Political Quotes

“I have noted on the floor of the Senate a number of times, the crisis in our Federal judiciary that Chief Justice Rehnquist has spoken of. The Chief Justice and others have spoken about the nearly 100 vacancies in our Federal judiciary at the district court level, at the court of appeals level, and at the Federal court of appeals level. So far in this Congress--we have been in session now for 4 months--we have confirmed only two Federal judges. It is a form of zero population growth, as far as the Federal judiciary is concerned. We seem to have this idea that if we do not get Federal judges we can, somehow--I am not sure what we think we are going to do. I will tell you one of the things we have not done. In a number of jurisdictions we are reaching a crisis situation where, instead of being able to have criminal cases tried, instead of prosecutors being able to seek tough penalties, they have to plea bargain because they know they must keep up with speedy trial mandates, yet there are not enough judges to have a speedy trial, so they end up having to plea bargain. We do know that in many, many jurisdictions it is clearly impossible to have a civil case heard. If you are a business person with a just claim against somebody and you want to bring a suit, bring the suit, but they can just wait you out. If you are a litigant who has been damaged by somebody, you want to bring a suit, they can just wait you out because the judges are not there to try the cases.”