[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4283-4284]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        NOMINATION OF MIRANDA DU

  Mr. REID. Madam President, today the Senate will consider the 
nomination of a woman by the name of Miranda Du to be a U.S. district 
judge for the District Court of Nevada. I was very pleased to recommend 
this woman because she is such an experienced litigator and very proud 
Nevadan.
  Ms. Du has enormous love for the State and this country and a 
tremendous dedication to public service. Her story is about as 
inspiring as it gets, and it proves without any question the American 
dream is alive and well.
  Nevada's Asian Pacific population is less than 10 percent. But if 
confirmed, Ms. Du will be the first Asian American Federal judge in the 
history of the State of Nevada.
  Miranda Du left Vietnam when she was 8 years old with her family in a 
boat. She was one of the boat people. She was born in Vietnam. She and 
her family survived the war, and they left. They left voluntarily 
because they could not get out any other way. I said they left 
voluntarily--they sneaked out and got on a boat and took off. They 
wound up in Malaysia. She spent more than 2 years in a refugee camp in 
Malaysia--this little girl. She was then, with her family, taken to 
Alabama: Vietnam, Malaysia, Alabama.
  When she got there, she enrolled in an American school for the first 
time. She did not know how to speak English, and that is an 
understatement. But as a third grader, everyone recognized how smart 
she was. She picked up the language very quickly. Miranda Du speaks--it 
does not matter if she had an accent, but she has none--today as well 
as you or I.
  Her family, after living in Alabama--where her father worked on a 
dairy farm--eventually worked their way to California. She continued to 
be pointed out as always one of the smartest in any class. She was able 
to go to college. She got a degree in history and economics from the 
University of California at Davis and a law degree from one of the 
finest law schools in the world, the University of California, 
Berkeley--the famous Boalt Hall. She did well wherever she went to 
school.
  After law school, she moved to Nevada. She joined at that time a law 
firm McDonald Carano Wilson, which is a very respected law firm. Bob 
McDonald, the founder of that firm, was a protege of the famous Nevada 
Senator Pat McCarran, and he was involved in politics. He was a very 
prominent lawyer until he died a couple years go. Don Carano is also a 
very well known, famous man in Nevada, a lawyer, and he has done 
extremely well. He owns major hotels and casinos. He is one of the 
biggest producers of wine in the State of California. Spike Wilson was 
a long-time Nevada State senator. They are just a very fine group of 
people, these three men who started this law firm.

[[Page 4284]]

  She was made a partner of the law firm in 2002. Her specialty is 
litigation. She is a trial lawyer and a very good one. She specializes 
in complex civil litigation and also employment law. She has appeared 
before the State and Federal courts in all phases of litigation--trial 
lawyer, an appellate lawyer before the Nevada Supreme Court, and the 
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  She has the support of a bipartisan coalition of Nevada officials, 
including the Governor. By the way, the Governor was one of my 
appointments to the Federal bench. He was a Federal judge, Brian 
Sandoval, and a good Federal judge. He resigned that position and ran 
for Governor against my son, and he won. He is a fine man. He is my 
friend, and he has come out vocally and very publicly that this woman 
is a great lawyer and should be on the bench--something he should know 
a little bit about.
  She has received vocal support from the Lieutenant Governor, also a 
Republican; the mayor of Reno, also a Republican. In fact, Governor 
Sandoval wrote to the Judiciary Committee to say, Du ``has exhibited 
great character and is well respected in the legal community.'' He has 
given her his unqualified support.
  Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki called Ms. Du ``intelligent, 
inquisitive, reliable and dedicated.'' The Republican mayor of Reno--
with whom, by the way, we had a visit yesterday--Bob Cashell said Du 
``will be a great addition to our federal bench.''
  In addition to being an experienced litigator, she is also an 
outstanding citizen. She is involved in the northern Nevada community. 
There are many things she has done, but she served on the Nevada 
Commission on Economic Development. She has also served as a court-
appointed special advocate representing abused and neglected children. 
She now, and has in the past for a number of years, mentored high 
school students in Reno, NV. She is a fine example to those students.
  I have had the good fortune to be able to forward to Presidents about 
10 names, and I have never been more proud of one than Miranda Du. I 
repeat, if there were ever a success story, it is this woman who was 
born in Vietnam, took a boat and wound up in Malaysia, came from 
Malaysia to America, to Alabama, to California, and is now one of the 
most respected lawyers we have in the State of Nevada. This is what 
America is all about.
  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, will the Senator from Nevada yield just 
for a comment?
  Mr. REID. I sure will.
  Mr. McCAIN. I thank him for honoring those who came to this country 
who fled reeducation camps and execution in a most horrible, brutal 
regime period. The enormous contribution those individuals and their 
children now have made to our Nation, our economy, our political scene, 
is remarkable and one of which all of us should be extremely proud. I 
thank the Senator from Nevada for recognizing those individuals' 
contribution.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, this is coming from a person who was held 
for 7 years in a prisoner-of-war camp in that country. So I think 
anyone hearing this--and there are lots of people watching this--should 
understand what John McCain just said. John McCain and I have battled 
on a number of substantive issues over the years, but I do not think 
there is anyone--at least I speak from my perspective--for whom I have 
more admiration and respect than John McCain, who has done so much for 
his country.
  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I thank the leader for his generous and 
kind remarks. As he said, he and I have done battle on the honorable 
field of combat, but I think the feeling of respect and appreciation 
and admiration is mutual. I thank the leader.

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