[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 215 (Tuesday, December 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S9128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Judicial Nominations

  Mr. President, on judges and nominations, in addition to our 
legislative agenda, the Senate will also work today and the rest of the 
week on confirming more of President Biden's nominees to serve on the 
Federal bench.
  First, we will hold a vote this morning to proceed on the nomination 
of Samantha Elliott to serve as a district judge for the District of 
New Hampshire. As soon as today, we also hope to vote on the 
confirmation of Jennifer Sung of Oregon, nominated to sit on the U.S. 
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Senate invoked cloture on 
Ms. Sung at the end of last week, and I want to say a few words in 
support of this remarkable nominee.
  Throughout her career, Ms. Sung has proven herself to be an 
exceptionally impartial adjudicator, a valiant advocate for working 
Americans, and I am confident she will be an excellent judge who adds 
to the personal and professional diversity of the Ninth Circuit.
  A graduate of Oberlin and Yale Law School, Ms. Sung's first 
experience with the Ninth Circuit came while she served as a clerk for 
Judge Betty Fletcher before embarking on a career in private practice 
focused on employment and on labor law. For over a decade, she 
regularly represented low-income workers, minority workers, and 
underserved communities in disputes against their employers. As a 
member of the Oregon Employment Relations Board, she struck a difficult 
balance between protecting the rights of working Americans while 
applying the law without prejudice--the key ingredients for any 
successful Federal judge.
  If confirmed, Ms. Sung will be one of the very few Asian Americans to 
sit on the Federal judiciary. Along with Ms. Elliott, she would be the 
31st judge whom the Senate Democratic majority has confirmed this 
year--the most under any President's first year in decades--and we are 
doing it with outstanding, impartial, and diverse nominees, and we are 
going to keep working in the months ahead.
  Today, article III judges are still overwhelmingly White, 
overwhelmingly male, and overwhelmingly from big law firms or 
prosecutorial backgrounds. Many of these individuals have served 
admirably on the bench, but we hope the trailblazers of today can be 
closer to the norm of tomorrow. We want our courts to include more 
women, more diverse candidates, both demographically and 
professionally, and more judges who come from unique walks of life. 
That is how we can strengthen Americans' trust in an independent and 
impartial judiciary--so important to the vitality of our democracy.