[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10489-10492]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

RAYMOND W. GRUENDER, OF MISSOURI, TO BE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE FOR 
                           THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

                                 ______
                                 

FRANKLIN S. VAN ANTWERPEN, OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO BE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT 
                      JUDGE FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coleman). Under the previous order, the 
Senate will now go into executive session. The clerk will report the 
nominations.
  The legislative clerk read the nominations of Raymond W. Gruender, of 
Missouri, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit, and 
Franklin S. Van Antwerpen, of Pennsylvania, to be United States Circuit 
Judge for the Third Circuit.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 15 minutes of debate evenly divided.
  Who yields time?
  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I 
ask unanimous consent that the time be equally counted on both sides.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, shortly we are going to be voting on the 
nomination of Raymond Gruender to be United States Circuit Judge for 
the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  I want to tell my colleagues this is one of the finest young men I 
know. He worked his way through Washington University, getting an MBA 
and a law degree in 6 years while working full time to support himself. 
His personal story is a very touching one, with very significant 
difficulties which he overcame.
  He served as an assistant U.S. Attorney under Republican and 
Democratic administrations.
  He has been in private practice of law and has tried cases in 
district courts--criminal and a wide range of civil cases.
  He served as an appellate lawyer.
  Most recently, he has been U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of 
Missouri.
  I can assure you this is a man who will bring not only integrity, 
legal skills, and judicial knowledge to the Eighth Circuit, but he is a 
person of great human understanding and intellect. He will be a 
pleasure to appear before.
  We can be proud the President has nominated a man who has such great 
respect among the bar in the Eastern District of Missouri and law 
enforcement personnel, as well as plaintiffs' and defendants' 
attorneys.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for Raymond Gruender.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to express my strong support 
for the confirmation of Raymond W. Gruender, who has been nominated to 
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
  Our nominee has ideal qualifications for the Federal bench. An honors 
graduate of Washington University School of Law, Mr. Gruender has 
nearly ten years of experience as a trial attorney in private practice 
along with a solid record in public service. He joined the U.S. 
Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri as an Assistant 
U.S. Attorney in 1990, specializing in white collar and economic 
crimes, including fraud and corruption cases.
  Mr. Gruender has the bipartisan support of the Missouri legal 
community, including: Senators Bond and Talent; Edward L. Down, Clinton 
appointed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri; Lee 
Lawless, First Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Eastern 
District of Missouri; Howard Shalowitz, President of the Bar 
Association of Metropolitan St. Louis; Joseph Mokwa, Chief of Police of 
City of St. Louis; and Dean Joel Seligman, Washington University in St. 
Louis School of Law.
  In 2000, Mr. Gruender returned to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the 
Eastern District of Missouri, and specialized in fraud and corruption 
prosecution. A year later, he was unanimously confirmed as the United 
States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, where he manages 
both the civil and criminal litigation handled by the office, as well 
as overseeing the administration of the office, which includes 60 
attorneys. Mr. Gruender and his office have been active in helping to 
reduce violent crime in the St. Louis area. He has also been a leader 
in strengthening our nation's readiness in the war on terror.
  Mr. Gruender also believes in giving back to his community, and in 
addition to devoting a significant amount of his career to public 
service, he has been very active in civic affairs. He has volunteered 
his time on domestic violence issues, serving at various times as 
President of the Board of Directors, Vice President, and Secretary of 
Alternatives to Living in Violent Environments, ALIVE. ALIVE is a not-
for-profit organization dedicated to eliminating domestic violence. He 
also serves as a volunteer on the Allocations Committee of the Variety 
Club of St. Louis, which raises and distributes funds to disadvantaged 
and disabled children.
  Raymond W. Gruender III has a fine background, which will serve him 
well as a circuit court judge. He will be a terrific addition to the 
Court, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting his 
nomination.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, earlier this week, we were able to obtain a 
firm commitment from the White House that there would be no further 
judicial recess appointments for the remainder of this presidential 
term. That undertaking led immediately and directly to the Senate 
vitiating a cloture vote and proceeding to confirm the nomination of 
Marcia Cooke to the federal bench in Florida. Today we debate and vote 
on the nomination of Raymond Gruender to the Eighth Circuit.
  Thus, despite the pessimism expressed by some last week, I continued 
working to conclude an arrangement between the White House and the 
Senate that would allow additional progress on judicial confirmations. 
Working with Senator Daschle, Senator Frist, Judge Gonzales and the 
White House chief of staff Andy Card, we were able to reach an 
agreement on Tuesday. I again commend our two leaders. I have been 
working with Senator Daschle for months, as well as with the White 
House, to find a way out of the impasse in judicial confirmations. 
Senator Frist and I have spoken at length about this, and he has been 
working on that, too. I was delighted to see the meeting of Senator 
Daschle, Senator Frist, and Mr. Card finally take place this week. Most 
importantly, I was pleased that the White House agreed to no more 
recess appointments of judges.
  I think we have demonstrated our good faith. In the 17 months that 
the Democrats were in charge of the Senate, we confirmed 100 of 
President Bush's nominees to lifetime positions on the federal bench. 
And the Republicans, during the 23 months that they have been in charge 
of the Senate, have now confirmed another 74. With the consideration of 
the Gruender nomination today, that total reaches 75.
  This is the 75th confirmation for 2003 and 2004, of the 108th 
Congress. That matches the total for the entire two-year 1995-1996 
period in which Republicans controlled the 104th Congress and exceeds 
the total for the entire two-year 1999-2000 period in which Republicans 
controlled the 106th Congress. Of course in those years Senate 
Republicans were reviewing President Clinton's judicial nominees. 
Further, with 175 confirmations, we will have matched the total 
confirmation for the most recent 4-year Presidential term 1997-2000.
  It is significant that this is the first circuit court nomination the 
Senate

