Cory Booker: “I rise today to speak about the judicial nominations that are currently pending before the Senate and the fact that we…”

“I rise today to speak about the judicial nominations that are currently pending before the Senate and the fact that we have a very serious vacancy crisis in the United States. We have a challenge based upon the unwillingness of the majority to put on the floor a number of judges who are pending and have been pending for many months. This is a serious problem, and it is causing problems in States all around the country. We have critical challenges in performing our role of helping the judiciary--that independent branch of government--to function. I would be wrong not to mention Judge Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court, which has now been pending before the Senate for 7 months. This is the longest period in U.S. history that a Supreme Court nominee has been pending not only for an up-or-down vote but also pending to have hearings on the qualifications of this judge. This judge would absolutely bring great qualifications. In fact, nobody has had more Federal judicial experience. Yet we refuse to move forward, to go through a process that is spelled out in the Constitution in the sense that we are supposed to make sure that the judicial branch has a full complement of judges. For 7 months now, the Supreme Court has not been functioning as was intended by the Constitution. The Supreme Court is missing a Justice, and because of that vacancy, cases have resulted in 4-to-4 tie votes.…”