[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 103 (Tuesday, June 18, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4121-S4122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NOMINATION OF NANCY L. MALDONADO

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on another matter, I need to return 
today to another of the Biden administration's unfit judicial nominees: 
Judge Nancy Maldonado.
  Alongside a crop of nominees distinguished by their radical views and 
affiliations and ties to dark money groups, Judge Maldonado's claim to 
notoriety is the historic backlog of unfinished work she has 
accumulated in her time on the district court in Chicago.
  Earlier this month, I pointed out that with 125 motions pending for 
more than 6 months, Judge Maldonado sits behind more than 99 percent of 
all district judges nationwide for her ability to clear casework in a 
timely manner. She is the worst in her circuit, and it is not even 
close.
  Our Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee don't seem all 
that concerned about the alarming aspect of her record. Perhaps they 
think there is more to being a judge than deciding cases, such as, 
perhaps, checking diversity boxes. In any case, they voted in lockstep 
to advance her nomination this spring.
  But listening to some of our colleagues' comments from more recent 
committee meetings, you might wonder whether they made a terrible 
mistake. The senior Senator from Connecticut, a seasoned prosecutor 
familiar with the frustrations of the judicial process, recalled:

       I can remember waiting literally years for a decision from 
     a district court judge, and there is nothing anyone can do . 
     . . other than seeking mandamus from the Circuit Court of 
     Appeals, which is . . . close to a death sentence for any 
     litigator.

  Our colleague described such delays as ``frustrating and . . . 
costly.'' In no uncertain terms, he said that ending those delays is 
essential to ``achieving swifter, more expeditious justice.''
  But just a couple of months ago, he voted to advance the nomination 
of a judge with a demonstrated inability to deliver swifter or more 
expeditious justice. With every other Democrat on the committee, he 
voted to give Nancy Maldonado and her Biden backlog lifetime tenure on 
the court of appeals.
  It is incredible how clear-eyed our colleague sounds when he is not 
burdened with the uncomfortable responsibility of rubberstamping a 
favorite of the left's dark money royalty. His fellow Democrats should 
take note.

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