Arlen Specter: “Ms. Berzon has an outstanding record academically and as a practicing lawyer. She received her bachelor's degree from…”

“Ms. Berzon has an outstanding record academically and as a practicing lawyer. She received her bachelor's degree from Harvard and Radcliffe colleges in 1966. She received her J.D. degree, doctorate of law, from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law in 1973. Thereafter, she clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge James R. Browning and then for Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan. She has been in the practice of law since 1975 and most recently, from 1978 to the present time, with the firm of Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Berzon & Rubin, where she has had a very active litigation practice. She argued four cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, which is a large number of cases for a practicing lawyer to have before the Supreme Court. That kind of appellate practice is a strong indicator of her preparation for work as an appellate court judge on the Ninth Circuit to which she has been nominated. There have been objections raised to Ms. Berzon on ideological grounds. It is my view that this kind of a challenge ought not to be a basis for defeating a nomination to the Federal court.”