The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EXECUTIVE SESSION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S4890-S4892 on April 7, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EXECUTIVE SESSION
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NOMINATION OF CORMAC J. CARNEY, OF CALIFORNIA, TO BE UNITED STATES
DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will go into executive session to consider the nomination of Cormac J. Carney, which the clerk will report.
The bill clerk read the nomination of Cormac J. Carney, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I am pleased today to speak in support of Judge Cormac Carney, who has been nominated to the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1987, Judge Carney entered private practice with the high powered law firm of Latham & Watkins. He worked there until 1991. He next worked as an associate for another widely respected law firm, O'Melveny & Myers, where he became a partner in 1995. He remained at O'Melveny until his appointment to the Orange County Superior Court in 2001, where he has presided over both criminal and civil matters.
Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Carney was an exceptional business litigator who typically represented Fortune 500 companies as both plaintiffs and defendants. His areas of expertise included complex matters such as real estate, partnership, lender liability, environmental law, intellectual property, and insurance coverage.
Even with a heavy workload and prestigious clients, Judge Carney devoted numerous hours to pro bono work for the disadvantaged. As a partner at O'Melveny, he supervised the firm's junior lawyers on pro bono cases, which included housing issues, education, civil rights, and the rights of homeless people. Because of the firm's extensive pro bono work, the Orange County Bar Association awarded it the Pro Bono Services Award, and the Orange County Public Law Center awarded it the Law Firm of the Year Award.
Since his appointment to the bench, Judge Carney has become involved with victims' rights. He currently serves as a member of the Governing Board of Victim Assistance Programs in Orange County. The Board provides support and guidance to all victim assistance programs and advises on procedure and policies relating to operations of victim centers located throughout Orange County.
Although Judge Carney has had a stellar legal career, I must note that before he made law his chosen profession he played professional football, first for the New York Giants and then for the Memphis Showboats. The legal profession is fortunate that he ultimately joined our ranks, since he has served on both sides of the bench with compassion, integrity, intelligence and fairness. I am confident that he will serve with the same qualities on the Federal district court bench.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to support the nomination of Judge Cormac Carney for the Central District of California.
Judge Carney is a bright, young judge with truly impressive credentials. Judge Carney graduated cum laude from UCLA, where he earned All-American honors as a wide receiver. He attended Harvard Law School, worked as a partner for the prestigious law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, and has served with distinction as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.
I am confident he will prove a valuable addition to the bench in the Southern District of California.
Today's vote on Judge Carney marks a milestone event for California's bipartisan Judicial Advisory Committee, which Senator Barbara Boxer and I set up with the White House.
Judge Carney is the eighth judge to come out of the advisory committee. Nearly every one of these judges has passed out of the committee by a unanimous vote.
With Judge Carney's confirmation, the committee will have filled all the current district court vacancies in California.
This if the first time in recent memory that all of California's authorized district court judgeships are filled.
I would like to give credit to Jerry Parsky and the White House for working constructively with the California Senate delegation in a bipartisan manner to get these judgeships filled.
The results of the committee's efforts speak for themselves. On average, these eight California judges have received Senate confirmation within 114 days of their nomination.
In contrast, during the last year of the Clinton administration, district court nominees took an average of 196 days to get confirmed.
We have confirmed these nominees efficiently and without rancor. This process has enabled the best and the brightest legal minds of our state to gain admission to the Federal bench.
I hope the Senate sees our efforts in California as a model of how the judicial nominations process could work.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Cormac J. Carney, of California, to be United States District Court Judge for the Central District of California? The yeas and nays are ordered, and the clerk will call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. I announce that the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Allen), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Bond), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Smith), and the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Talent) are necessarily absent.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Corzine), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Edwards), the Senator from Florida
(Mr. Graham), the Senator from Iowa (Mr. Harkin), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry), the Senator from Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu), the Senator from Connecticut
(Mr. Lieberman), the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Miller), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Nelson), the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes), and the Senator from New York
(Mr. Schumer) are necessary absent.
I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Nelson) would each vote ``Aye''
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Graham of South Carolina). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 80, nays 0, as follows:
YEAS--80
AkakaAllardBaucusBayhBennettBidenBingamanBoxerBreauxBunningBurnsByrdCampbellCantwellCarperChafeeChamblissClintonCochranColemanCollinsConradCornynCraigCrapoDaschleDaytonDeWineDoddDoleDomeniciDorganDurbinEnsignEnziFeingoldFeinsteinFitzgeraldFristGraham (SC)GrassleyGreggHagelHatchHollingsHutchisonJeffordsJohnsonKennedyKohlKylLautenbergLeahyLevinLincolnLottLugarMcCainMcConnellMurkowskiMurrayNelson (NE)NicklesPryorReedReidRobertsRockefellerSantorumSessionsShelbySnoweSpecterStabenowStevensSununuThomasVoinovichWarnerWyden
NOT VOTING--20
AlexanderAllenBondBrownbackCorzineEdwardsGraham (FL)HarkinInhofeInouyeKerryLandrieuLiebermanMikulskiMillerNelson (FL)SarbanesSchumerSmithTalent
The nomination was confirmed.
Mr. LEAHY. With today's confirmation vote on the nomination of Judge Cormac Carney to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Senate Democrats again demonstrate their bipartisanship toward consensus nominees. Judge Carney's confirmation will bring to 16 the number of judicial nominees of President Bush confirmed just this year, with 14 district court nominees and two circuit court nominees confirmed in the first 10 weeks since the reorganization of the Senate. This stands in marked contrast to 1996 when only 17 judicial nominees of President Clinton were confirmed all year, and not one of them was for the circuit courts.