[[Page 10490]]

will have considered this Presidential election year. The last time a 
President ran for reelection was 1996. During that session, with the 
Republican majority controlling the Senate agenda not a single circuit 
court nominee was considered. Accordingly, when the Senate acts to 
confirm the first circuit court nominee this year, we will have bested 
the total for the entire 1996 session.
  I am pleased that the Senate has received assurances from the White 
House that the President will not further abuse the recess appointment 
power by making recess appointments during the remainder of his 
presidential term. It was the White House's refusal to reach a 
reasonable accommodation of the concerns of many Senators about the 
unilateral approach of the President's recess appointments to the 
federal courts that complicated our efforts to reach an agreement 
regarding votes on judicial nominees over the past few months. That is 
demonstrated by the prompt vote and confirmation of Judge Cooke Tuesday 
afternoon. I was pleased to be able to help facilitate the end of that 
impasse.
  And now we are set to vote on another candidate, the nomination of 
Raymond Gruender to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. 
While some have mischaracterized the nominees included in this week's 
agreement as ``noncontroversial,'' they in fact include a number who 
will require debate and they will each require a roll call vote
  Unfortunately, Mr. Gruender is another nominee whose record raises 
concerns, just as have the records of far too many of President Bush's 
judicial nominees. Mr. Gruender, though only 40 years old, has been a 
member of the Federalist Society since 1988 and has played a lead role 
in many national Republican campaigns. For the past two years, Mr. 
Gruender has served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of 
Missouri. In this capacity, he has been a vocal defender of Attorney 
General John Ashcroft's aggressive and controversial tactics.
  He has also been critical of a city that passed a resolution 
reaffirming the importance of civil liberties in the fight against 
terrorism. He claimed that the resolution, which aimed to protect 
freedom of speech, assembly, privacy and due process, is ``putting 
lives in jeopardy and increasing the chances for terrorists to be 
successful.'' Mr. Gruender stood by these statements and his criticisms 
of the resolution at his hearing.
  Despite his activities applying the PATRIOT Act as a U.S. Attorney 
and his public pronouncements about its provisions, Mr. Gruender stated 
in his answers to my written questions that he has ``not formed or 
expressed any opinions with respect to the constitutionality of any 
provisions of the PATRIOT Act'' and would, if confirmed, protect each 
citizen's civil rights and civil liberties.
  I do hope that, if confirmed, Mr. Gruender will be a person of his 
word. I hope he will be fair and open-minded, and listen to all 
arguments involved in such cases. I hope he would not seek to decide 
cases in accordance with his partisan or personal beliefs rather than 
in accordance with the law. I also must note that, while he was candid 
about some of his activities, Mr. Gruender failed to directly answer 
several questions that I asked him in writing after his hearing, 
questions that would enable me to fully evaluate his qualifications for 
a lifetime appointment on the federal bench.
  Just as a nominee last year attempted to stonewall Committee Members 
by not answering questions in a forthright manner, so Mr. Gruender 
avoided answering some of my questions by claiming that he could not 
express his views on the issues without a complete factual record and 
the benefit of the ``deliberative process.'' For example, Mr. Gruender 
refused to express his opinion about Congress's power under the 
Commerce Clause, Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, or the 10th or 
11th Amendments. This is a timid, evasive and useless response. And 
many other circuit court nominees of this President have answered the 
same questions.
  Mr. Gruender does, however, have the support of both of his home-
