John Sarbanes: “Mr. President, this is an extraordinary slowdown in the confirmation of judges. Then, of course, what happens is…”

“Mr. President, this is an extraordinary slowdown in the confirmation of judges. Then, of course, what happens is none--only two have been confirmed this year thus far. So in the last virtually year and a half, 19 judges. I just submit to you this game ought to stop. We ought not to be playing with the Federal courts in this way. If people have a legitimate objection to a particular nominee, they ought to voice that objection and vote against them and try to persuade their colleagues to vote against them. But this is crippling the courts. The Chief Justice of the United States has been driven to the unusual posture of registering his complaint about it. I am frank to say to you, I think that Members of this body, Democrats and Republicans alike, have a responsibility to ensure that the Federal court system can work in a reasonable fashion. It is not going to work in a reasonable fashion if you slow up the confirmation of judges to this extent. It has not been done before. I mean, this breaks with all previous patterns and previous precedents. I just submit that we are not going to maintain public confidence in the judicial system, and we ought not to politicize the judicial process the way it is being done.”