[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16959-16960]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           JUDICIAL NOMINEES

  Mr. ROBB. Mr. President, in these last few weeks of this Congress, 
there is much to be done. I would like to focus this morning on our 
constitutional responsibility to confirm judges.
  Virginia is one of the five states covered by the Fourth Circuit for 
the U.S. Court of Appeals. Today, one third of the seats on the Fourth 
Circuit are vacant. One seat on the bench has been vacant for ten 
years--longer than any other seat in the country. The U.S. Judicial 
Conference has called filling that seat a ``judicial emergency,'' and 
Chief Justice William Rehnquist has warned that ``vacancies cannot 
remain at such high levels indefinitely without eroding the quality of 
justice that traditionally has been associated with the federal 
judiciary.''
  One reason for the high number of vacancies on the Fourth Circuit is 
the claim that the appellate court doesn't need any more judges. Those 
who oppose filling the vacancies argue that having more judges will 
make decision-making more cumbersome and difficult, and that keeping 
the number small leads to more efficient deliberations.
  The problem with this argument is that it substitutes ``efficiency'' 
for ``justice'' in our judicial system. Certainly it would be more 
efficient to have criminal cases decided by one juror instead of 
twelve, but our Founding Fathers wisely determined that a variety of 
views in the jury room would be more likely to yield a result that was 
``right,'' and ``fair''. It's the same reason our Supreme Court is made 
up of nine jurists, instead of one. And it is difficult to believe that 
justice is being served fully in a circuit that hears oral argument on 
only 23 percent of its cases--the lowest percentage of any other 
circuit--and dismisses 87 percent of its appeals in brief, unsigned 
opinions according to the Washington Post. While efficiency is 
laudable, justice is the goal.
  On June 30, 2000, the President nominated Roger Gregory to fill the 
vacancy on the Fourth Circuit that has been open for a decade. Roger 
Gregory is a highly qualified and well respected attorney from 
Richmond, Virginia. He graduated summa cum laude from Virginia State 
University and received his J.D. from the University of Michigan. He 
has an extensive federal practice, is an accomplished attorney, and was 
described by Commonwealth Magazine as one of Virginia's ``Top 25 Best 
and Brightest.''
  When he is confirmed, Roger Gregory will fill the longest-standing 
vacancy in the nation. He will bring energy and insight to the Fourth 
Circuit. In addition, as an African-American, he will bring much-needed 
diversity to the bench.
  The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals does not look like America, and 
it never has. No African-American has ever served on the Fourth 
Circuit. In fact, it is the only circuit court in the nation without 
minority representation.
  This should trouble all of us. Justice cannot be served without a 
diversity of views and experiences expressed in the rooms where 
decisions are made.
  As the Supreme Court noted when it barred discrimination in the 
selection of juries, the exclusion of minorities or women from the 
deliberative process removes ``qualities of human nature and varieties 
of human experience, the range of which is unknown or perhaps 
unknowable.''
  The absence of minority representation on the Fourth Circuit is 
especially troubling, however, since the Fourth Circuit has the largest 
percentage of

[[Page 16960]]

African-Americans of any circuit in the nation. In our circuit, twenty-
three percent of our population is African-American. Yet not one of the 
judges on the Fourth Circuit is African-American. Mr. President, it's 
time for a change. In fact, it's past time.
  There have been several efforts in the past to integrate this 
circuit, but these efforts have been blocked. The Administration has 
tried since 1995 to integrate this circuit, but the ``blue slips'' for 
these nominees simply weren't returned, effectively thwarting those 
nominees.
  I have argued for years that Virginia deserves another seat on the 
bench. Finally late last fall, we in Virginia were given an opportunity 
to fill one of the vacancies. We seized the opportunity and after an 
extensive and thorough search and vetting process--including time-
consuming ABA screenings and FBI background checks--Roger Gregory was 
nominated by the Administration. We now have a chance to correct this 
gross inequity on the Fourth Circuit. Roger Gregory has the support of 
both Senators from Virginia.
  There is time to move this nominee. Immediately before we began our 
August recess, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing and three judges 
were voted out of the Committee just six days after they were 
nominated. Of the last 12 judges confirmed by the Senate, 11 were 
confirmed within three months of nomination.
  In 1992, another presidential election year in which the White House 
was controlled by one party and the Senate by another, Senate Democrats 
confirmed 66 nominees to the federal bench. Eleven of those were 
Circuit Court judges, and six of the Circuit Court judges were 
confirmed later than July of that year. Three were confirmed in August, 
two in September, and one in October.
  And presidential candidate George W. Bush has called on the Senate to 
approve judicial nominees within 60 days. The sixty days for Roger 
Gregory passed on August 30. It is time to grant Mr. Gregory the 
courtesy of a hearing.
  The late, renowned Judge Spotswood Robinson integrated the D.C. 
Circuit in 1966. He, too, came from Richmond, Virginia. It is time for 
another Richmonder, Roger Gregory, to break another barrier. We have 
already waited too long.
  I urge the Judiciary Committee to move the nomination of Roger 
Gregory, and grant him a hearing.
  I yield the floor.

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