I have never seen a President or an Attorney General yet that did not have beliefs and a philosophy about how they think the office should be conducted.

I believe it's an effective penalty, and most Americans do.

I think lawyers ought to be open and having discussions.

We are glad to have each of you here. This is a process we just have to go through, you nominees for judge.

Mr. Chairman, our people have--my staff has looked over these nominees' records. I think we feel good about them and their background.

We are talking about a lifetime appointment.

It has been estimated that illegal immigrants make up 27 percent of the Federal prison population, and that is a stunning number to me.

I believe the Supreme Court, two members of the Supreme Court were deeply in error, in effect, by agreeing with the ACLU and dissenting in every death penalty case.

I think we can reduce crime or reduce prison populations and make the system work better.

I think that is well said in the sense which you are bound by superior authority and how those cases are interpreted.

I think I voted for 90 percent-plus of President Clinton's nominees, and hope to be able to do the same with President Obama's.

I think the zeal to have more diversity on the bench has led to some rhetoric from a lot of our nominees.

I predicted, on the floor of the Senate, that much of that legislation that passed was not going to withstand constitutional muster, and I think it didn't.

It's a remarkable system. Everybody had doubts about it.

I think we can work on that.

I support the guidelines. I am working, and I have offered for some time, to reduce the sentencing guidelines' mandatories for crack cocaine.

If a person appearing before the bench feels that the judge's personal experiences... causes them to not listen fairly to their case, not to fairly find the facts in their case, wouldn't you agree that the whole system is in jeopardy?

I think that is a classical definition of what a judge does.

I would just note, as you know but for the record, how much work does go into a person's nominating process.

some people don't realize that a lot of the individuals that are prosecuted are dangerous people.

I think it is a good thing to see women take a larger role in the Federal judiciary.

I think that causes you starting down a slippery slope.

I do think the Sentencing Commission invests a tremendous amount of time in trying to identify what the ranges of sentences should be.

I firmly believe that persons can disagree with the death penalty as a matter of policy, but as for a lifetime appointment on the Federal bench, it is appropriate to ask are you prepared to follow the law faithfully like other laws and not…

I think they provide a great service, not only to judges, but also to litigants, defendants.