Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak on the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. As the first woman to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee--a committee on which I have served for 18 years--it is my great pleasure to speak in support of Ms. Halligan, who has excelled at every turn during her distinguished legal career. She graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1988. She received her law degree, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was managing editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and inducted into the Order of the Coif. She began her legal career with a clerkship with Judge Patricia Wald on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit--the first woman to serve on that Court. She then spent a year in private practice at the Washington, DC firm, Wiley, Rein, and Fielding, followed by a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. After another year in private practice, Ms. Halligan began work in the office of the Attorney General of the State of New York, first as Chief of the Internet Bureau. She rose to become Solicitor General of the State of New York, the State's top appellate lawyer. She served in that role from 2001 through 2007. During nearly all of Ms. Halligan's time as Solicitor General, George Pataki--a Republican--was Governor. Her job was to represent the State of New York zealously, and by all accounts she did so with skill and dignity.…”