Arlen Specter: “the subject matter at hand is the confirmation of Ms. Debra Ann Livingston for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second…”

“the subject matter at hand is the confirmation of Ms. Debra Ann Livingston for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and I urge my colleagues to confirm her. She has an excellent, outstanding academic and professional record. She was a superb graduate of Princeton, magna cum laude, 1980, Phi Beta Kappa; a graduate of the Harvard Law School in 1984, again, magna cum laude. She was editor on the Harvard Law Review, a law clerk to Judge Lumbard of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She practiced law with the prestigious firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. She was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. She was a commissioner for the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board for some years, 1994 to 2003, and has been on the Columbia Law School faculty since 1994 as an associate professor, a professor in the year 2000, and vice dean from 2005 to 2006. She has been rated unanimously well qualified by the American Bar Association. I believe she is an extraordinary prospect to go to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.”