Hank Johnson: “I return to the floor today for the second time in as many months to speak against another crony- capitalist…”

“I return to the floor today for the second time in as many months to speak against another crony- capitalist, Republican-led bill to benefit big business. H.R. 3624, the Fraudulent Joinder Protection Act, as it is so called, is a solution in search of a problem. Current Federal law already provides Federal courts with ample tools to address possible forum shopping. This crony-capitalist legislation would add needless complications for civil litigants seeking redress for violent claims in the State courts. Two, it further stretches the already limited resources Federal courts are experiencing due to Republican-passed, budget-cutting sequestration measures. Currently America is burdened with a Republican Party-caused judicial vacancy crisis in this Nation's Federal courts, where there are over 81 Federal court judicial vacancies around the country, including the one left vacant by the passing of Justice Scalia. Republicans--who control the Senate and who, in the press conferences and meetings they have held this week, have fully exposed their plot to add to this judicial crisis--are refusing to fill that vacancy on the country's highest Court, and they have an ulterior purpose for doing so. That purpose, ladies and gentlemen, is because they know that justice delayed is justice denied.…”