Orrin Hatch: “since I was first elected, the Senate has considered more than 1700 nominations to Article III federal courts. In nearly…”

“since I was first elected, the Senate has considered more than 1700 nominations to Article III federal courts. In nearly every case, the focus was on the individual nominee and whether he or she was qualified for judicial service. The nominee before us today is one of the rare exceptions. The focus here is on the court to which she and two others have been nominated, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. I cannot support any of these nominees because no one, no matter who they are and no matter what their qualifications, should be appointed to this court at this time. It would be difficult to make a more compelling case that the DC Circuit needs no more judges. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts is the keeper of the caseload facts and ranks the DC Circuit last among all circuits in appeals filed and appeals terminated per judicial panel. In fact, the AO ranks the DC Circuit last even in the catch-all category of ``other caseload per judgeship.'' And Chief DC Circuit Judge Merrick Garland recently confirmed that the number of DC Circuit cases scheduled for oral argument has declined by almost 20 percent in the last decade. Here is another way to look at this issue. In July 2006, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee signed a letter to then-Chairman Arlen Specter opposing more DC Circuit appointments for two reasons. First, they used specific caseload benchmarks to conclude that the court's caseload had declined.…”