Senator Richard J. Durbin

before the

United States Senate
Committee on the Judiciary

Hearing on Judicial and Executive Nominations

Tuesday, July 24, 2001, 2:00 p.m.

Today, this Committee is holding another hearing on President Bush's judicial nominee and his Justice Department appointees.

When the Senate was recently reorganized, Leader Daschle, Chairman Leahy, and the rest of the Democrats promised to move quickly on nominations, and it is obvious that we have kept our word. The majority has clearly not delayed or blocked nominations – as our colleagues from the other side warned the American people not so long ago.

Two weeks ago, as soon as we came back from the Fourth of July recess, Chairman Leahy held a hearing on three judicial nominees: Judge Gregory, Judge Cebull, and Mr. Haddon. Then last week, we voted them out of Committee, unanimously. The very next day, the full Senate acted on the nominees, and now, all three have been confirmed by this Senate.

This Committee under Chairman Leahy has also acted on President Bush's Department of Justice nominations in a timely fashion. We have not held up any nominations, even though some of us may have had our reservations about them.

For example, it is no secret that I am not satisfied with the lack of response from Attorney General Ashcroft on my numerous inquiries to him about the Department's plans to pursue the tobacco litigation. And it would have been easy to hold up the nomination of Robert McCallum, the nominee for the Civil Division, until I received adequate assurances from Attorney General Ashcroft.

But I decided instead to vote in favor of moving the McCallum nomination out of Committee as I believe it is important that we all work together.

Today, we have Mr. William Riley before us, who is the nominee for the Eighth Circuit. The Eighth Circuit, like most Circuits, had vacancies during the previous administration, and in March 2000, President Clinton nominated former Iowa attorney general Bonnie Campbell to a vacant seat. Ms. Campbell had her hearing before this Committee in May of that year, but her nomination didn't move an inch after that hearing.

Instead, it died, along with dozens of other judicial nominations, at the end of last year. This, of course, means that those vacancies should have been filled by President Clinton's nominees with advise and consent of the previous Senate. But they were not, and now, President Bush will seek to fill them.

I look forward to hearing from Mr. Riley, Ms. Daniels, and Ms. Hart, and I also look forward to working with the Committee to act swiftly on these nominations.

But I also want to make my position clear. Under the previous Administration, an overwhelming majority of nominees were qualified individuals of integrity who held moderate views that are in step with mainstream jurisprudence.

We should expect no less from this Republican Administration.

In other words, dozens of President Clinton's nominees were denied their chance to serve on the bench by the Republican Senate even though they were clearly qualified, and even though they held centrist, moderate, and mainstream views.

The people of our nation spoke last November, and the message was clear. The country is evenly split. The President was not given a mandate by the people to make dramatic changes in our courts. This is not the time to put forward ideologues or people with extreme views to serve lifetime appointments. And we hold a heavy responsibility to see that the third branch of our government reflects the same balance and moderation that the American people chose when they sent us here to represent them.

As long as the nominees appearing before us hold moderate and mainstream views, we should – and I believe we will – exercise our Constitutional duty to advise and consent in a timely manner.