[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 2890]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
              SUPPORTING THE NOMINATION OF MIGUEL ESTRADA

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what is the deal with the Democrats and 
Miguel Estrada? Is it racism or is it that they just do not like the 
guy? Because he is definitely qualified to sit on the D.C. Court.
  He would be the first Hispanic on that court. He graduated magna cum 
laude from Harvard, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia College. He 
has argued 15 cases before the Supreme Court and was unanimously rated 
``well qualified'' by the American Bar Association and called an 
extraordinary legal talent by the Clinton Solicitor General.
  So what seems to be the problem, Democrats?
  Let us go on further. He is 41 years old. He has been in private 
practice 7 years. He was a U.S. attorney for 2 years. He worked for the 
U.S. Justice Department. But do the Members know what? He is Hispanic, 
and what the Democrats are saying is because he has no prior judicial 
experience. That is interesting because out of the seven judges on the 
D.C. judicial court circuit, five of the seven did not have judicial 
experience. Is it not interesting that two of the Supreme Court 
justices did not have judicial bench experience? And yet this Hispanic 
guy comes along, and suddenly the Democrats are really concerned about 
judicial experience.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the Democrats to let this nominee go and put him 
on the D.C. Court. We need people like this. He is an American success 
story, and I applaud President Bush for nominating him.

                          ____________________