[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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