On the recordMay 30, 2023
pending before the U.S. Senate is the nomination of Darrel Papillion, to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. I want to say a word about this nomination because it indicates a positive development in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which the Acting President pro tempore and I share membership in, and the fact that this is a bipartisan nomination. On May 11, Darrel Papillion was voted out of committee by a vote of 15 to 6. Senators on the Republican side--Graham, Cornyn, Kennedy, and Tillis--joined all committee Democrats in voting for this nominee. He received the unanimous rating of ``well qualified'' from the American Bar Association, and he has the obvious support of the two Louisiana Senators--Cassidy and Kennedy--both of whom returned positive blue slips, which is committee process, and both of whom are Republican. Papillion had a B.A. from Louisiana State University and a J.D. from LSU's Paul M. Hebert Law Center before clerking for Associate Justice Catherine Kimball on the Louisiana Supreme Court. He entered private practice in New Orleans where he specialized in the defense of products liability actions. Since moving to Baton Rouge in 1999, Papillion's main areas of practice have been personal injury and wrongful death litigation. Papillion has tried at least 33 cases to verdict, including more than a dozen jury trials.…