State Senators and has served both as prosecutor and a defense 
attorney.
  I am hopeful that he will be open-minded on the bench and will act as 
he says he will, that he will follow the law and not seek out 
opportunities to overturn precedent or decide cases in accord with his 
political beliefs rather than his obligations as a judge. I also 
sincerely hope that Mr. Gruender will treat all those who appear before 
him with respect and courtesy and will not abuse the power and trust of 
his position.
  For the last three and one-half years, I have urged President Bush to 
work with us. Our proceeding today on this nomination demonstrates our 
going the extra mile.
  I would note that President Clinton's nomination of Bonnie Campbell 
to this court was blocked--by a secret Republican hold--from ever 
getting Committee or Senate consideration. By contrast, the Senate has 
already confirmed four of President Bush's nominees to this circuit:--
William Riley, Michael Melloy, and Lavenski Smith were confirmed while 
Democrats held the majority, and, last year, Steven Colloton was 
confirmed to this court, as well. Mr. Gruender makes the fifth.
  With his confirmation, Republican appointees on the Eighth Circuit 
Court of Appeals will outnumber Democratic appointees by four to one. 
There will be eight active Republican-appointed judges and only two 
active Democratic-appointed judges. And there is one more vacancy on 
this court which President Bush intends to fill with another 
conservative nominee.
  I would note for my friends on the other side of the aisle--who 
consistently rebuke the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as being ``too 
liberal'' because 60 percent of the judges are Democratic appointees--
that the scales are tipped much farther the other way on the Eighth 
Circuit. With Democratic cooperation in confirming five of President 
Bush's nominees to the Eighth Circuit, Republican appointees now occupy 
80 percent of the authorized seats on that court.
  I congratulate Mr. Gruender and his family on his confirmation today.
  Mr. TALENT. Mr. President, United States Attorney Ray Gruender has 
had a distinguished career as a public servant and practicing attorney. 
He is an outstanding and highly qualified candidate as evidenced by his 
professional and academic credentials.
  From humble beginnings, Mr. Gruender has risen to the top of the 
legal profession. Neither of his parents graduated from high school; 
his father painted houses; his mother worked in a factory as a 
bookbinder and is now a prison guard. He has worked since age 10 with 
his father and he continued to work all through school.
  Mr. Gruender obtained three degrees from Washington University in 
less than 6 years, all while working and paying his own way through 
school. By 1987, he had obtained Bachelor of Science in Business 
Administration, Master of Business Administration and Juris Doctoris 
degrees. Not only did he work twenty hours per week during the 6 years 
in which he obtained these degrees, but he also ranked near the top of 
his class in each program. In law school, Mr. Gruender served on the 
Washington University Law Quarterly and is a member of The Order of the 
Coif. In December 2003, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws 
degree by William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri.
  Since May 1, 2001, Ray Gruender has served as the United States 
Attorney for the Easter District of Missouri. As United States Attorney 
he oversees an office of 60 Assistant United States Attorneys actively 
engaged in both civil and criminal matters. During his tenure, the 
number of Federal firearms prosecutions in his district has increased 
dramatically. In 2003, the City of St. Louis experienced 69 homicides, 
the first time it had fewer than 100 homicides in more than 40 years.
  Prior to serving as the United States Attorney, Mr. Gruender served 
as an Assistant United States Attorney--AUSA--between 1990 and 1994 and 
again between 2000 and 2001. As an AUSA, he specialized in fraud and 
public corruption matters. He was one of the AUSAs

