Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to discuss one of the judicial nominations we are considering. We are on the floor this afternoon to discuss the nomination of Matthew J. Kacsmaryk to be a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Texas. We know that under the Senate rules we are now operating under, judicial nominees are receiving just 2 hours of what is called postcloture consideration, and for that time on the floor, we are considering a lifetime appointment to be on the Federal district court bench or to be a judge on one of the circuit courts. These are lifetime appointments, and to have just 2 hours on any nomination I don't think is enough time--I think a lot of Americans agree with me--but maybe even more so when you have a nominee whose views are, to be understated for a moment, troubling, views about judicial philosophy or a judicial philosophy and--a philosophy that I think a lot of Americans would find extreme. In this case, the nomination of Mr. Kacsmaryk is a prime example of why these nominees for lifetime appointments warrant a longer time for review. Again, I think that is an understatement. Even at a time when we are on a regular basis considering nominees who fall outside of the mainstream and who tend to fall in a place, in terms of legal philosophy, that a lot of Americans would find very concerning--even at a time when we have considered a lot of nominees I would consider outside the mainstream, Mr. Kacsmaryk's nomination is particularly troubling.…”