Prominent Liberal quotes:
* Tom Harkin (D-IA) "Have the guts to come out and vote up or down….And once and for all, put behind us this filibuster procedure on nominations." (Cong. Rec., 6/22/95, S8861)
* Joseph Biden (D-DE) "everyone who is nominated is entitled to have a … vote on the floor." (Cong. Rec., 3/19/97, S2540)
* Richard Durbin (D-IL) "If, after 150 days languishing on the Executive Calendar that name has not been called for a vote, it should be. Vote the person up or down." (Cong. Rec., 9/28/98, S11021)
* Carl Levin (D-MI) "If a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate is prepared to vote to confirm the President's appointment, that vote should occur." (Cong. Rec., 6/21/95, S8806)
* Edward Kennedy (D-MA) "If our … colleagues don't like them, vote against them. But give them a vote." (Cong. Rec., 2/3/98, S292)
* Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) "Let's bring their nominations up, debate them if necessary, and vote them up or down." (Cong. Rec., 9/11/97, S9165)
* Tom Daschle (D-SD) "I find it simply baffling that a Senator would vote against even voting on a judicial nomination." (Cong. Rec., 10/5/99, S11919)
* Patrick Leahy (D-VT) "I have stated over and over again … that I would object and fight against any filibuster on a judge, whether it is somebody I opposed or supported." (Cong. Rec, 6/18/98, S6521)
* Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) The filibuster "has unfortunately become a commonplace tactic to thwart the will of the majority." (Cong. Rec., 1/4/95, S36)
NOMINATIONS OF CARLOS R. MORENO, OF CALIFORNIA, TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA AND CHRISTINE O. C. MILLER, OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, TO BE A JUDGE OF THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS (Senate - February 03, 1998)
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I strongly support the nominations of Carlos Moreno and Christine Miller to serve as federal judges.
Judge Moreno is superbly qualified to serve as a federal judge in the Central District of California. He is a graduate of Yale University, Harvard Business School, and Stanford Law School. Currently, he is a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court. As a member of that court's Trial Delay Reduction Committee he was instrumental in establishing and enforcing policies that successfully reduced trial backlogs in Los Angeles County. At a time when lengthy backlogs are also plaguing the federal courts, Judge Moreno's experience will be an important asset for California's Central District Court.
Judge Miller is also well qualified to continue her service on the United States Court of Federal Claims. She has served on that court for the past fifteen years, and President Clinton's nomination of her for a second fifteen-year term is a tribute to her ability and leadership.
I also want to take this opportunity to express my concern that the Senate has still not had a chance to vote on the nomination of Margaret Morrow to the federal district court for the Central District of California. Ms. Morrow was first nominated in May 1996. She was approved by the Judiciary Committee in June last year, and it is long past time for the Senate to vote on her nomination.
On average, it is taking twice as long for Senate Republicans to confirm President Clinton's nominees as it took for Democrats to act on President Bush's nominations. But I am especially concerned about the Republicans' record of subjecting women who are nominated for federal judgeships to far greater delays than men.
Women nominated to the federal courts are four times--four times--more likely than men to be held up by the Republican Senate for more than a year.
Last year, the Senate confirmed 30 men, but only 6 women. And, by confirming only 36 judges, the Senate condemned many of our nation's busiest courts to even lengthier delays in processing their civil cases.
There is no question that Margaret Morrow possesses the necessary qualifications to be confirmed. She is a Harvard-educated attorney and a partner in a prestigious California law firm. She is the first woman to serve as the president of the California Bar Association. She is a well-respected attorney and a role model for women in the legal profession.
Yet action on her nomination has been delayed--like nine other nominees who have been waiting for more than 18 months--because the Republicans are playing politics and preventing needed judicial positions from being filled.
When even a Republican Chief Justice criticizes the Republican Congress for refusing to move more quickly to confirm judges, you know something's wrong. The Chief Justice is deeply concerned about the large number of judicial vacancies on the federal courts. There are too few judges to handle the workload.
The bottleneck in the Senate is jeopardizing the court system and undermining the quality of justice. Fewer than half of President Clinton's nominees have been confirmed.
We owe it to Americans across the country to give these nominees a vote . If our Republican colleagues don't like them, vote against them. But give them a vote .
The distinguished majority leader has rightly noted that the process of confirming judges is time-consuming. The Senate should take care to ensure that only individuals acceptable to both the President and the Senate are confirmed. The President and the Senate do not always agree. But it should not take longer to consider women than it does to consider men.
Some Republicans claim they have slowed the confirmation process to protect the federal courts from `judicial activism.' But this argument is a smokescreen. If President Clinton is actually nominating judicial activists, then why is it that these nominees are approved overwhelmingly when the Senate is finally allowed to vote on them? The closest vote that we have had on any nominee in this Congress was the 76 to 30 vote in favor of Ann Aiken last week.
The claim that Clinton judges are activist judges is a transparent ruse being used to slow down the confirmation process. The reason is obvious. The Republican majority in Congress is doing all it can to prevent a Democratic President from naming judges to the federal courts. The courts are suffering, and so is the nation.
In some areas of the country, people have to wait years to have their cases even heard in court. And then they have to wait years more for overburdened judges to find time to issue their decisions. Families, workers, small businesses, women and minorities have traditionally looked to the courts to resolve disputes. The lack of federal judges makes the swift resolution of their cases impossible.
The number of cases filed in the federal appeals courts has grown by 11 percent over the last six years. The average time between filing and disposition has also increased. Courts with long-standing vacancies are in even worse shape.
In California's Central District Court, the Court to which both Carlos Moreno and Margaret Morrow have been nominated, the caseload has grown by 15 percent since 1994. The time people have to wait for their civil cases to be resolved has increased by 11 percent. In that district, over 300 pending civil cases are more than three years old.
Across the country, real people are being hurt. In the Central District of Illinois, a disabled Vietnam veteran who was fired after enduring harassment from his co-workers has been waiting over three and a half years for a resolution to his case.
In the Southern District of Texas, 4,000 victims of a student loan fraud are waiting for the outcome of a class action suit that has been pending for almost eight years.
In the District Court of South Carolina, there is still no decision in a suit filed more than six years ago against the state's apportionment laws. The outcome of this case will affect hundreds of thousands of citizens. It goes to the heart of whether the basic constitutional principle of `one person, one vote' is being fairly applied. The last communication the lead plaintiff received from the Court was in June of last year.
In the Southern District of Florida, Julio Vasquez--a U.S. citizen migrant worker--broke his leg in 1989 in a boarding house provided by his employer. To this day, nearly nine years later, Mr. Vasquez has never received sufficient medical attention, and his injury affects his ability to work. He is still waiting for the judge's ruling in his case.
These are typical victims of the vacancy crisis in the federal courts. They are hard-working Americans injured on the job--citizens seeking to exercise their right to vote --students trying to get an education--disabled veterans searching for justice.
I commend my colleagues for bringing two distinguished nominees to a vote today. I hope with this new year we will see a new day in moving ahead to fill the vacancies in our courts and end these unconscionable delays.
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