[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17082]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              NOMINATION OF JUDGE ROBERTS TO SUPREME COURT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, apart from the decision to go to war, a 
President makes no more consequential choice than filling a vacancy on 
the Supreme Court of the United States. I rise today for a few short 
moments to say that in choosing Judge John Roberts as the next 
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, President Bush 
has chosen wisely.
  Judge Roberts built a career of excellence in the legal profession 
and in public service on the values of personal integrity and civility 
that I say proudly he learned growing up in my home State of Indiana. 
While he was born in Buffalo, New York, he was raised and to this day 
says he is from what we call the region in northwestern Indiana, going 
to school in La Porte, Indiana, before heading off to Harvard where he 
would graduate with honors and then Harvard law school where he would 
be a member of the Law Review and graduate with highest honors.
  He is one of four children. Today he lives in Bethesda, Maryland and 
was, prior to being appointed to service on what is routinely referred 
to as the second highest court in the land, the District of Columbia 
Court of Appeals, he built an almost unprecedented career in the law, 
both in and out of public service.
  The National Journal actually wrote not long ago: ``John Roberts 
seems a good bet to be the kind of judge we should all want to have. 
All of us, that is, who are looking less for congenial ideologues than 
for professionals committed to the impartial application of the law.''
  Indeed, his entire career has been, as the former White House counsel 
C. Boyden Gray reflected recently, ``one of unquestioned integrity and 
fairmindedness.''
  He is an extraordinary individual who has actually argued before the 
United States Supreme Court on 39 separate occasions. He is, as the 
President reflected during his nomination on Tuesday night, he is 
singularly one of the most accomplished and brilliant legal minds of 
his generation. And it has been acknowledged in the political process 
as well.
  Because he personifies the very qualities that most Americans would 
seek on the Supreme Court, Judge Roberts was reported favorably out of 
the Senate Judiciary Committee just 2 short years ago for his 
appointment to his present post. In fact, the Senate Judiciary 
Committee voted 16 to 3, and Judge Roberts was confirmed by the United 
States Senate for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by unanimous 
consent.
  And let me speak to this point of timing because we are 1 week away 
from the August recess. As I rise today, understanding that the House 
of Representatives has no formal role in the confirmation of an 
Associate Justice to the Supreme Court, I would urge nonetheless 
respectfully my colleagues in the Senate to give every deliberate 
consideration to Judge Roberts' nomination because time is of the 
essence, and time is on our side.
  History tells us President Clinton's two nominations to the Supreme 
Court took an average of 58 days from the day of nomination to 
confirmation. Over the past 30 years, the confirmation process has 
averaged 72 days from confirmation to nomination. And as we look at the 
calendar today, there are essentially 73 days between when the 
President nominated Judge Roberts and when the Court would begin its 
work this fall. The Senate has the time for a thoroughgoing vetting of 
Judge Roberts' credentials and his background and his capacity to serve 
in this august position, and I urge them to move with all deliberate 
speed and I do so with respect.
  Again, I simply rise today recognizing that apart from a decision to 
go to war, a President makes no more consequential choice than filling 
a vacancy on the Supreme Court; and I say with gratitude to the 
President of the United States that in choosing Judge John Roberts, a 
son of the State of Indiana, a man who is devoted to the law and 
devoted to the application of the law and not the creation of the law, 
the President has chosen wisely.

                          ____________________