Political Quotes

“I rise in response to Senator Sessions' comments about a nominee we are going to consider shortly, Bill Martinez. Senator Sessions just spoke about the ACLU for 30 minutes, trying to define Bill Martinez--a district court nominee, not the appeals court as Sessions noted--as an ACLU-like nominee and then criticizing his hearing responses on the death penalty and the empathy standard. I wanted to clarify for the record three points of misinformation. Bill Martinez did not work for the ACLU. He served on an advisory board regarding cases in Denver. Several Bush nominees were members of the Federalist Society and contributors to other conservative litigation centers and were confirmed just a few years ago. Bill Martinez is not the ACLU, and we ought to be careful to avoid setting false standards. Senator Sessions claimed he was dissatisfied with Bill Martinez's response regarding the death penalty, stating that he was not clear in his beliefs. This is misleading and the record states otherwise.”