Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Judiciary Committee Hearing on Six Judicial Nominations

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nominations of Susan M. Bazis, to be United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska; Ernest Gonzalez, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Texas; Ann Marie McIff Allen, to be United States District Judge for the District of Utah; Kelly Harrison Rankin, to be United States District Judge for the District of Wyoming; Leon Schydlower, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Texas; and Robin Michelle Meriweather, to be a Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. 

Key Quotes:

“Each of today’s district court nominees has received blue slips from their Republican home-state Senators.  I would like to thank my colleagues from Nebraska, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as President Biden, for their good-faith, bipartisan efforts to fill these vacancies.  I took that approach during the Trump Administration, and I have often pointed out that we filled all eight district court vacancies in Illinois during those four years. Many of my Democratic colleagues did the same. Those efforts, and today’s panel, are further proof that the Senate’s blue slip tradition can work as intended when we have bipartisan cooperation. I continue to urge my colleagues to make similar efforts in their states.”

Durbin then introduced Judge Robin Meriweather:

“Today we will hear from Judge Robin Meriweather, nominated to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.  After graduating from law school, she clerked for then-Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  Judge Meriweather then entered private practice at Jenner and Block here in D.C., where she focused on complex civil litigation and matters involving constitutional, statutory, and regulatory claims.”

“She joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in 2007, where she spent six years serving as Deputy Chief of the Civil Division. In 2017, she became a magistrate judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In her time on the bench, she has presided over several trials and has issued more than 1,000 orders.  Congratulations to you and your family, Judge Meriweather.”

Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

The hearing continues the Committee’s work filling judicial vacancies with highly qualified, diverse candidates who help ensure the fair and impartial administration of the American justice system.  In its first business meeting of the year last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced twenty judicial nominations and one executive nomination to the full Senate, including previously reported judicial and executive nominations that were resubmitted by President Biden this year.

Under the leadership of Chair Durbin, the Senate has confirmed 168 judges to lifetime appointments on the federal bench during the Biden administration. Twenty lifetime judges – including four circuit court nominees and 14 district court nominees – are eligible for a vote on the Senate floor.

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