Harry Reid: “This letter goes on to say they have had a longstanding relationship with us, the Democrats; and basically it goes on to…”

“This letter goes on to say they have had a longstanding relationship with us, the Democrats; and basically it goes on to say that they support Latino nominees for courts. They want more. Mr. President, we have heard statements here that we don't need these memoranda Mr. Estrada wrote when he was in the Solicitor General's office; other people have not had to give them, so why should he? Other people have turned these memos over is the short answer. Another answer is that Mr. Estrada--going to why it's so important here--is that he has virtually no other record for us to examine. The other side of the aisle, my colleagues, have called the request for these memos unprecedented. Senator Leahy produced a number of actual Solicitor General memos turned over in the past. We have heard a lot about Mr. Paez and about Marsha Berzon. Let me take them as an example. This woman was asked to produce the minutes of meetings she attended when she was a member of the ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union. My colleagues went further and even required Ms. Berzon to supply the minutes of the meetings of the ACLU while she was a member even if she didn't attend the meetings. We don't want to go nearly that far. We want to find out what is in the memoranda. It is not unprecedented. My friends have said these documents are privileged. Everybody in this body knows that the attorney-client privilege doesn't apply to the Senate.”