Patrick Leahy: “so far this year the Senate Republican leadership has called up one judicial nomination. That is right, despite the fact…”

“so far this year the Senate Republican leadership has called up one judicial nomination. That is right, despite the fact that other nominations are on the Senate Executive Calendar and ready to be confirmed, it is the Republican leadership of the Senate that is delaying action on judicial nominations. When the Senate finally turned to the nomination of Paul Crotty to be a U.S. district court judge for the Southern District of New York on April 11, that nomination was confirmed 95 to 0. All Democrats present voted in favor of confirmation. Indeed, Senator Schumer and Senator Clinton came to the floor to speak in favor of the nominee. That is the only judicial nomination Senate Republicans have been willing to consider all year. There has been no filibuster of judicial nominees. Instead, it is the Senate Republican leadership that, through its deliberate inaction, is keeping judgeships unnecessarily vacant for months. With the Crotty nomination, I was the one asking for months for the nomination to be considered, debated, voted on and confirmed. At the time, I noted that another noncontroversial nomination was ready for Senate action. More than a week ago, I called upon the Republican leadership to proceed to the confirmation of Michael Seabright to the District Court of Hawaii. I renew that plea. All Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have been prepared to vote favorably on this nomination for some time.…”