Orrin Hatch: “I rise in response to my colleagues' assertions about the Senate's role in the judicial confirmation process. I am…”

“I rise in response to my colleagues' assertions about the Senate's role in the judicial confirmation process. I am compelled by their statement to provide a more complete record on the origins of the Senate's constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent on judicial nominees. The constitutional duty of the President to nominate and appoint, and the intervening duty of the Senate to provide advice and consent, is set forth in Article II, Section 2: The President . . . shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . . Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law. Some of my Democratic colleagues have argued that the record of the debate of the Constitutional Convention leads to the conclusion that the Senate plays the central role in this process. This assertion is based on the Convention's initial--and, I should add, temporary-- adoption of proposals that a national judiciary be established to be chosen by the national legislature, and its concurrent rejection of proposals that the President be given the sole power to appoint judges.”