[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 92 (Tuesday, May 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1778-S1779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Nomination of Darrel James Papillion

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, pending before the U.S. Senate is the 
nomination of Darrel Papillion, to be U.S. district judge for the 
Eastern District of Louisiana. I want to say a word about this 
nomination because it indicates a positive development in the Senate 
Judiciary Committee, which the Acting President pro tempore and I share 
membership in, and the fact that this is a bipartisan nomination.
  On May 11, Darrel Papillion was voted out of committee by a vote of 
15 to 6. Senators on the Republican side--Graham, Cornyn, Kennedy, and 
Tillis--joined all committee Democrats in voting for this nominee. He 
received the unanimous rating of ``well qualified'' from the American 
Bar Association, and he has the obvious support of the two Louisiana 
Senators--Cassidy and Kennedy--both of whom returned positive blue 
slips, which is committee process, and both of whom are Republican.
  Papillion had a B.A. from Louisiana State University and a J.D. from 
LSU's Paul M. Hebert Law Center before clerking for Associate Justice 
Catherine Kimball on the Louisiana Supreme Court.
  He entered private practice in New Orleans where he specialized in 
the defense of products liability actions. Since moving to Baton Rouge 
in 1999, Papillion's main areas of practice have been personal injury 
and wrongful death litigation. Papillion has tried at least 33 cases to 
verdict, including more than a dozen jury trials. He has been a special 
prosecutor for the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office and a 
mediator for mediation cases in South Louisiana. He has served as a 
special master in State court on three different occasions.
  He is deeply involved in the Louisiana legal community in having 
served as the president of both the Louisiana State Bar Association and 
the Baton Rouge Bar Association. Let me repeat that--the president of 
the Louisiana State Bar Association.
  The committee received several letters of support from individuals 
and organizations on his behalf: the former

[[Page S1779]]

President of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the former president 
of the New Orleans Bar Association, six former opposing counsels, and 
the treasurer of the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar 
Association.
  The reason I read that in detail is that, if I went back home to 
Illinois, like I did last week, and told people we are considering 
judges before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which I chair, their 
first reactions are, can't you find a judge that both Democrats and 
Republicans agree on?
  Here is one. He wouldn't be here before us today but for the fact 
that the two Republican Senators from Louisiana reached an agreement 
with the Biden White House for this man to have a lifetime appointment 
to the Federal bench.
  Now, in case that sounds like front page news, it happens, and it 
happens more often than not. And the reason I come to the floor at this 
moment is to make sure it is a matter of record.
  During the Trump administration, Democrats approved what we call blue 
slips for 120 nominees for Federal court. Some of those were with two 
Democratic Senators, in a State like Illinois, but there was a level of 
negotiation and cooperation. As the senior Senator from Illinois, I had 
to sit down with the legal counsel from President Trump's White House 
and put nominees on the table, saying: Here is one that we want, and 
here is one that you want. I think we can agree on those two. Let's 
move forward.
  And we did it. That happened, as I said, over 120 times with 
Democratic Senators working with the Trump White House. We filled all 
of the vacancies of Illinois--virtually all of them--during the Trump 
administration with that bipartisan agreement.
  Today, we have another one, two Republican Senators with a Democratic 
President. It happens. And for it to happen, you need two things: the 
will for Members to move, to put nominees on the bench; and, secondly, 
a person so qualified that both sides don't feel they will be 
embarrassed by them. There are more judges and attorneys than there are 
politicians, and, in this case, I think we found just that kind of 
nominee.
  Now, we have a lot more to go. There are roughly 87 pending vacancies 
in the district courts across the Nation. Almost half of them are in 
States with two Democratic Senators, and the other half in States with 
at least one Republican, maybe two Republican Senators.
  We are trying to reach a point where we have an agreement on this, 
and I think we can do it. I could list some other Senators whom I am 
working with on the Republican side to fill those vacancies as well. I 
think that is what the American people are looking for--more evidence 
that we are trying to find some common ground, despite the obvious 
political differences in this Nation.
  This is an issue that I think is timely, and I wanted to bring it to 
the attention of the Senate and do it on the floor this afternoon.