Orrin Hatch: “I was disappointed with the Paez nomination. It took too long. But there were legitimate questions that were raised that…”

“I was disappointed with the Paez nomination. It took too long. But there were legitimate questions that were raised that had nothing to do with race. There were various questions about cases, but it took too long. I worked very hard to get him a final vote and, as the Senator knows, I voted for him. I have to say I took a certain amount of criticism from some who felt very deeply, not against Judge Paez as a Hispanic person but because they thought he was a judicial activist, and there were a number of cases that certainly were very questionable cases and even I had problems with that. I also found Judge Paez, who--after a lengthy period of time I asked him if he would come and see me and I was very impressed with Judge Paez as a human being. It did not hurt him a bit that his family lived in Utah, and they are very good people. That certainly was very persuasive to me, too. And he is a very good person. But there were legitimate legal questions that had been raised that had to be kind of sifted through in order for me to get to a point where we could have that vote. I agree with my colleague; it took too long. I agree there have been faults on both sides throughout this process, as long as I have been on the Judiciary Committee, and there have always been people who have not made it who have been left over at the end, but I have to tell my colleague during my tenure we put through 377 Clinton judges, the second highest total, only five less than Reagan.”