María Elvira Salazar: “I thank the great and wonderful Senator from Delaware for yielding me the time. I rise to speak briefly about the…”

“I thank the great and wonderful Senator from Delaware for yielding me the time. I rise to speak briefly about the bipartisan action taken by the Senate yesterday when it confirmed the nomination of Paul Crotty to be U.S. district judge for the southern district of New York. I commend my colleagues for their willingness to put aside their partisan differences and to make sure that the judicial confirmation process worked in the case of Judge Crotty. I commend them for acting so obviously for the good of the American people. Even more importantly, it is my hope that this example will prove to be an enduring one for all of us as we move forward with the subject of judicial nominations in the future. Our duty to evaluate Presidential judicial nominations and to confirm or reject nominees is a particularly solemn obligation under our Constitution. Our 871 article III Federal judges hold positions of great respect and great power. They put criminals in jail. They decide our most important private disputes and they explain what our laws mean. Our constitutional duty to evaluate judicial nominees is doubly important because judges are appointed for life. If we make a mistake, our country is stuck with a bad judge for years and sometimes decades. On March 1, 2005, I sent a letter to President George Bush concerning judicial nominations.…”