Political Quotes

“I could not help thinking, particularly as I listened to the distinguished majority leader discuss the activity in his office today and the concern about his staff and their current terrorist threat that reaches the U.S. Capitol staff now, about how many ways this threat of terrorism affects all of us. I certainly hope all of the majority leader's staff is well and suffers no ill effects from what may well have been another reach of terrorist attack here in the United States. It reminds us how this kind of unlawful extralegal activity can affect a society which has always been so free and so open, precisely because we are a nation of laws and precisely because we believe in the rule of law. Of course, in our society that rule of law ultimately rests upon the judge and our courts for its administration. Of course, it is the judges who are the ultimate arbiters of the law. We could not function long as a free society without our judges. Yet today we are speaking about the fact that an unacceptable number of vacancies exist in our courts, vacancies that must be filled if we are to be able to properly administer that law we revere so much. Currently, there are 108 empty seats in the Federal judiciary. We are speaking of the Federal courts alone. That represents a 12.6-percent vacancy in the total number of judgeships. I note, as others I believe have perhaps also noted, that of those, there are 41 judicial emergencies.”