Orrin Hatch: “during the course of the debate on Miguel Estrada, there have been many serious misrepresentations of the record on Mr.…”

“during the course of the debate on Miguel Estrada, there have been many serious misrepresentations of the record on Mr. Estrada. I want to address in some detail one of the more serious distortions which concerns the answers Mr. Estrada gave during his extensive hearing, one of the longest hearings for a circuit court of appeals nominee, to questions members of the Judiciary Committee asked him. The charge being leveled against Mr. Estrada is that he did not answer questions put to him in general and did not answer questions about his judicial philosophy in particular. That charge is pure bunk. It is important to remember the circumstances under which this hearing took place. The hearing was held on September 26, 2002. It was chaired by my Democratic friend, the senior Senator from New York, Mr. Schumer. It lasted all day, which was unusual in and of itself. Both Democratic and Republican Senators asked scores of questions which Mr. Estrada answered. If any Senator was dissatisfied with Mr. Estrada's answers, every member of the committee had the opportunity to ask Mr. Estrada followup questions, although only two of my Democratic colleagues did. Now, a number of the questions Mr. Estrada was asked sought directly or indirectly to pry from him a commitment on how he would rule in a particular case. Previous judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate have rightly declined to answer questions on that basis, just as Mr. Estrada did.”