Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,
On Judicial Nominations
September 10, 2007

The Senate continues as we have all year to make progress filling judicial vacancies when the White House will work with us. The nominations before us today for lifetime appointments to the federal bench are William Lindsey Osteen, Jr., for the Middle District of North Carolina, Martin Karl Reidinger for the Western District of North Carolina, and Janis Lynn Sammartino, for the Southern District of California.  They each have the support of both home state Senators.  I thank Senators Dole and Burr and Senators Feinstein and Boxer for working with us.  I also thank Senator Feinstein for chairing the hearing on these nominations. 

When we confirm the nominations we consider today, the Senate will have confirmed 29 nominations for lifetime appointments by the middle of September this year, which is seven more than were confirmed in all of 2005 when the Senate, with a Republican Chairman and Republican majority, was considering the nominees of this Republican President. It is 12 more confirmations than were achieved during the entire1996 session when Republicans stalled consideration of President Clinton’s nominations.   The Judiciary Committee has already this year reported out 33 lifetime appointments to the federal courts.    

It is a little known fact that during the Bush Presidency, more circuit judges, more district judges and more total judges have been confirmed while I have served as Judiciary Chairman than during the tenures of either of the two Republican Chairmen working with Republican Senate majorities. 

Taking into account today’s confirmations, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts lists 46 judicial vacancies.  The President has sent us only 24 nominations for these 46 remaining vacancies.  Twenty-two of these remaining vacancies – almost half – have no nominee.  Of the 19 vacancies deemed by the Administrative Office to be judicial emergencies, the President has yet to send us nominees for eight of them, more than a third.  Of the 16 circuit court vacancies, six, more than a third, are without a nominee.  If the President had worked with the Senators from Michigan, Rhode Island, Maryland, California, New Jersey, and Virginia, we could be in position to make even more progress.  

Of the 22 vacancies without any nominee, the President has violated the timeline he set for himself at least 13 times -- 13 have been vacant without so much as a nominee for more than 180 days.  The number of violations may in fact be much higher since the President said he would nominate within 180 days of receiving notice that there would be a vacancy or intended retirement rather than from the vacancy itself.   We conservatively estimate that he also violated his own rule 11 times in connection with the nominations he has made.  That would mean that with respect to the 46 vacancies, the President is out of compliance with his own rule more than half of the time. 

William L. Osteen, Jr., is a Partner at the two-person law firm of Adams & Osteen in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he has worked for his entire legal career.  His practice focuses primarily on federal criminal litigation and state civil litigation.   

Martin K. Reidinger is a Partner at the Asheville, North Carolina law firm of Adams, Hendon, Carson, Crow & Saenger, where he has worked his entire 23 year legal career as a civil litigator.  His legal practice concentrates primarily in the areas of general business litigation, land disputes, municipal matters, and employment law.   

Janis L. Sammartino is the Presiding Judge in the Superior Court of San Diego County in California.  For 12 years, she served on the state trial court bench as a Municipal Court Judge in San Diego, and she worked for 18 years as a Deputy City Attorney in the San Diego City Attorney’s Office.   

I congratulate the nominees and their families on their confirmations today.  

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