[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Edward Sunyol Kiel

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise today to support the confirmation 
of Mr. Edward Sunyol Kiel to the U.S. district court of New Jersey.
  Mr. Kiel, whom Senator Booker and I proudly recommended to President 
Biden, is eminently qualified for this position. Mr. Kiel has spent the 
entirety of his career demonstrating an even temperament and an 
unshakable commitment to equal justice under the law.
  With 27 years as a practicing attorney in New Jersey, he has amassed 
an abundance of trial experience and an objectively impressive record 
of pro bono work for numerous organizations and church groups.
  Atop his outstanding credentials, Mr. Kiel is already quite familiar 
with the District of New Jersey and the Newark courthouse. In fact, he 
currently serves as a magistrate judge on that very same court. During 
his time on the bench, he has again and again proven himself a capable 
and even-keeled jurist, a sharp legal mind with a deep reverence for 
precedent and the rule of law.

  Beyond his regular duties to the court, Judge Kiel has also devoted 
generous amounts of time to Newark vicinage's Pretrial Opportunity 
Program, an important initiative that offers treatment alternatives and 
noncustodial sentences for eligible individuals--once again proving his 
commitment not just to the law but to human beings impacted by our 
justice system.
  I would be remiss to discuss Judge Kiel's qualifications without also 
touching on his incredible personal story. Judge Kiel was born in 
Daegu, South Korea, to parents who fled North Korea as refugees during 
the war, on foot.
  While his parents did not have much in terms of material wealth, they 
were rich in faith and in love. With just $40 in their pockets--a gift 
pooled together by their relatives before the journey--his family made 
a decision to come to the United States and bet it all on the American 
dream. On their very first Sunday in the United States, Judge Kiel's 
mother placed that $40 in the church's offering plate--a symbol of her 
undying optimism for her family's new life in America.
  Today, Judge Kiel works every day in the same exact courthouse where 
his parents became U.S. citizens in the 1970s. If that is not a shining 
example of the American dream, I don't know what is.
  Judge Kiel's story is one that is familiar to so many in the Garden 
State and across America. His confirmation will be another important 
step towards achieving the ideal of an independent judiciary that 
reflects the best of America and mirrors our Nation's rich cultural 
tapestry. To this end, I commend President Biden for nominating the 
most racially and ethnically diverse group of qualified Federal judges 
of any President so far in our Nation's history.
  In all branches and at all levels of our government, our democracy 
and institutions are made stronger by public servants whose lived 
experiences are as unique and colorful as America itself.
  This is a cause to which I have dedicated my Senate career--ensuring 
that the governed see themselves in their own government, to ensure 
that our democracy is generally a government of, by, and for the 
people. It is therefore my sincere pleasure to vote today in favor of 
confirming Judge Kiel to the district court of New Jersey. I urge my 
colleagues to do the same. I have no doubt that he will continue to be 
an asset to New Jersey's Federal bench, and I encourage my colleagues 
to join me in swiftly confirming him today.
  With that, I yield the floor.