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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Judge LaShonda Hunt to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Born in Mississippi and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Judge Hunt received her bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

After working as a staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Judge Hunt clerked for Judge William J. Hibbler on the Northern District of Illinois. Immediately following her clerkship, Judge Hunt worked for 2 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. In 2010, she returned to this role and served for another 5 years. As a Federal prosecutor, she handled cases involving employment discrimination, civil rights violations, healthcare fraud, and more. After leaving the U.S. Attorney's Office, Judge Hunt worked for the State of Illinois in the Department of Corrections and the Department of Central Management Services. In 2017, the Seventh Circuit appointed Judge Hunt to serve as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. She has presided over approximately 22,000 bankruptcy cases and adversary proceedings, about 75 of which have gone to verdict or judgement.

The American Bar Association rated Judge Hunt ``well qualified,'' and she received a strong bipartisan vote in committee. Given her extensive experience, dedication to public service and deep knowledge of the Northern District of Illinois, Senator Duckworth and I strongly support Judge Hunt. I am honored to vote for her confirmation, and I urge my colleagues join me.

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