Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding me the customary 30 minutes for debate. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule, which provides for consideration of H.R. 1927, called the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act, which in practice will unfairly hamper large numbers of injured parties from effectively seeking redress in court, including civil rights, employment discrimination, consumer protection, and asbestos victim litigants. Let me put my bona fides on the table here. I have filed class actions, particularly in civil rights cases. Each of them were certified as class actions. They led to the desegregation of schools in the county that I am privileged to serve, the desegregation of juvenile detention facilities, and several others too numerous to mention. As a United States district court judge, I also had the privilege of presiding in cases where certification was sought for class actions. The great majority of those cases were not certified by me, largely for the reason that they did not meet the rigorous test that is already in place and that has been in place for nearly 40 years, with many changes having taken place over the years through the Federal process. That is what I would argue would be the best for us to do.…”