Political Quotes

“The Judiciary Committee has favorably reported 17 judicial nominations that are now awaiting votes on the floor of the Senate. There is no question that the wait for many of the judicial nominees of President Obama has been unacceptable. Under the previous President, at this point in his term the average district court nominee waited 22 days from favorable report by the Judiciary Committee to Senate confirmation. The average circuit court nominee waited 28 days. By contrast, the average district court nominee under President Obama has faced a wait of 97 days, and the average for circuit court nominees is 138 days. Yet the vast majority of these nominees are not controversial. They enjoy bipartisan support. We should move quickly to confirm these nominees who have been receiving bipartisan backing, particularly, and to review, debate, and act as expeditiously as we can on the small number of nominations about which there is some debate. There is a great deal of discussion about which party is to blame about the ever-slower pace of judicial nominations. I have my own strong beliefs on that question. Our constituents are best served not by arguing over blame, but by our exercise of the responsibility the Constitution bestows upon us. I simply ask all of my colleagues to consider on each of these nominations the damage done by delay and inaction, and to carefully consider the threat to justice from the growing crisis of delay in our courts.…”