[[Page 10491]]

who handled the Second Injury Fund prosecutions involving several 
lawyers, physicians and an administrative law judge who were defrauding 
Missouri's workers' compensation system.
  In addition to his experience as a Federal prosecutor, Mr. Gruender 
has spent 9 years in the private practice of law. Between 1987 and 
1990, he was an associate with the large St. Louis law firm of Lewis, 
Rice and Fingersh. Between 1994 and 2000, he as a partner with Thompson 
Coburn, LLP, another large Missouri firm. He has represented both 
plaintiffs and defendants in a broad array of civil matters such as 
admiralty, antitrust, contracts, employment, securities, fraud, banking 
and various torts claims.
  He is a member of the Missouri and Illinois bars, the Bar Association 
of Metropolitan St. Louis, and has been a member of the Eastern 
District of Missouri's Criminal Justice Act Lead Counsel Panel, making 
himself available to accept criminal appointments.
  Mr. Gruender also has been active in civil affairs. His numerous 
civic contributions include serving as a volunteer on the Allocations 
Committee of the Variety Club of St. Louis to help raise and distribute 
funds to disadvantaged and disabled children in the St. Louis area. He 
also served on the Board of Directors--including as board president 
of--ALIVE--Alternatives to Living in Violent Environments--a not-for-
profit entity dedicated to eliminating domestic violence and helping 
its victims.
  I urge all of my colleagues to vote to confirm Raymond Gruender, of 
Missouri, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I yield time for the minority on the judges 
matter.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, all time is yielded.
  The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 
4 minutes equally divided between the two votes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, have the yeas and nays been asked for?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. They have not.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. I ask for the yeas and nays on the first vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Raymond W. Gruender, of Missouri, to be United States Circuit Judge 
for the Eighth Circuit?
  On this question, the yeas and nays have been ordered, and the clerk 
will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) 
is necessarily absent.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I announce that the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) 
is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 97, nays 1, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 102 Ex.]

                                YEAS--97

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Cornyn
     Corzine
     Craig
     Crapo
     Daschle
     Dayton
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Graham (FL)
     Graham (SC)
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Hollings
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Nickles
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Voinovich
     Wyden

                                NAYS--1

       
     Harkin
       

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Kerry
     Warner
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the nominee for confirmation to the Court 
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Franklin Van Antwerpen, has a very 
distinguished academic record. He has been on the bench for 25 years, 
12 years on the State court bench in Northampton County and 13 years on 
the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. I 
thank my colleagues, the leaders, and the chairman and ranking member 
of the Judiciary Committee for working out the impasse. He will be an 
excellent judge for the Third Circuit.
  I yield time to my distinguished colleagues.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I add my congratulations to Judge Van 
Antwerpen. He has been an excellent public servant and distinguished 
jurist and will make an excellent contribution to the Third Circuit.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to express my strong support 
for the confirmation of Franklin S. Van Antwerpen, who has been 
nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
  Judge Van Antwerpen is truly an impressive man and has the 
enthusiastic support of both Pennsylvania senators, along with a 
unanimous ``Well Qualified'' ABA rating.
  Judge Van Antwerpen has exceptional qualifications for the Federal 
appellate bench. After graduation from Temple University School of Law 
in 1967, he worked as an attorney at the Hazeltine Corporation and 
served as Chief Counsel of the Northampton Legal Aid Society. He then 
spent 9 years in private practice, representing both plaintiffs and 
defendants in general litigation matters, with a particular 
specialization in municipal law.
  In 1979, Judge Van Antwerpen commenced a 25-year career in public 
service when he joined the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County. 
He served in this position until 1987, when President Reagan appointed 
him United States District Judge for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania, the position he holds today.
  Judge Van Antwerpen has a fine background which will serve him well 
as a circuit court judge. He will be a terrific addition to the court, 
and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting his nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today, in addition to voting on the 
nomination of Raymond Gruender, we vote to confirm another circuit 
court nominee, Judge Franklin Van Antwerpen to the United States Court 
of Appeals for the Third Circuit. A Federal District Court judge since 
he was appointed by President Reagan in 1987, Judge Van Antwerpen comes 
to the Senate floor strongly supported by the Senior Senator from 
Pennsylvania, who I know is eager to see him confirmed.
  Today's confirmation will make the 76th judge confirmed this year 
alone and the 176th judicial nominee to be confirmed for this 
President. With 76 judicial confirmations in just a little more than 16 
months, the Senate has now confirmed more Federal judges than were 
confirmed during the two full years of 1995 and 1996, when Republicans 
first controlled the Senate and President Clinton was in the White 
House. It also exceeds the 2-year total for the last 2 years of the 
Clinton administration, when Republicans held the Senate. In fact, with 
176 total confirmations for President Bush in just

