Patrick Leahy

I have been here as a colleague in the Senate during those 11,000 votes. I don't want to ruin his reputation back home, but we have a significant number of those votes where he and I voted the same way, and, of course, he and I sit…

I know for 2 years Sikh Americans have been asking that there be a special category on the Hate Crime Report so that we can keep track.

It was clear that at least for the last 10 or 11 years, there has been ample evidence of prejudice against Sikh Americans, even violence against Sikh Americans.

I worry that we get into these same kinds of things here. I worry, of course, about the cost to the taxpayer.

For nonviolent offenders, simply imprisoning them for long terms does not help reduce recidivism.

We find more and more people incarcerated for longer and longer, but what I am hearing from Governors of both parties...

I cannot in good conscience say that anything less than the many years he received is appropriate punishment.

Sentencing reform works. Taxpayer dollars can be used more efficiently to prevent crime rather than just build more prisons.

It's the most cost-effective part of the triad.

We want to make sure that as we reduce nuclear weapons we're not left with what amounts to a collection of wet matches.

Deterrence is all about withholding the weapon, not about using the weapon.

Notwithstanding some grandstanding we have seen since then, I think it has been a good thing for the American public to see how we deliberate.

I think it gives the citizens some confidence.

They realized that we really are different.

It has taken politics completely out of our judicial system.

I think these types of attacks reveal the misguided notion that Justices and judges owe some allegiance to the President who appointed them or to a political party.

How we are guided by the Constitution, and how that Constitution has served over the years to make our great Nation more inclusive.

I said, 'Well, yes, it happens all the time.'

As public officials, we owe it to all Americans to be transparent about what we do in our official capacities.

Nobody should demand political allegiance from any judge, whether nominated by a Democrat or by a Republican.

We justify their trust by demonstrating how our Government works to uphold our common values.

I happen to agree, and that is the model that we follow in Vermont.

You do have to keep it out of politics, and would you agree with that, that while a judge might be and should be appreciative, as you were of President Reagan's nomination, your allegiance is to the law, not to the President who nominated…

We will have a better system as a result.

Notwithstanding that, that does not mean that we cannot have standards that apply--the same kind of standards to crime labs and forensic scientists, does it?