Political Quotes

“Madam President, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the filling of judicial vacancies has been the focal point of my political attention now for 4 years. There are roughly 800 to 900 Federal judges at the district court level--the lower court level--and the circuit court level and then, of course, 9 on the Supreme Court. Filling those vacancies is part of our responsibility. People decide to retire, they pass away, for various reasons they leave the bench, and we need to make sure the courts still have people to do their professional job. I listened carefully to my colleague from Kentucky explain his concerns about the filling of four circuit court vacancies and the possibility--and I don't know with any certainty, but the possibility-- that two of those four judges have decided not to retire but to stay on the bench, and he raises a question about whether that is fair. Well, I would like to call the Senate's attention to the fact that there was a moment in time when we were shocked to learn that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died while on a hunting trip. I believe it was in the month of January or February. I don't have notes on it here, but I believe it was January or February of that year, and it was the last year of President Obama's Presidency, in his second term. And so the President--President Obama--said he was going to set out to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia.…”