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THEN: Democrats Said Judicial Nominees Should Get A Vote

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): “Mr. President, this is not the way to run the U.S. Senate. Let’s allow this woman’s name to be placed on the floor and then those who have any objection can express their objections and vote no.” (Sen. Barbara Boxer, Congressional Record, 5/14/97, p. S4420)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): “According to the U.S. Constitution, the President nominates, and the Senate shall provide advice and consent. It is not the role of the Senate to obstruct the process and prevent numbers of highly qualified nominees from even being given the opportunity for a vote on the Senate floor.” (Sen. Barbara Boxer, Congressional Record, 5/14/97, p. S4420)

Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD): “It is worse than that. It is not whether you let the President have his nominees confirmed. You will not even let them be considered by the Senate for an up-or-down vote. That is the problem today. In other words, the other side will not let the process work so these nominees can come before the Senate for judgment.” (Sen. Paul Sarbanes, Congressional Record, 3/19/97, p. S2539)

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE): “But I also respectfully suggest that everyone who is nominated is entitled to have a shot, to have a hearing and to have a shot to be heard on the floor and have a vote on the floor.” (Sen. Joe Biden, Congressional Record, 3/19/97, p. S2540)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): “Mr. President, the time has come to act on these nominations. I’m not asking for a rubber stamp; let’s hold hearings on those nominees who haven’t had them, and vote on all of them, up or down, yes or no.” (Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Congressional Record, 5/14/97, p. S4425)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): “I think what we on this side are encountering is the holding up of judges … for years on end. That must stop. A nominee is entitled to a vote. Vote them up; vote them down.” (Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Congressional Record, 9/16/99, p. S11014)

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): “Nominees deserve a vote. … The President and the Senate do not always agree. But we should resolve these disagreements by voting on these nominees--yes or no.” (Sen. Ted Kennedy, Congressional Record, 1/28/98, p. S85)

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): “What we are witnessing today is a direct assault on the President’s constitutional power to nominate and appoint judges.” (Sen. Ted Kennedy, Congressional Record, 5/14/97, p. S4426)

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): “When the Founders wrote the Constitution and gave the Senate the power of advice and consent on Presidential nominations , they never intended the Senate to work against the President, as this Senate is doing, by engaging in a wholesale stall and refusing to act on large numbers of the President's nominees.” (Sen. Ted Kennedy, Congressional Record, 9/21/99, S11102)

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV): “They are simply holding up the President’s appointees because they don’t want them to be selected, or they have some other issue and they are trying to hold the nominee hostage.” (Sen. Harry Reid, Congressional Record, 4/22/97, p. S3398)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT): “That is what the Constitution speaks of in our advise and consent capacity. … Vote them up, vote them down.” (Sen. Patrick Leahy, Congressional Record, 9/21/99, p. S11102)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT): “[E]arlier this year … I noted how improper it would be to filibuster a judicial nomination.” (Sen. Patrick Leahy, Congressional Record, 10/14/98, p. S12578)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT): “To delay judicial nominations for months and years and to deny them a vote is wrong.” (Sen. Patrick Leahy, Congressional Record, 10/14/98, p. S12578)

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): “If, after 150 days languishing in a committee there is no report on an individual, the name should come to the floor. 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. They are qualified or they are not.” (Sen. Dick Durbin, Congressional Record, 9/28/98, p. S S11031)

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): “I also plead with my colleagues to move judges with alacrity--vote them up or down. But this delay makes a mockery of the Constitution, makes a mockery of the fact that we are here working, and makes a mockery of the lives of very sincere people who have put themselves forward to be judges and then they hang out there in limbo.” (Sen. Chuck Schumer, Congressional Record, 3/7/00, p. S1211)

NOW: Democrats Filibuster President Bush’s Judicial Nominations

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): “This chapter in the effort of our Republican friends of the judicial nominations has ended with these hours of filibuster. But what has not ended is the resolution and the determination of the members of the United States Senate to continue to resist any Neanderthal that is nominated by this president of the United States for any court -- federal court in the United States.” (CNN’s “Inside Politics,” 11/14/03)

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT): “So bottom line, circumstances changed, and my opinion about the supermajority change[d].” (Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Press Conference, 4/20/05)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): “So we’re saying we think you ought to get nine votes over the 51 required. That isn’t too much to ask for such a super important position. There ought to be a super vote. Don’t you think so?” (Sen. Barbara Boxer, Remarks At MoveOn.org Rally, Washington, D.C., 3/16/05)

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): “If we have to exercise all our rights in order to protect them, so be it…” (Jennifer A. Dlouhy, “No Letup In Judiciary Wars As Party-Line Vote Advances Disputed Estrada Nomination,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 2/1/03)

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): “The President’s 20 renominees ‘are out of the mainstream and will not be confirmed.’” (Editorial, “Advice And Consent,” The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/16/05)

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): “‘The nominees we have opposed are so far out of the mainstream that they deserved to be rejected before and they deserve to be rejected again.” (Gary Martin, “Senate Showdown Looms On Judges,” San Antonio Express-News, 4/22/05)

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV): “What we have to keep in mind is that we, the legislative branch of Government, are separate but equal. That is what checks and balances are all about. The President should not have, from the Senate, a rubberstamp for everything he wants.” (Sen. Harry Reid, Congressional Record, 4/21/04, S4043)

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