[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 9, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4723-S4724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Daniel Aaron Bress

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, this week, the Republican leader, 
Senator McConnell, has scheduled a vote on a nominee to fill a Ninth 
Circuit seat based in California.
  But the nominee, Daniel Bress, is a Washington, DC, lawyer who has 
only lived in California for 1 year since high school.
  Mr. Bress checks many of the usual boxes that we see for Republican 
judicial nominees: He is very young--only 40 years old--he has a track 
record of representing big corporate interests, and he is a longtime 
member of the Federalist Society.
  But what is new and different about this nominee is that, by any 
reasonable standard, he is not a member of the legal community of the 
State in which he would sit if confirmed.
  Mr. Bress is listed by the California bar as an out-of-State 
attorney. He belongs to no legal societies or organizations in 
California. He has only worked

[[Page S4724]]

on a handful of matters in California courts.
  He doesn't own property in California or even have a California 
driver's license. Mr. Bress's nomination is opposed by California's two 
Senators, neither of whom have provided a blue slip. He was reported 
out of the Judiciary Committee with opposition from all committee 
Democrats.
  To my Republicans colleagues, I say this: The vote on the Bress 
nomination will set a precedent that could come back to haunt your 
State.
  Any Senator who votes to confirm Mr. Bress is giving their blessing 
to a process that could cause an out-of-state attorney to be seated in 
a circuit court judgeship in your own State, over the objection of your 
State's Senators.
  There are thousands of well-qualified attorneys living and practicing 
in California whom the Trump administration could have selected for 
this California-based Ninth Circuit seat. They bypassed all of them in 
favor of a Washington, DC, attorney with minimal California ties.
  There have been many breakdowns in the Senate's process for 
confirming judicial nominees under this Republican majority. If the 
Senate votes to confirm Mr. Bress, it would represent yet another new 
precedent that diminishes the Senate's advice and consent process. I 
urge my colleagues to vote no.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Florida.