Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to speak in opposition to the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination for the DC Circuit nominee Cornelia Pillard. Although her record makes clear that her views are well outside the mainstream on a host of issues, I am not going to focus any attention on those concerns today. I am going to focus instead on the standard the Democrats established in 2006. Based on that standard, the court's caseload makes it clear that the workload simply doesn't justify additional judges, particularly when those additional judges cost approximately $1 million per year per judge. I have walked through these statistics several times now, and I am not going to go in depth again. The bottom line is the data overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the DC Circuit is underworked. Everyone knows this is true. That circuit does not need any more judges. Take, for instance, the appeals filed and appeals terminated. In both categories the DC Circuit ranks last, and in both categories the DC Circuit is less than half the national average. To provide some perspective on this point, compare the DC Circuit to the Eleventh. After another judge took senior status about a week ago, both the DC Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit have eight active judges. If we don't confirm any more judges to either court, the numbers remain the same as last year.…”