"I share very strongly the views expressed by some of my colleagues that it was shameful that Caitlin Halligan, the nominee to the DC Circuit, was filibustered and denied a vote on the floor."
"I hope that my colleagues will join with me to show the American people the Senate is not broken and that regular order is capable of addressing the vacancy crisis on the DC Circuit."
"Every time the Senate holds up a nominee for partisan or political reasons, we lose not only the contributions of that candidate, but we make it harder to find talented individuals willing to serve."
"the Senate has been doing its job and doing it quickly."
"In my view, when a President submits a qualified candidate of high character and sound legal mind, absent exceptional circumstances, that candidate is entitled to a vote."
"As Chief Justice Roberts has said, "It is a tradition of the American Bar that goes back before the founding of our Nation that lawyers are not identified with the positions of their clients.""
"I am introducing the Court Efficiency Act."
"Congress has a lot of significant issues to work through if we are to be successful in reaching an appropriate compromise and improvements, enduring improvements, to our immigration system."
"But, would you agree, today, that we are not perceived to be on the right side of this..."
"I would submit that currently the immigration detention system has broken down because the detainees do not have attorneys who can help facilitate their cases."
"And if we decide, oh, we are for numerical limits, then you have to enforce those limits, and you have to find a way to do so."