[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12987]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DONALD NOMINATION

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, later today the Senate will consider 
the nomination by the President of Judge Bernice Donald for the Sixth 
Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Donald is from Memphis, TN. I know her 
well. I am here today to introduce her to my colleagues and to 
encourage them to support her confirmation.
  Judge Donald has been before the Senate before. She has been a 
Federal district judge since 1995. Our Judiciary Committee in the 
Senate has looked over her qualifications again and has recommended her 
to us without dissent. The American Bar Association has reviewed her 
credentials and said she is either qualified or well qualified.
  I think there is not much doubt about her fitness to serve on the 
court of appeals, so in my remarks I would like to talk more about 
Judge Donald's role in the community and her role as a pioneer in our 
country during her lifetime. She is the sixth of 10 children. Her 
parents were a domestic worker and a self-taught mechanic in DeSoto 
County, MS, which is just south of Memphis. As a young person, she was 
among the first African Americans to integrate in her high school 
during the period of desegregation. She obtained a bachelor's degree 
from the University of Memphis and graduated from its law school. She 
focused her career at the beginning working among the most vulnerable 
citizens in Memphis in the Office of Legal Defender.
  Here is where the pioneer story continues, not just in desegregating 
her high school or working with vulnerable citizens, but only 3 years 
after she left law school, she began a judicial career that has spanned 
nearly three decades. She became the first African-American female 
judge in the history of our State in 1982. Six years later, the Sixth 
Circuit Court of Appeals, upon which she has been nominated to serve by 
the President, appointed her to serve as U.S. bankruptcy judge for the 
Western District of Tennessee. Again she made history--an African-
American female judge had been appointed as a bankruptcy judge in the 
United States. Then, in 1995, as I mentioned earlier, President Clinton 
nominated her to be a Federal district judge. On December 22 of that 
year the Senate confirmed her by unanimous voice vote, and she became 
the first African-American female district court judge in the history 
of Tennessee. She served in that capacity for 15 years.
  She has flourished in her career, not just on the court but in her 
profession. She has just concluded a 3-year term as Secretary of the 
American Bar Association, and she has previously served on its 
Committee on Governance and on its Board of Governors. She has been 
equally active in the local and Tennessee bar associations. She gives a 
good deal of her time to community organizations: the Memphis Literacy 
Council, the University of Memphis alumni board, Big Brothers, Big 
Sisters, Calvary Street Ministry, the YWCA, and others.
  It is coincidental, but I think it is fitting that Judge Bernice 
Donald, a pioneer in so many ways in our State's history, will be the 
first nomination for the Federal bench that this body will consider 
after the opening of the Martin Luther King Memorial in the Nation's 
Capital. Her life, which is full of education and service and 
achievement, is a testimonial to the success of Dr. King's movement and 
the kind of leadership he inspired.
  I commend her on all that she has accomplished both in her profession 
and in our State and in her community. I know Memphis is proud of her. 
I look forward to voting in favor of her confirmation this afternoon, 
and I hope my colleagues will do so as well.
  I yield the floor.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, is there a nominee to report?

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