[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 9 (Monday, March 3, 2003)]
[Pages 231-232]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

February 22, 2003

    Good morning. This week, Members of the House and Senate will return 
to Washington with a full agenda to address, from strengthening our 
economy, to reforming health care, to protecting national security.
    On the Senate side, there is a crucial item of business that has 
been delayed for too long. We face a vacancy crisis in the Federal 
courts, made worse by Senators who block votes on qualified nominees. 
These delays endanger American justice. Vacant Federal benches lead to 
crowded court dockets, overworked judges, and longer waits for Americans 
who want their cases heard. Regional appeals courts have a 15-percent 
vacancy rate, and filings in those courts reached an alltime high again 
last year.
    Since taking office, I have sent to the Senate 34 qualified 
mainstream nominees for the Federal courts of appeals. To date, only 
half of them have received a vote in the Senate, and 12 of the remaining 
17 nominees have been waiting more than a year for a floor vote.
    It is my responsibility to submit judicial nominations. It is the 
Senate's responsibility to conduct prompt hearings and an up-or-down 
floor vote on all judicial nominees. Yet a handful of Democratic 
Senators, for partisan reasons, are attempting to prevent any vote at 
all on highly qualified nominees.
    One of these nominees is Miguel Estrada, my selection for the DC 
Court of Appeals. I submitted his nomination in May of 2001, and Miguel 
Estrada has been waiting ever since. That's almost 2 years, and that's a 
disgrace.
    Miguel Estrada's credentials are impeccable. He has served in the 
Justice Department under Presidents of both political parties. He's 
argued 15 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has earned the 
American Bar Association's highest mark, a unanimous rating of ``well-
qualified.''
    Miguel Estrada is an exceptional nominee for the Federal bench. He 
also has a remarkable personal story. He came to America from Honduras 
as a teenager, speaking little English. Within a few years, he had 
graduated with high honors from Columbia College and Harvard Law School. 
Miguel Estrada then served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice 
Anthony Kennedy, as a Federal prosecutor in New York, and as assistant 
to the Solicitor General of the United States.
    If confirmed, Miguel Estrada would be the first Hispanic American 
ever to serve on this court, which is often considered the second 
highest in the land. He would break through a barrier that has stood for 
too long. His nomination has strong support from citizens and leaders in 
both parties and endorsements from the Hispanic National Bar 
Association, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and more than 
a dozen other distinguished groups. He's a role model for young people 
all across this Nation, living proof that in America, anything is 
possible.
    I nominated Miguel Estrada for the Court of Appeals because he's a 
man of talent and character who will be an excellent judge. Yet after 21 
months, he still cannot get an up-or-down vote from the Senate. 
Democrats are stalling Miguel Estrada's nomination, while they search in 
vain for a reason to reject him. Some Senators who once insisted that 
every appeals court nominee deserves a vote have abandoned that 
principle for partisan politics. Their tactics are unfair to the good 
man I have nominated and unfaithful to the Senate's own obligations.
    I call on the Senate Democratic leadership to stop playing politics 
and permit a vote on Miguel Estrada's nomination. Let each Senator vote 
as he or she thinks best, but give the man a vote.
    Thank you for listening.

[[Page 232]]

Note: The address was recorded at 10 a.m. on February 21 at the Bush 
Ranch in Crawford, TX, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February 22. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
February 21 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The 
Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of this address.