ask unanimous consent that this editorial be printed in the 
Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  Shortly we will begin voting on LaShann Hall to fill a judicial 
emergency vacancy in the Federal District Court for the Eastern 
District of New York. She is currently a partner at the law firm of 
Morrison & Foerster, LLP, in New York, where she has practiced since 
2010. She was previously in private practice at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher 
LLP and at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. She has the support of her two 
home State Senators, Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand. She was 
voted out of the Judiciary Committee by unanimous voice vote on June 4, 
2015. I urge my fellow Senators to support her confirmation.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Nov. 13, 2015]

                    Confirm President Obama's Judges

                        (By the Editorial Board)

       On Nov. 12, 2014, President Obama nominated Luis Felipe 
     Restrepo to a judgeship on the federal Court of Appeals for 
     the Third Circuit. Judge Restrepo, who already sits on the 
     United States District Court in Philadelphia, seemed to 
     secure the support of both Pennsylvania senators--Bob Casey, 
     a Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Republican.
       But that does not mean that Judge Restrepo, whom Mr. Toomey 
     called ``a very well-qualified candidate'' who would ``make a 
     superb addition'' to the appeals court, will actually get 
     through the confirmation roadblock led by Senate Republicans. 
     Mr. Toomey, despite his professed support, is responsible for 
     a big part of it, refusing for six months to sign off on the 
     nomination by exploiting a pointless tradition that allows 
     home-state senators to block a nomination with no explanation 
     needed. He claimed that he was waiting for a background 
     check, even though Judge Restrepo passed a check two years 
     ago for his current job. The Senate Judiciary Committee 
     approved Judge Restrepo for the appeals court seat in July. 
     There has been no explanation for the holdup since then.
       As a Hispanic and a former public defender, Judge Restrepo 
     would bring a needed measure of ethnic and professional 
     diversity to the court. But he is just one of many judicial 
     nominees awaiting action. Thirteen have not received a 
     hearing by the Judiciary Committee, and 16 others, including 
     Judge Restrepo, have been approved by the committee, all 
     unanimously, but are still waiting for a full vote on the 
     Senate floor.
       Since Republicans took over in January, the Senate has 
     confirmed only nine of President Obama's nominees, the 
     slowest pace in more than half a century. Meanwhile, the seat 
     Judge Restrepo would fill is one of 30 long-vacant federal 
     judgeships the court system deems ``judicial emergencies,'' 
     meaning they have a backlog of hundreds of cases.
       Republicans say that Mr. Obama has seen more of his 
     judicial nominees confirmed than President George W. Bush had 
     by this time in his tenure in 2007. But that is mainly 
     because Senate Democrats in 2013 stopped Republicans from 
     repeatedly using the filibuster to block qualified nominees. 
     After that, the Democratic-led Senate confirmed 96 of Mr. 
     Obama's picks. The more relevant fact is there are 67 
     judicial vacancies today, far more than the number of 
     vacancies Mr. Bush faced in 2007.
       The larger problem here, of course, is that Republicans are 
     blocking votes on highly qualified and noncontroversial 
     nominees to vent their anger with the president, who 
     infuriated them with his now-stalled immigration action, 
     among other things.
       Judges are not the only casualties of this interbranch 
     crossfire. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, another 
     unquestionably qualified candidate, waited almost six months 
     before finally getting a vote.
       Senate Democrats should make these inexcusable delays a 
     national issue. Mr. Obama, meanwhile, could start selecting 
     judges himself in states like Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin and 
     Indiana, where senators refuse to give him any names at all.
       With each day that passes without a vote on Judge Restrepo 
     and other nominees, Republicans undermine the justice system, 
     and the biggest victims are ordinary Americans who cannot 
     count on fully functioning courts.

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