Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Justice Priscilla Owen has had a vote in the Senate. She has had four or five votes in the Senate. If we were adhering…”

“Justice Priscilla Owen has had a vote in the Senate. She has had four or five votes in the Senate. If we were adhering to the Constitution of the United States, she would be sitting on the Fifth Circuit today. There are three vacancies on the Fifth Circuit. They need to fill their bench. She should be sitting there because she has gotten more than 51 votes. But Priscilla Owen is not sitting on the Federal bench today because we have a new standard that has been put in place for the first time since 1789. Last year, we started having a 60-vote standard for Federal judges. So Priscilla Owen, although she has repeatedly and every time, gotten over the required 51 percent, is not sitting on the Federal bench today. No. Instead, this very qualified supreme court justice of the State of Texas is doing her job, doing it very well, serving as a supreme court justice in the State of Texas, even though she has gotten the requisite number of votes on repeated occasions to be confirmed as a Federal judge by the standards of this Congress from 1789 until 2002, until the rules were changed because we are now filibustering Federal judge nominees.”