John Bel Edwards: “here we have the chief judge, who is a Republican-nominated judge, and a court that now has a majority of Republican…”

“here we have the chief judge, who is a Republican-nominated judge, and a court that now has a majority of Republican judges. You can certainly make the argument that he likes the composition of the court the way it is; he never wants that to be changed. That is so fundamentally wrong and so fundamentally different from the way our Constitution provides. We should be nominating judges. Whether it is a Democratic or a Republican administration, it shouldn't make any difference in nominating well-qualified judges. This body should act on the qualification of those men and women to serve on the court, not based upon the Republican or Democratic composition of the court. It is just that simple. This should be totally nonpartisan. My State has no one representing them on the Fourth Circuit. There is not, nor has there ever been, an African American judge on this court. The simple bottom line is that we have the responsibility of deciding how many judges should be authorized for that court. We have made that decision--15. It is now down to 10. Of those 10, North Carolina has none. The people of North Carolina are entitled to be represented on this court. In addition to that, we should deal with the issue that there has never been an African American judge on this court. We presently have pending the nomination of two well-respected and very well qualified African American jurists. This is what I would say to the Chairman Hatch. Let us have a hearing on Judge Wynn.…”