Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy
On the Nomination of Justice Sandra Townes
to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
June 3, 2004

Today the Senate is proceeding to confirm Sandra Lynn Townes to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.  Justice Townes is currently an Associate Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, where she has served for several years.  She previously served as a judge in the Fifth Judicial District of the New York State Supreme Court.  According to press reports, Justice Townes is the first African-American woman to serve on the Appellate Bench in New York and the first African-American Judge elected to the New York Supreme Court in the Fifth District.   She was also a Judge of the City Court of Syracuse from 1988 to 1999.  Her extensive record of judicial experience commends her for this lifetime appointment and I am pleased to join her home-state Senators in support of her nomination.

Today’s confirmation will make the 178^th judicial nominee to be confirmed for this President.  With 78 judicial confirmations in just the past year and a half alone, the Senate has confirmed more federal judges than were confirmed during all of 1995 and 1996, when Republicans controlled the Senate and President Clinton was in the White House.  It also exceeds the two-year total for the last Congress of the Clinton Administration, when Republicans were in the Senate majority.  We have already exceeded the totals for the last two Congresses leading up to presidential elections. 

When Democrats controlled the Senate for 17 months in 2001 and 2002, we worked diligently to confirm 100 of President Bush’s judicial nominees. We are now confirming the 78^th in the other 24 months that have transpired during this most divisive presidency. 

With 178 total judicial confirmations in three and one-half years, the Senate has confirmed more lifetime judicial appointees of this President than were allowed to be confirmed in President Clinton’s entire term from 1997 through 2000.  We have already surpassed the number of judicial confirmations during President Reagan’s entire term from 1981 through 1984, and he is acknowledged to have appointed more federal judges than any other president in our history.   

The Republican Senate leadership has again chosen to avoid debate of the nomination of J. Leon Holmes and Judge Dora Irizarry.  Just so that there is no confusion, it is the choice of the Republican Senate leadership to skip those nominations. 

The Holmes nomination will take some significant debate.  The nomination was sent by the Judiciary Committee to the floor without recommendation, a highly unusual circumstance.  That means that there was not a majority vote in Committee to report the nomination favorably.  The Committee disserved the Senate by not doing its job of fully vetting the nomination and reaching a consensus or even a vote on the merits. 

It is also the decision of the Republican leadership to skip the nomination of Judge Irizarry, which has been pending on the Senate floor since last October.  She is one of many Bush nominees with a “not qualified” or partial “not qualified” rating from the ABA.  With the support of Senator Schumer, her nomination was considered and favorably reported by the Committee.  For months Democrats have been ready to vote on that district court nomination.  The delay in considering her nomination since last October, a delay of seven months, is attributable to the reluctance of the Republican Senate leadership to consider her nomination. 

It is reminiscent of the way the Republican leadership treated the nomination of other Hispanics.  For example, President Clinton’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the 2nd Circuit was delayed for 16 months and was likewise stalled by Republicans on the Senate calendar for seven months.  Judge Richard Paez’s nomination to the 9th Circuit was delayed for more than four years and was stalled by Republicans on the Senate calendar for more than 18 months alone.  More recently, Republican Senate leadership even delayed Senate consideration of President Bush’s nomination of Judge Edward Prado of Texas to the 5th Circuit for a month on the calendar, until we called them on it.  Considering Judge Prado’s nomination in a timely fashion would not have fit with the partisan political characterizations that Republicans wanted to draw of Democrats so they just left him on the shelf for a time. 

The Republican leadership must be accountable for its scheduling priorities and the delays that it is causing in the consideration of the President’s judicial nominations.      

I congratulate Justice Townes and her family on her confirmation today.

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