[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the next nomination.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Sarah 
E. Pitlyk, of Missouri, to be United States District Judge for the 
Eastern District of Missouri.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I oppose the nomination of Sarah Pitlyk to 
be a Federal district court judge in the Eastern District of Missouri.
  I believe that people who are nominated to serve as Federal trial 
judges ought to know their way around a courtroom. There are basic 
levels of experience and qualifications that a person needs in order to 
be an effective trial judge. I have no doubt that there are plenty of 
experienced, qualified Republican attorneys and State court judges in 
the Eastern District of Missouri, but Ms. Pitlyk is not one of them.
  She has never tried a case. She has never taken a deposition. She has 
never argued a motion in court. She has never picked a jury. She has 
never participated at any stage in a criminal matter. The American Bar 
Association's peer review process rated her ``unanimously not 
qualified.'' The ABA said that ``Ms. Pitlyk's experience to date has a 
very substantial gap, namely the absence of any trial or even real 
litigation experience.''
  The Senate is not doing our justice system any favors by confirming 
trial judges who lack courtroom experience. My Republican colleagues 
should stop rubber-stamping judicial nominees who lack basic 
qualifications and experience.
  Ms. Pitlyk also has made many statements in her career that indicate 
that she has prejudged certain issues. For example, she wrote an 
article describing the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the 
Affordable Care Act as ``an unprincipled decision.'' She also gave a 
speech earlier this year in which she described the Supreme Court's 
jurisprudence on abortion as ``thoroughly activist,'' and ``politically 
biased,'' and as containing ``gross defects.''
  She has spent much of her legal career advocating against 
reproductive rights, including a 2017 article in which she wrote that 
``surrogacy is harmful to mothers and children, so it's a practice 
society should not be enforcing.'' She also said in a 2017 press 
release that ``surrogacy diminishes respect for motherhood and the 
unique mother-child bond, encourages exploitation of women, and it 
commodifies pregnancy and children. Surrogacy also weakens society's 
natural abhorrence of eugenic abortion.''
  My colleague Senator Tammy Duckworth wrote a powerful letter in 
response to Ms. Pitlyk's attacks on surrogacy. Senator Duckworth's 
letter talked about her two beautiful daughters and her use of assisted 
reproductive technology to start a family. She wrote: ``No American 
should be denigrated and insulted for starting a family with the help 
of assisted reproductive technology or opting to use surrogacy, which 
is often a last resort.'' She went on to write: ``As a mother who 
struggled with infertility for years and required IVF to start my 
family, I would be one of the many Americans who could never enter Ms. 
Pitlyk's courtroom with any reasonable expectation that my case would 
be adjudicated in a fair and impartial manner. . . . Not after Ms. 
Pitlyk accused families who opt for surrogacy of contributing to `grave 
effects on society' including disrespecting motherhood.''
  I want to commend Senator Duckworth for this powerful and personal 
letter. I hope my colleagues pay attention to it.
  I appreciate that at least one Republican Senator, Ms. Collins of 
Maine, has said she will vote no on the Pitlyk nomination because of 
Ms. Pitlyk's lack of qualifications and extreme views. I hope more 
Republicans will join her.
  I will vote no on the Pitlyk nomination, and I urge my colleagues to 
do the same.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
remaining votes in this series be 10 minutes in length.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Pitlyk nomination?
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), 
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Alaska (Ms. 
Murkowski) would have voted ``no.''
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), 
the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. 
Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are 
necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 49, nays 44, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 379 Ex.]

                                YEAS--49

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     McConnell
     McSally
     Moran
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--44

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Jones
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--7

     Booker
     Harris
     Isakson
     Murkowski
     Rounds
     Sanders
     Warren
  The nomination was confirmed.

                          ____________________