Patrick Leahy: “it has taken some time, but the Senate Republican leadership will finally allow the Senate to consider the nomination of…”

“it has taken some time, but the Senate Republican leadership will finally allow the Senate to consider the nomination of Michael Seabright to be a United States District Court Judge for Hawaii. I commend the distinguished Senators from Hawaii for their effort in identifying this consensus nominee. When Mr. Seabright is confirmed by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of the Senate, he will be the 206th nominee of this President confirmed to a lifetime appointment to our Federal courts. This is only the second judicial nomination Senate Republicans have been willing to consider all year. There has been no filibuster of judicial nominees this year. Instead, it is the Senate Republican leadership that, through its deliberate inaction, is keeping judgeships unnecessarily vacant for months. With this nomination and with the nomination of Judge Crotty, I was the one asking for months for the nomination to be considered, debated, voted, and confirmed. For the last several weeks, I have been calling upon the Republican readership to proceed to the confirmation of Michael Seabright to the District Court of Hawaii. All Democrats on the Judiciary Committee had been prepared to vote favorably on this nomination for some time. We were prepared to report the nomination last year, but it was not listed by the then-chairman on a committee agenda. I thank Chairman Specter for including Mr. Seabright at our meeting on March 17.…”