[[Page 10492]]

3\1/2\ years, the Senate has confirmed more lifetime appointees for 
this president than were allowed to be confirmed in President Clinton's 
entire second term, the most recent 4-year presidential term. We have 
already surpassed the number of judicial confirmations won by President 
Reagan in his entire first term in office.
  The confirmation of Judge Van Antwerpen also marks the second circuit 
court nominee confirmed for President Bush this year, which is double 
the number of circuit court nominees confirmed in all of 1996, the last 
time a president was running for reelection and Republicans refused to 
allow a single circuit court nominee of President Clinton to be 
confirmed all year. Today we confirm the 32nd circuit court nominee of 
President Bush, which is more circuit court confirmations than in all 4 
years of President Clinton's first term in the White House.
  A look at the Federal judiciary in Pennsylvania demonstrates yet 
again that President Bush's nominees have been treated far better than 
President Clinton's and shows dramatically how Democrats have worked in 
a bipartisan way to fill vacancies, despite the fact that Republicans 
blocked more than 60 of President Clinton's judicial nominees. With 
this confirmation, 16 of President Bush's nominees to the Federal 
courts in Pennsylvania will have been confirmed, more than for any 
other State except California.
  With this confirmation, President Bush's nominees will make up 16 of 
the 41 active Federal circuit and district court judges for 
Pennsylvania--that is more than one third of the Pennsylvania Federal 
bench. With the additional four Pennsylvania district court nominees 
pending on the floor and likely to be confirmed soon, nearly half of 
the district court seats in Pennsylvania will be held by President 
Bush's appointees. Republican appointees will outnumber Democratic 
appointees by nearly two to one.
  This is in sharp contrast to the way vacancies in Pennsylvania were 
left unfilled during Republican control of the Senate when President 
Clinton was in the White House. Although Republicans now decry 
Democratic filibusters of a mere handful of the most extreme nominees, 
Republicans denied votes to nine district and one circuit court 
nominees of President Clinton in Pennsylvania alone. Despite the 
efforts and diligence of the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Specter, to secure the confirmation of all of the judicial nominees 
from every part of his home State, there were ten nominees by President 
Clinton to Pennsylvania vacancies who never got a vote. Despite how 
well-qualified these nominees were, many of their nominations sat 
pending before the Senate for more than a year without being 
considered. Such obstruction provided President Bush with a significant 
opportunity to shape the bench according to his partisan and 
ideological goals.
  Recent news articles in Pennsylvania have highlighted the way that 
President Bush has been able to reshape the Federal bench in 
Pennsylvania. For example, the Philadelphia Inquirer, on November 27, 
2003, said that the significant number of vacancies on the Pennsylvania 
courts ``present Republicans with an opportunity to shape the judicial 
makeup of the court for years to come.''
  Democratic support for the confirmation of Franklin Van Antwerpen is 
yet another example of our extraordinary cooperation despite an 
uncompromising White House and the record of how President Clinton's 
Pennsylvania nominees fared under Republican control in the Senate. In 
contrast to many of President Bush's nominees, Judge Van Antwerpen 
comes to us with a distinguished and widely acclaimed career on the 
bench--both on the State and Federal levels. He was rated unanimously 
well-qualified by the American Bar Association and has the respect of 
his peers on the bench and of the attorneys who appear before him. He 
is the kind of nominee this President and my Republican colleagues 
should be looking for as we fulfill our constitutional duty of 
appointing members to the Federal judiciary--an independent branch of 
the government.
  I congratulate Judge Van Antwerpen and his family on his confirmation 
today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Franklin S. Van Antwerpen, of Pennsylvania, to be United States 
Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit?
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I announce that the Senator from Texas (Mrs. 
Hutchison) and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions) are necessarily 
absent.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) 
and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Miller) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 96, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 103 Ex.]

                                YEAS--96

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Cornyn
     Corzine
     Craig
     Crapo
     Daschle
     Dayton
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Graham (FL)
     Graham (SC)
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hollings
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Nickles
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Hutchison
     Kerry
     Miller
     Sessions
  The nomination was confirmed.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LEVIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

                          ____________________