George Voinovich: “This is a very bad time to delay the appointment of judicial nominees. Our Federal courts are in crisis. The U.S. courts…”

“This is a very bad time to delay the appointment of judicial nominees. Our Federal courts are in crisis. The U.S. courts of appeals are currently 15 percent vacant, even as case filings in those courts reached an all-time high in 2002. Chief Justice Rehnquist has warned that this high vacancy level, coupled with the rising caseload, threatens the proper functioning of the Federal courts. Currently, there are 14 courts of appeals pending nominees, 12 of whom were nominated in 2001 and have been waiting for over a year for a vote in the Senate. The most egregious example is the Sixth Circuit, which includes Ohio, where 6 of the 16 seats are open and classified as judicial emergencies. Of these six vacancies, two, Jeff Sutton and Deborah Cook, have been pending since May 2001, nearly 2 years, and three others have been pending since November 2001, over 2 years. The fact is, we do have a crisis in the judiciary in the United States of America. Now, let's look at the record. When Senator Hatch was chairman during the Clinton administration, he considered more than one circuit nominee at 11 different hearings. But not once during the 107th Congress did the Democrats hold a hearing on more than one circuit court nominee at a time. The result is we fell behind in the confirmation of circuit nominees. Presidents Clinton, Reagan and the former President Bush all received confirmations for their first 11 circuit nominees well within 1 year of the nominations.”