Political Quotes

“today the Senate is finally being allowed to vote to confirm two consensus judicial nominees who should have been voted on months ago. Both Judge Fernando Olguin and Thomas Durkin were voted out of the Judiciary Committee before the August recess. Both will finally fill judicial emergency vacancies in the Central District of California and the Northern District of Illinois that were needlessly held vacant since this summer by partisan delay tactics. Their service to the American people has been unnecessarily delayed by over four months. In the Central District of California, there are over 12,000 cases pending before its judges, and in the Northern District of Illinois there are close to 11,000 cases pending before its judges. Every single judge in each district has approximately 450 or more cases pending on their dockets. This enormous backlog of cases exists in many of our Federal courts in this country and it means that the American people are not able to receive speedy justice. More than twice the number of judicial vacancies exists compared to the vacancies left at the end of President Bush's first term. The Senate should be voting on all 16 of the judicial nominees reported to the Senate by the Judiciary Committee. I have also been urging Republicans to expedite consideration of the four judicial nominees who participated in hearings last Wednesday. That would lead to 20 more confirmations before the Senate adjourns later this month.…”