Grassley Statement Before Committee Votes on Judicial and Executive Nominees
Good morning. We have a full agenda
today, and I understand we’ll need to have roll call votes on most of the
nominees before us.
Of course, most of these nominees
already received Committee votes last year, and I assume that Members will
likely vote the same way they did last year. So, in order to keep things moving
this morning, I won’t spend time discussing the nominees we considered last
year. However, we do have several nominees up for a vote for the first time
today, and I’d like to discuss a few these nominations briefly.
Today, we’re considering three nominees
to Circuit Courts: Elizabeth Branch to the 11th Circuit, Kyle Duncan
to the 5th Circuit, and David Stras to the 8th Circuit. I
was very impressed with all 3 nominees during their hearings and believe they
will all make excellent federal appellate court judges.
Justice Stras has served on the
Minnesota Supreme Court since 2010 and has received wide bipartisan support
from the Minnesota legal community. He also teaches law at the University of
Iowa in my home state. Many of the faculty—including even liberal
professors—strongly endorse Justice Stras’ nomination.
Judge Branch also has impressive
judicial experience. She’s served on the Georgia Court of Appeals since 2012
and has participated in over 1,500 cases. This appellate experience should
serve her well as she transitions to the federal appellate court.
And Mr. Duncan was the first Solicitor
General of Louisiana. He has argued before the Supreme Court as well as filed
over 20 amicus briefs.
I could discuss in great length the
merits of all these nominees, but in the interest of time this morning, I’ll
simply submit for the record a few letters we’ve received in support of their
nominations.
We’re also voting on 4 District Court
nominees for the first time today, and I’ll make a brief comment on one of
them. Charles Goodwin has been nominated to serve as a District Judge for the
Western District of Oklahoma. He currently sits on this Court as a Magistrate
Judge.
In doing their evaluation of Judge
Goodwin, the American Bar Association rated him as “not qualified.” Given Judge
Goodwin’s experience this rating was a head-scratcher to me. It was also
surprising to Joe Heaton, the Chief Judge for that Court. When he learned about
the ABA’s rating, he wrote to the Committee to commend Judge Goodwin to us.
He writes:
“I believe that
he has served ably as a U.S. Magistrate Judge and he continues to have the full
confidence of the district judges... I disagree with the Standing Committee’s
conclusion. Based on his service here and his experience as a partner and
practicing lawyer… I believe Judge Goodwin is plainly qualified to be a U.S.
District Judge… I believe the opinions I’ve expressed here are generally
reflective of the views of all [my district judge colleagues].”
I’m going to base my vote for Judge
Goodwin’s nomination today off of the recommendation of Chief Judge Heaton,
rather than the ABA’s unmerited evaluation. I hope that my colleagues will do
the same this morning.
I’ll now turn
to Senator Feinstein for her remarks.
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