[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12104]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, Alexander Hamilton said, ``The first duty of 
society is justice.'' If that is true--and I certainly believe it is--
then the Republican Senate is failing miserably on its first duty. By 
neglecting to live up to their constitutional duty to provide ``advice 
and consent,'' it is clear the Republican leader and his party are 
denying justice for the American people.
  Federal courts depend on us--the United States Senate--to do our job 
so justice can be dispensed in courtrooms across the country. But 
Republicans clearly have no interest in seeing these courtrooms and 
judicial chambers staffed adequately. So far this Congress, Republicans 
have confirmed only five judges. By this same point in the last 
Congress of George W. Bush's Presidency, under my leadership, the 
Senate had confirmed 25 judges. Five to one seems unfair. There are 
real repercussions when Republicans refuse to act. We didn't have 
judicial vacancies then. We did it because it was the right thing to 
do.
  If there aren't enough judges to hear the cases that are piling up, a 
vacant judgeship is declared an emergency. At the beginning of this 
year, there were only 12 judicial emergencies that deserved priority 
attention. Yet, in the mere 7 months of this Republican-controlled 
Senate, the number has doubled and is on its way to tripling very soon. 
As of today there are 28 judicial emergencies, including 4 judges 
currently pending on the floor. But that is really an unfair view 
because having them pending on the floor takes into consideration that 
the Judiciary Committee is doing their job--holding hearings on these 
nominations--and they are not. This is something which was learned 
years ago when the Judiciary Committee was operated by the present 
chair of the Finance Committee. How he got around having these judicial 
nominations stacked up on the calendar was he wouldn't do the hearings. 
That is what has now been taking place in the Judiciary Committee.
  There are real-life consequences to this obstruction. Each judge 
Republicans block, each nomination they slow-walk results in delay of 
justice. As the maxim goes, justice delayed is justice denied. And that 
certainly is true.
  A Wall Street Journal article from April quoted U.S. district judge 
Lawrence O'Neill from the Eastern District of California:

       Over the years I've received several letters from people 
     indicating, ``Even if I win this case now, my business has 
     failed because of the delay. How is this justice?'' And the 
     simple answer, which I cannot give them, is this: ``It is not 
     justice. We know it.''

  Judge O'Neill is 1 of 25 judges I worked to confirm in the first 6 
months of the 110th Congress with President Bush. He is absolutely 
right. What is happening now with the judicial emergencies across the 
country is not justice. This is Republican politics as usual.
  We saw it on display last week when the junior Senator from Delaware 
came to the floor and asked consent to confirm 5 consensus judges to 
the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a really important block of judges 
doing important work for this country. It was not an outlandish 
request. After all, the Judiciary Committee favorably reported these 
five nominations twice--last year under Democrats and again this year 
under Republicans--but the Presiding Officer, a Republican, objected to 
that request. His reasoning? The Court of Federal Claims doesn't need 
these judges. Perhaps the junior Senator from Arkansas should ask the 
chief judge of the Court of Federal Claims if his court does not need 
those new judges. The chief judge has pleaded for the immediate filling 
of these five vacancies since they are creating a caseload problem for 
the court. But the freshman Senator from Arkansas had his mind made up 
and blocked every attempt to confirm even a single judge to this 
important court.
  One of his home State newspapers, the Arkansas Times, headlined its 
report: ``Tom Cotton continues his obstructionist ways.''
  Yesterday the Washington press took notice that the blocking of these 
judges coincidentally lined up with the interests of a powerful 
conservative law firm that is currently representing clients before 
this court.
  A Roll Call headline says: ``Cotton Blocks Judges on Court Familiar 
to His Former Law Firm.'' I don't mean to necessarily point fingers at 
anyone. After all, the junior Senator from Arkansas is only following, 
I assume, the Republican leader's example. There are currently five 
district court judges awaiting votes on the Senate floor. All five were 
reported out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously, proving they are 
consensus, noncontroversial candidates. So why hasn't the Republican 
leader scheduled their confirmation votes? Three of the district 
nominations are classified as judicial emergencies--including one judge 
in the Eastern District of California, and that is the court that Judge 
O'Neill serves. The Republican leader should bring them to the floor.
  Again, the record is clear. Democrats confirmed all of these judges 
for President Bush, and the Republicans are basically confirming no one 
for President Obama. Any objective observer would tell you that it is 
not fair. Not only is 5 to 1 not fair, but it is also the fact that 
hearings are simply not being held.
  Maybe it is time for a new strategy. Maybe it is time for the 
Republican leader to live up to his constitutional duty, do his job, 
and start moving all of these backlogged nominations and directing the 
Judiciary Committee to hold hearings. The American people need these 
judges, and they need them now, working to ensure that everyone gets 
the justice he or she deserves. To allow these qualified nominees to 
linger longer is simply unjust and unfair. The American people expect 
more from the Republican leadership and Congress and deserve better. We 
are going to do everything within our power to bring to the American 
people's attention that the Republican leadership is not doing a very 
good job on this and other matters before the Senate.
  Mr. President, what is the schedule of the Senate today?

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