Orrin Hatch: “To my knowledge, no Senators have taken advantage of this offer, which makes me question how serious they are about the…”

“To my knowledge, no Senators have taken advantage of this offer, which makes me question how serious they are about the merits of Mr. Estrada's nomination, which brings me to another point. Mr. Estrada's hearing was held under Democratic control of the committee on September 26, 2002. If there was any question about the quality of Mr. Estrada's testimony, they could have held another hearing, since they controlled the committee for another 3 months. My colleague from New York has stated that, according to an article that appeared in the Legal Times in April 2002, D.C. Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman has advised President Bush's judicial nominees to 'keep their mouths shut.' In fact, as the rest of the article explains, Judge Silberman simply explained that the rules of judicial ethics prohibit nominees from indicating how they would rule in a given case or on a given issue--or even appearing to indicate how they would rule. As the same article reported, Judge Silberman stated: It is unethical to answer such questions. It can't help but have some effect on your decisionmaking process once you become a judge.”