Patrick Leahy: “I also want to focus briefly on how Republicans continue to delay consideration of some Hispanic judicial nominees. For…”

“I also want to focus briefly on how Republicans continue to delay consideration of some Hispanic judicial nominees. For some time the only Hispanic nomination of this President to the first 42 circuit court vacancies was the ill-fated nomination of a young man whose record was kept from the Senate by the Bush administration and who was opposed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, prominent Latino leaders of the civil rights community and by many others. This single nomination was in sharp contrast to the many Hispanic nominees sent to the Senate by President Clinton. In fact, eight of the Hispanic jurists serving on our circuit courts today were named by President Clinton, and at least three other Clinton Hispanic circuit nominees would be sitting on the bench now if they had not been denied consideration by a Republican-controlled Senate. When Democratic Senators supported the confirmation of Judge Edward Prado, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Senate Republican leadership delayed consideration of that nomination for a month on the floor for no good reason, other than to allow us to vote on this Hispanic nominee would undercut their false charges that Democrats were anti-Hispanic. Judge Prado had a fair record, years of experience as a Federal District Court judge, and broad support from both sides of the aisle.”