Pete Sessions: “we had a very sad day today. The Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line, partisan vote of 10 to 9, voted down the…”

“we had a very sad day today. The Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line, partisan vote of 10 to 9, voted down the nomination of Priscilla Owen, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, for a position on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Having practiced many years in Federal court, 15 years full-time as a Federal prosecutor, I care about the Federal courts. I want it to be the very best it can be. I believe deeply in the rule of law in America. I believe it is a tradition we have to cherish and turn over to our children and our grandchildren, so that it has the same strength, moral coherence, and integrity that it has always had. In fact, most of the nations around the world today that are struggling so badly--the Third World nations--are not struggling because their people will not work or because they do not have resources. Too often, it is generally because there is no legal system that can operate where people can make loans and expect them to be repaid, or where they can own property and not have it stolen from them. So the legal system is exceedingly important. What happened this morning--and it was particularly tragic-- represents a culmination of a decision, apparently reached a year or so ago, when President Bush was elected, and three liberal activist professors--Laurence Tribe, Cass Sunstein, and Marcia Greenberger--met with the Democratic Conference to discuss judicial nominations.”