[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 4, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3939-S3940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Judicial Nominations

  Mr. President, let me say a word about the situation in Illinois on 
judges. I was a little surprised the Senate Republican leader raised 
this issue.
  As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I spent a large part 
of my time in the last 3\1/2\ years bringing judges to the Federal 
bench. We now have over 200 judges who have been approved in a very 
closely divided U.S. Senate, and I have paid close particular attention 
to my own State of Illinois.
  Nancy Maldonado is the nominee for the Ninth Circuit. She is 
currently serving as a Federal district court judge in Chicago. No 
one--absolutely no one--on that court has argued that she is lazy or is 
not carrying her share of the load when it comes to the cases pending 
before her. She was caught in a situation where she was sent more cases 
than usual and has not had an opportunity, as other judges have in the

[[Page S3940]]

past, to relegate those cases to other judges for consideration.
  It is noteworthy that those who are critical of Judge Maldonado 
should know that in all the decisions she has rendered on the bench in 
the several years that she has been there, not one single case has been 
rejected by the reviewing appellate court.
  She is a worthy person to serve on the circuit court, not to take 
anything away from the judge whom Senator McConnell praised, Mary 
Rowland. She is a dear friend of mine. It took me 10 years to get her 
on the Federal bench, and it was worth the wait because she is that 
good. But to argue that she is any better than Nancy Maldonado, I don't 
think that even Mary Rowland would try to make that case. So I hope 
Senator McConnell would reconsider the issues which he raised.