Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to say a few words about the appointment of Patricia Millett to the DC Circuit. The DC Circuit is an 11-member appellate court that hears some of the greatest and most serious administrative appeals in this country. Most of them are complicated, somewhat convoluted, and they do take serious expertise. The court is an 11-member court. It currently has eight members. Three of the eight are women, and there are three vacancies on the court. Patricia Millett has been nominated by the President to fill one of those vacancies. What is interesting about this debate is that no one questions her qualifications or her temperament. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois in 1985 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1988. Even Senator Cruz from Texas has pointed out how superbly qualified she is. Yet there is a good chance that there will not be the votes to allow us to proceed to a vote on her qualifications and therefore confirm the nomination. I wish to state some of her qualifications. She clerked for Judge Thomas Tang on the Ninth Circuit in Phoenix, AZ, for 2 years. She worked in the Solicitor General's office for 11 years, in the Justice Department's civil Appellate Section for 4 years. She leads the Supreme Court and appellate practice at the law firm Akin Gump. She has argued 32 cases in the Supreme Court, placing her in the top 10 of all attorneys from 2000 to 2012.…”