Last year alone, in an election year, the Democratic-led Senate confirmed 72 judicial nominees, more than in any of the prior 6 years of Republican control. Overall, in the prior 17 months I chaired the Judiciary Committee, we were able to confirm 100 judges and vastly reduce the judicial vacancies that Republicans had stored up by refusing to allow scores of judicial nominees of President Clinton to be considered. Not once did the Republican-controlled Senate consider that many of President Clinton's district and circuit court nominees. We were able to do so despite the White House's refusal to consult with Democrats on circuit court vacancies and many district court vacancies.
There is no doubt that the judicial nominees of this President are conservation, many of them quite to the right of the mainstream. Many of these nominees have been active in conservative political causes or groups. Democrats moved fairly and expeditiously on as many as we could consistent with our obligations to evaluate carefully and thoroughly these nominees to lifetime seats in the Federal courts. Unfortunately, many of this President's judicial nominees have proven to be quite controversial and we have had serious concerned about whether they would be fair judges if confirmed to lifetime positions. We are pleased that this is not the case with Judge Carney of California.
While Republicans frequently point to the 377 judges confirmed for President Clinton, what they tellingly leave out is that only 245 of them were confirmed during the 6\1/2\ years Republicans controlled the Senate. That amounts to only 38 confirmations per year when the Republicans last held a majority. In 1999, the Republican majority did not hold a hearing on any judicial nominee until June. Last week, the Republican majority held its seventh hearing including a 32nd judicial nominee in the last 2 months. The Senate Judiciary Committee under Republican control operates in two very different ways under very different practices and rules depending on the political party of the President. This year it is acting like a runaway train, operating at breakneck speed and breaking longstanding rules and practices of the committee to rush through the consideration of lifetime appointees.
This year we have had a rocky beginning with a hearing for three controversial circuit court nominees which caused a great many problems that might have been avoided had the chairman honored the bipartisan agreement on controversial nominees and the pace of hearings and votes that has been in place since 1985, for almost 20 years. The chairman's insistence on terminating debate on the Cook and Roberts nominations, in clear violation of the committee's express rules that have been honored since 1979, for almost 25 years--is another serious problem. Of course, with the Estrada nomination, the administration's unwillingness to work with the Senate to provide access to documents of the exact same type as have been provided in past nominations for lifetime and short-term appointments has proven to be a significant problem. The opposition to the Sutton nomination is also extensive. The unprecedented nature of a President re-nominating someone for the same judicial position after a defeat in committee has led to the very controversial Owen nomination pending on the floor with the assent of only the Republicans on the committee. The chairman's decision to hold a hearing on the controversial Judge Kuhl, despite objections of one of her home state Senators, is also problematic and is something that he never did, not once, when there was a Democrat in the White House.
Nonetheless, the Senate has proceeded to confirm 116 of President Bush's judicial nominees, including 16 this year alone and another today. It was not until September 1999, 9 months into the year, that 16 of President Clinton's judicial nominees were confirmed in the first session of the last Congress in which Republicans controlled the Senate majority. At the pace set by Republicans now, we are 6 months ahead of that schedule.
The confirmation of Judge Carney will fill the last current vacancy in the Federal district courts in California. This nomination is a good example of the kind of bipartisan-supported candidates the President ought to be sending the Senate. Judge Carney comes to us after being unanimously approved by California's Bipartisan Judicial Advisory Committee--a committee established through an agreement Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer reached with the White House. This is one of the few bipartisan commissions that the White House has allowed to proceed, although the White House has not moved forward with some of its bipartisan, qualified recommendations. This California committee works to take the politics out of judicial nominations. It reviews qualified, consensus nominees who will serve on the Federal judiciary with distinction. Too often in the last 2 years we have seen the recommendations of such bipartisan panels rejected or stalled at the White House. Instead, they should be honored and encouraged.
Judge Carney has served as a Superior Court Judge in the State of California since 2001. Judge Carney was a partner with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers handling civil matters before he was appointed to the State court bench in 2001. He played professional football before going to law school and has served in the Air Force Reserve.
Two other district judges in California have already been unanimously confirmed this year, Judge Selna and Judge Otero. Last Congress, led by a Democratic Senate majority, the Senate confirmed four nominees to the Federal district courts in California. Percy Anderson and John Walter were confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on April 25, 2002, just 3 months after their initial nominations. The Senate also confirmed Robert G. Klausner to be a U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California on July 18, 2002, and Jeffrey S. White to be a U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of California on November 14, 2002. The Senate has now filled all seven of the vacancies on the Federal trial courts in California that we inherited.
Last year, at the urging of Senator Feinstein and the chief judge of the district, we included in the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act, five additional judgeships for the Southern District of California. We also included an additional position for the Central District of California. By mid-July California will have six important vacancies to be filled. I look forward to working with the Senators from California to proceed, if possible, in advance of July on additional nominations so that these much-needed seats can be filled quickly with fair, mainstream nominees. It is unfortunate that the President, who has had notice of these upcoming vacancies for some time, has not worked with the California Senators and their bipartisan commissions to send consensus nominees to the Senate.
I congratulate Judge Carney, his family, and the Senators from California on his confirmation.
Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I want to express my support for the nomination of Cormac J. Carney to be U.S. District Judge, for the Central District of California. Mr. Carney has the knowledge, experience and personal characteristics needed to succeed on the Federal bench.
Unfortunately, due to inclement weather, I was unable to return to Washington in time for the vote to confirm Mr. Carney, but I would like the Record to reflect that, had I been present, I would have cast my vote in favor of his confirmation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The President will be immediately notified of this action.
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