Orrin Hatch

The President has nominated 209 judges; 168 have been approved. So 20 percent of his nominations have not made it.

I thank my colleague. The real number, for the past 11 Presidents of judicial nominees confirmed versus the filibustering they are doing, is 2,372 that were confirmed. None were filibustered, until President Bush became President. He is…

That is right. Once they hit the floor, they have had a vote up or down. And 377 Clinton judges are serving in the Federal judiciary today because we had the decency to give them the dignity of votes up or down--something not being…

Not one. Our side would not permit that because of the detriment to the Senate, the detriment to the Federal judiciary, the detriment to the Constitution, the detriment to just good reasoning. We didn't filibuster one.

No question about it. That 168 to 4 doesn't even begin to tell the story, because if it had been up to our colleagues on the other side, there would not be 168. We had to fight for every one of those people, and we had to fight hard…

These are people who know her or who have worked with Justice Owen on the Texas Supreme Court. They are all Democrats. They are all partisan Democrats, by the way. They think she would make a fine judge on the circuit court of appeals.

Absolutely true. By the way, one of the arguments that the side across the aisle from us is out of the mainstream again is over parental consent, a dissent that she had written, upholding the finder of fact in the lower court. The majority…

But she deserves the dignity of an up-or-down vote. The senior Senator has brought out she is an African-American woman who has come from nowhere, in a sense, a sharecropper's daughter, to being a justice on the California Supreme Court.

Yes, the distinguished Senator makes a good point. She was elected by 76 percent of the vote. I would have to say, she wrote a majority of the majority opinions, and joined in some 73, if I recall correctly, unanimous opinions. In other…

No question. They were very forthright and very strong that there should never be filibusters of judicial nominees. Now all of a sudden when it is to their advantage, they think--I think it is to their great disadvantage. They lost the…

Virtually every Democrat said it, took the position a filibuster should never take place. All they asked for was an up-or-down vote. That is all they wanted, if we would just be decent enough to give them an up-or-down vote. We did. We…

As the Senator will recall, right in the middle of a couple of very controversial nominees, Judge Paez, now Judge Berzon, there were some on our side who legitimately felt they should filibuster both of those----

Sometimes the district courts are involved and that is why we need the circuit court of appeals. Yet this President is treated different than prior Presidents, including President Clinton. About two-thirds of the circuit court nominees…

Well, I suppose the overwhelming majority in the most populated State, in the case of California, is out of the mainstream. I guess the overwhelming majority in one of the largest States in the Union, Texas, is out of the mainstream. You…

Yes, of both Democrats and Republicans. She is one of the most highly rated judges in California. She is outstanding. Frankly, these are Democrats saying she made one of the best judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Yes. I might add Justice Owen, to get back to her, had 84 percent of the vote in the year 2000. That is the highest support of any State supreme court justice that year. Most every major newspaper in Texas endorsed her. Our colleagues on…

That is true. Remember, all throughout the Clinton administration, on all their nominees, our friends on the other side were saying if the ABA approves them with a qualified rating, then they deserve to have an up-or-down vote. When they…

I rise to speak about the judicial nominees being filibustered by a minority of Senators. I have served in the Senate for 27 years, and I can honestly say President Bush's nominees are among the best I have ever seen. They are experienced…

People don't realize how important these circuit courts of appeals are. We have shown this chart that they have is not only inaccurate, it is a bold-faced lie. Because they can't really come out here with a straight face and admit they are…

That is right. If I recall it correctly, it had to do with partial-birth abortion, even though he hates partial-birth abortion, as anybody who looks at it carefully. It is a barbaric practice, at the very least. He upheld the law. I do not…

That is the way I view it. I have to say this is a very dangerous thing the Democrats are doing for the first time in history. It has caused a tremendous amount of angst on everyone's part and awful partisanship because it has never been…

That is a good question because it seems as if our friends on the other side forget when they were in the majority and they had the Presidency and they all wanted votes up and down and all of a sudden they do not. The Senator is right in…

I have seen three major editorials from the Chieftain and from the Rocky Mountain News calling the Democratic filibuster an irresponsible escalation of the judicial nominating war. I agree with both. The Denver Post said ``a change in…

They criticized him for cases he won before the Supreme Court, saying he is outside the mainstream because they disagreed with the cases. In fact, they think Rehnquist is out of the mainstream. They think Scalia is out of the mainstream…

It is really unseemly, and that is why we are so upset here. Let me tell you, if we continue down this course, we are going to severely harm the Federal judiciary and get only people who really are not only outside the mainstream, but are…