Political Quotes

“I rise to take a moment to congratulate the soon-to-be confirmed district judge for the Western District of New York, Larry Vilardo. He is from the Western District. It could not come too soon, because the Western District has been working without a single sitting Federal judge. That will finally change once Mr. Vilardo has been confirmed. He will now begin to hear cases and tackle the backlog that has been steadily building in the Western District. There are few more qualified to help take on this task than Larry Vilardo. That is because Mr. Vilardo is a classic Buffalonian--hard working, salt of the earth, honest, and grounded. He went to Canisius College and then took a brief detour out of Western New York to attend Harvard Law School and clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas before returning home and becoming one of Buffalo's leading legal lights, practicing at a firm he cofounded. Buffalo is where he was born, raised, and educated, and where he chose to raise his family. Buffalo is in his bones. They love him in Buffalo. When this vacancy occurred, I heard the voices in Buffalo chanting: Vilardo, Vilardo, Vilardo--not just the legal community but just about the whole community. Like so many other people from the region, the city has made him tough, level-headed, fair, and decent. As the first in his family to graduate from college, he adds an important element to the socioeconomic diversity of the court.…”