[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 102 (Monday, June 12, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2038]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Judicial Nominations

  Madam President, now on an entirely different matter, last week, 
Senate Democrats backtracked on plans to confirm Dale Ho to the 
Southern District of New York. Apparently, our colleagues didn't yet 
have enough votes for the self-described ``wide-eyed leftist'' 
President Biden would like to give a lifetime appointment to the 
Federal bench.
  I have talked about Mr. Ho's criticism of the Fraternal Order of 
Police and his history of attacking our colleagues on Twitter. I have 
discussed his apparent dismay that fidelity to the Constitution as it 
was written doesn't really produce ``progressive'' outcomes. But as you 
might expect, the rap sheet on a nominee too radical for Senate 
Democrats goes on. Mr. Ho has also vocally opposed laws that ban ballot 
harvesting. He has railed against commonsense voter ID requirements 
that 80 percent of Americans support.
  Senate Democrats will have to think hard about whether they are ready 
to ram Mr. Ho's nomination through after all of this. But in the 
meantime, two more of President Biden's leftwing nominees are up for a 
vote this week; first, Hernan Vera, nominated to the bench in the 
Central District of California. Mr. Vera's nomination comes with the 
ringing endorsement of the left's dark money operation, and a review of 
his record certainly shows why.
  Throughout his legal career, Mr. Vera has made no effort to hide his 
willingness to pick progressive activism over the rule of law. He has 
asserted publicly that the need for greater security at our southern 
border is actually a ``myth'' and supported efforts to prevent ICE from 
conducting enforcement operations in county jails. In other words, Mr. 
Vera doesn't just oppose enforcing immigration laws; he opposes 
enforcing laws illegal immigrants have broken after they have arrived.
  The Senate will also vote this week on the nomination of Patrick 
Pitts to the Northern District of California. Mr. Pitts helped to 
organize student protests against military recruiters on campus when he 
was at Yale, but he publicly fawned over a leftist judge who later 
faced a reckoning over his decades of sexual harassment. Apparently, 
the Army was unseemly, but a notorious harasser was ``an inspiration.''
  Aside from being a bad judge of character, Mr. Pitts has spent his 
legal career making life easier for Democrats' Big Labor allies. He 
worked to give union bosses more political influence over American 
workers, especially those who would rather be free from union thuggery.
  I will be opposing each of these nominations and will urge our 
colleagues to do the same.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.