[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 74 (Tuesday, May 8, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            VOTE EXPLANATION

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I regret that, due to unforeseeable 
flight delays, I was unable to make it back here to Washington in time 
for the cloture vote on Kurt Engelhardt's nomination for the Fifth 
Circuit Court of Appeals. Had I been present, I would have voted 
against cloture.
  His record on the district court is deeply troubling, particularly 
those concerning sexual harassment, religious discrimination, civil 
rights, and discriminating against women who choose to have children in 
the workforce--a right that should be open to every American woman 
without fear of losing one's job. In Mr. Engelhardt's court, ogling, 
groping, making suggestive comments, and talking about a woman's 
appearance do not constitute sexual harassment or a hostile work 
environment. In Mr. Engelhardt's court, a woman who is ordered by her 
doctor to be on bedrest can be fired 2 weeks after giving birth because 
``the fact that Plaintiff's absences were caused by pregnancy does not 
dispense with the general requirement that employees must show up for 
work.''
  Then there is Judge Engelhardt's extremely disturbing ruling 
overturning the convictions of five former New Orleans police officers 
in the Danziger Bridge case. This was a case that was described at the 
time as ``the most significant police misconduct prosecution since 
Rodney King,'' but Mr. Engelhardt overturned the convictions because 
three of the prosecutors wrote anonymous blog posts, even though the 
judge acknowledged that there was no evidence that any of the jurors 
had ever read these posts. Mr. Engelhardt's ruling in the Danziger 
Bridge case is exactly the kind of action that makes so many Americans 
distrust our criminal justice system and amplifies the racial 
inequalities that exist in it.
  Too many Americans have been denied justice in Mr. Engelhardt's court 
for the Members of the U.S. Senate to reward and elevate him to a 
position of higher authority. Therefore, I would like it to be known on 
the record that I oppose Judge Engelhardt's nomination to serve on the 
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and would have voted in the negative had 
I been able to be here.

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