Bob Menendez: “I want to speak tonight not as the chairman of the Democratic Caucus but as a member of the Congressional Hispanic…”

“I want to speak tonight not as the chairman of the Democratic Caucus but as a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and I want to join my colleagues in their opposition to the nomination of Miguel Estrada for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is generally known as the second most important and powerful court in the land. It is not lightly or easily that members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus come to the floor to oppose a nomination of an American of Hispanic descent to such a high position; but we do it out of a principled view, and those principled views are based in the fundamental belief that the reason that we advocate for Americans of Hispanic descent who are qualified, who are competent, who have the judicial temperament and the experience to be able to serve admirably for all Americans on the bench is because we want to bring to that institution and to other institutions the experience of what it is to be a Hispanic American in this country, to bring the challenges and the obstacles in this case in the judicial system.”