Max Baucus: “on the corridor of the first floor of this Capitol building appear the words of Samuel Adams: Freedom of thought and the…”

“on the corridor of the first floor of this Capitol building appear the words of Samuel Adams: Freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country. America still stands as the world's beacon of individual rights and liberties. Of that I know we are very proud. In large part, it is because of our Supreme Court. Our Founding Fathers were very wise setting up three separate branches of Government, including a very strong, independent judiciary, something many countries have struggled to attain, and their failure to achieve greatness is largely because they do not have a very strong, independent judiciary--and I mean independent. The Senate protects the independence of the Supreme Court. How? By seriously exercising its responsibility to advise and consent on the nominations to that honorable Court. It is in the Constitution. We all take that duty seriously. We take it seriously by examining nominees. I personally have three criteria I use to examine nominees. They are professional competence, personal integrity, and a view of important issues within the mainstream of contemporary judicial thought. Let me review those three criteria. First, professional competence. The Supreme Court must not be a testing ground for the development of a jurist's basic values. Nor should a Justice require further training. The stakes are simply too high. The nominee must be an established jurist already.…”