Cory Booker: “Reserving the right to object, as the junior Senator from New Jersey, this is difficult for me because one of the judges…”

“Reserving the right to object, as the junior Senator from New Jersey, this is difficult for me because one of the judges the Republican leader is suggesting be skipped is the judge who has been waiting for the longest time. Judge Julien Neals has been waiting since February of 2015. He is someone who came out of the committee with bipartisan support and someone who has deep qualifications. In addition to this, he is suggesting that we skip another judge named Ed Stanton, who is the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. I bring out those two judges who are next on the list. They are the two longest waiting judges for the district court--one from May and one from February. I single those two out not just because one of them is from New Jersey but, if you look at the list of the next 15 judges, these are the only two African Americans on the list. The two longest waiting district court judges and the only two African Americans are the two who are being singled out, among others, to be skipped over in what the Republican leader is suggesting. I know that for my colleagues in the Republican Party this is not a conscious thing. I know this is a coincidence and that it is not intentional that the two longest waiting judges--the only two African- American judges on this list of 15--are being skipped over, but I do feel it is necessary to point out this fact.…”