[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 31 (Monday, August 4, 2003)]
[Pages 1025-1026]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Senate Filibuster of Judicial Nominees

August 1, 2003

    This week, a minority of Senators continued to filibuster highly 
qualified judicial nominees who enjoy the support of a majority of 
Senators. These obstructionist tactics are unprecedented, unfair, and 
unfaithful to the Senate's constitutional responsibility to vote on 
judicial nominees.
    These highly qualified nominees have stellar records that represent 
the mainstream of

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American law and values and strong bipartisan support from those who 
know them best. Instead of allowing an up-or-down vote, a minority of 
Senators have been filibustering Miguel Estrada for nearly 5 months and 
Priscilla Owen for 3 months and are now obstructing the nomination of 
Bill Pryor. The failure to hold votes on these nominations not only is 
inconsistent with the Senate's constitutional responsibility but also 
has caused extended judicial vacancies that are harmful to the American 
judicial system.
    Every judicial nominee should receive an up-or-down vote in the full 
Senate, no matter who is President or which party controls the Senate. 
It is time to move past the partisan politics of the past and do what is 
right for the American legal system and the American people. Let each 
Senator vote how he or she thinks best, but give the nominees a vote.

Note: The statement referred to Miguel A. Estrada, nominee to be U.S. 
Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit; Priscilla Owen, 
nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit; and William H. 
Pryor, Jr., nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.