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“JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S1191-S1192 on March 1, 2012.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS
Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, today I wish to discuss the current judicial vacancy crisis. We have in many instances abrogated our responsibility to advise and consent in the nomination process. An estimated 160 million people live in districts with a courtroom vacancy that could have been filled last year with the cooperation of Senate Republicans. There are currently 20 nominees who have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee or are waiting a simple up-or-down vote which Republicans have historically supported. One of these nominees is Ronnie Abrams.
Ms. Abrams was nominated in July of 2011 by President Obama to serve as a Federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is currently a lawyer with the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, teaching a seminar on the investigation and prosecution of Federal criminal cases. Prior to her current positions, Ms. Abrams distinguished herself as a prosecutor, rising to deputy chief, Criminal Division, at the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. As deputy chief, she supervised over 160 prosecutors in cases involving violent crimes, white-collar crimes, public corruption, narcotics trafficking, and computer crimes. In recognition of her service, she was awarded the Department of Justice Director's Award for Superior Performance as a Federal Prosecutor. Ms. Abrams is a highly experienced and exceptional attorney, who is extremely well qualified to serve as a Federal court judge. A nominee of this caliber deserves to be quickly confirmed by the Senate.
In particular, we should have a renewed, bipartisan commitment to confirming more women to the bench. Over the past three decades, an increasing number of women have joined the legal profession. In recent years, law schools have seen the number of female students increase. According to the National Women's Law Center, women now make up nearly half of all law students. But the number of women in the Federal judiciary has stagnated and women are woefully underrepresented. It is of critical importance to increase the representation of women and communities of color on the Federal bench. Today, women make up roughly 30 percent of the Federal bench. When women are fairly represented on our Federal courts, those courts are more reflective of our society.
What is disturbing about this vacancy crisis is that the total number of Federal circuit and district court judges confirmed during the first 3 years of the Obama administration is far less than for previous Presidents. For instance, the Senate has confirmed only 124 of President Obama's Federal circuit and district court nominees, compared to 168 Federal circuit and district court judges confirmed at this point in the Presidency of George W. Bush and 183 Federal circuit and district court judges confirmed at this point in President Clinton's administration.
To give you an even better breakdown, there are 20 judicial nominations reported favorable by the Judiciary Committee, 15 of which have been pending since last year, 18 of which have strong bipartisan support. So why is there a delay in confirming these nominees? Senate Republicans have failed to offer an answer.
Nominees such as Ronnie Abrams deserve better by receiving a swift up-or-down vote. The American people deserve better by having representation in their district and circuit courts. We need to give these nominees, most of whom have strong bipartisan support, a full up-
or-down vote by the Senate. If we continue down this road of rejecting nominees simply because their nomination originates across the aisle, we are establishing an impossible standard that no nominee will ever meet. We ought to have the same respect for the judicial system that we have for the legislative system in which we ourselves work. I urge my colleagues to help move these nominees forward.
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