[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5033-S5034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Ryan Bounds

  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I rise to speak out in opposition to 
the nomination of Ryan Bounds to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for 
the Ninth Circuit.
  I will be voting against his confirmation, and I ask all of my 
colleagues to do the same. My reason for this is not just the fact that 
in expressing his disdain for multicultural values in a series of 
college writings, he compared efforts to build tolerance and promote 
diversity to Nazi book burning; it is not just the fact that he 
advocated against policies designed to make

[[Page S5034]]

LGBTQ students feel welcome and crack down on campus rapists; it is not 
just the fact that when a bipartisan judicial selection committee asked 
him to disclose past controversies, he deliberately misled the 
committee and said there was nothing to worry about.
  Now that his controversial writings have come to light, he refuses to 
retract or show remorse for his statements. Instead, he brushes them 
off as overbroad and overheated.
  Ryan Bounds' writings show he does not believe in a tolerant and 
diverse America, where women and people of color are treated with equal 
respect. In my eyes, that alone disqualifies him from sitting on the 
Federal bench, but Bounds has not received the blue-slip approval of 
either Senator from his home State of Oregon. No judge in modern 
history has ever been confirmed without a blue slip from either home 
State Senator.
  So a vote to confirm him is a direct attack on the Senate's 
constitutional responsibility to advise and consent. The blue-slip 
process is a critical function of the legislative branch. It gives 
every Senator a chance to have a say in the Federal judges who serve in 
their home State.
  The nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will 
have a lifetime tenure. If confirmed, Ryan Bounds will have influence 
over our legal system for the rest of his life. Don't the American 
people and their elected officials deserve a say in whether he should 
be allowed to fill that seat?
  This debate is not just about one unqualified judge and his racist 
ideas. It is about the duty of the legislative branch to serve as a 
check and balance on the President. Over the course of the Trump 
administration so far, we have seen an unprecedented attempt to 
undermine the blue-slip process and pack the courts with judges favored 
by corporations and special interests.
  I urge my colleagues to take a stand against President Trump's 
attacks on our legal system. Protect the integrity of the blue-slip 
process and vote against Ryan Bounds' nomination. The power and 
independence of the legislature is at stake.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.