[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17124]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise to offer my strong support for 
Ms. Nina Pillard to be a U.S. district court judge for the District of 
Columbia Circuit.
  Nina Pillard is an exemplary nominee who is more than qualified to 
serve on the Federal bench.
  She has been a tenured professor of constitutional law at Georgetown 
University Law Center for 15 years and is a highly accomplished 
litigator who has practiced law at every level of the court system, 
including the Supreme Court.
  Nina Pillard's impressive professional background makes her superbly 
qualified to serve on the D.C. Circuit. Her sheer talent, legal 
prowess, and vast and varied professional career is a testament to her 
brilliance.
  She has argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and briefed 
dozens of others on significant constitutional questions such as gender 
equality, the Family Medical Leave Act, the right to a jury trial, and 
free speech.
  Over the course of her 25-year legal career, Ms. Pillard has argued 
and/or briefed landmark Supreme Court cases, including United States v. 
Virginia, where she successfully opened the doors of the Virginia 
Military Institute to female cadets.
  Nina attended Harvard Law School, where she was editor of the Harvard 
Law Review. She began her career as a clerk for the U.S. District Court 
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for the Honorable Louis H. 
Pollak and served as assistant counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Education Fund. She then joined the office of the Solicitor General of 
the United States, where she briefed and argued cases on behalf of the 
Federal Government before the Supreme Court. In 1998, she was named 
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice's 
Office of Legal Counsel.
  Nina is a board member for the American Arbitration Association and 
is an active reader for the American Bar Association Reading Committee, 
which evaluated the writings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for 
the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary. She also is a member of 
the Georgetown Law Supreme Court Institute and serves on the Board of 
Academic Advisors for the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. 
Previously, she served as a member of the American Constitution Society 
and the Center for Transnational Legal Studies.
  However, some of my colleagues are once again blocking another highly 
qualified and immensely talented woman. The filibuster of Caitlin 
Halligan, Patricia Millett, and the threatened filibuster of Nina 
Pillard is history repeating itself.
  Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have argued that 
the three remaining vacancies on the D.C. Circuit should be eliminated 
because the court's caseload is too low.
  What they have failed to mention is that the D.C. Circuit Court 
currently has 8 active judges and 6 senior judges with an astonishing 
caseload total of 1,479. This outrageous argument was made just over 7 
months ago, when another highly qualified female nominee to the D.C. 
Circuit, and New Yorker, Caitlin Halligan, was filibustered.
  It should also be noted that in the last 19 years, the Senate has 
confirmed only one woman to this important court. Furthermore, the D.C. 
Circuit has only had five female judges during its entire 120-year 
history. In a country where women make up over half of the population, 
that is a disgraceful statistic and one this body can take steps to 
eliminate immediately.
  It is absolutely necessary that the Senate confirm supremely 
qualified individuals such as Nina Pillard to serve on the Federal 
judiciary. Her experience is unmatched and her passion for the law is 
unquestioned. With a caseload as high as that of the D.C. Circuit, it 
is our responsibility in the Senate to act swiftly in confirming the 
President's nominees. We cannot continue nor can we afford to toss out 
highly experienced individuals, particularly such accomplished women to 
serve in our Federal Judiciary because of political gamesmanship. The 
time to act is now.

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