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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, over the past 2 years, something profound has taken place on this Senate floor. We have been building one of the most important accomplishments of the Biden era's administration: the confirmation of highly qualified, independent, evenhanded judges to the Federal bench.
This week, the Senate will confirm the 150th lifetime judge since President Biden took office. This is a historic slate of judges who I believe will rule with reason and restraint. These judges respect the rule of law, adhere to precedent, and, above all, answer only to the U.S. Constitution.
Some Senate Republicans, including their leader, have not been shy in criticizing these nominees. According to the minority leader's retelling of history, under the former President, Senate Republicans ``spent 4 years confirming staggeringly qualified and incredibly brilliant men and women to the courts.'' I would like to set the record straight.
For each judicial nominee who comes before the Senate, the American Bar Association conducts a nonpartisan peer review and ranks their qualifications. Those rankings are based on integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament.
During the Trump administration, Senate Republicans confirmed eight-- eight--Trump nominees who were found unqualified to serve on the Federal bench by the American Bar Association. Compare that to President Biden's record.
During the Biden administration, not one--not one--of the 150 judges we have confirmed had an unqualified rating--not one. So when I hear some Senate Republicans waxing about the glory days of judicial nominees under President Trump, I can't help but wonder what they are talking about.
Are they talking about that district court nominee who had never tried a case but had instead worked as a ghost hunter and written blog posts defending the Ku Klux Klan?
What about another Trump trial court nominee who had never tried a case, never examined a witness, never taken a deposition, never argued a motion?
Or the Sixth Circuit nominee who likened abortion to slavery?
How about the Ninth Circuit nominee whose colleagues called him ``arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to- day practice'' of law?
In addition, Senate Republicans relied on increasingly absurd criticism in an attempt to undermine President Biden's nominees. Some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized one of Biden's nominees as soft on crime because she had dedicated her career to exonerating wrongfully imprisoned individuals, mainly using DNA evidence. That is right. Senate Republicans argued that releasing people from prison who did not actually commit the crime is somehow dangerous for society.
Just last week, one of my Republican colleagues criticized a nominee who had served as a Federal prosecutor for 16 years because he did not ask a judge to impose a sentence that was higher than the maximum sentence allowed by law in one case.
Let me be clear. This nominee would have been asking a Federal judge to violate the law if he had made such a request. Those types of attacks are simply not credible.
President Biden's nominees are qualified, and they have demonstrated impeccable temperament.
Something that stands out about these nominees, aside from their exceptional qualifications and loyalty to the rule of law, is the professional and demographic diversity they bring to the bench. When you go into a Federal courthouse today and look at the judges who are likely to be trying or deciding a case, you are going to find more diversity than ever before.
Under President Biden, in fact, we have made history, confirming more Black women to the Federal circuit courts than all prior Presidents combined. Of course, we also confirmed the first-ever Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and we have confirmed historic numbers of Asian-American judges, Latino judges, and LGBTQ judges.
It is not just demographic diversity that we have seen under President Biden. It is also professional diversity. In the past 2 years, we have confirmed more circuit judges with experience as public defenders than all prior Presidents combined.
For the record, I voted over and over again for former prosecutors-- White males. The bench is made up of a lot of people whom I have voted for in the past, and I believe that they were ready for the job and competent to handle it. But we believe now that there should be more diversity, and this President is making sure the nominees sent our way meet that standard.
We have confirmed State court judges, Federal magistrates, bankruptcy judges, and prosecutors who have made significant and critical contributions to this country's justice system. One of President Biden's nominees served as a special prosecutor in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. And we have confirmed jurists with experience protecting the rights of voters, the rights of workers, civil rights, women's rights, and LGBTQ rights.
Another notable aspect of this record--and this, I am very happy to report--is that the vast majority, nearly 90 percent, of all these judicial confirmations have been bipartisan. Even on the appellate courts, over three-quarters of President Biden's nominees have received support from both sides of the aisle. This focus on qualified, consensus nominees goes a long way toward restoring trust and faith in our judiciary.
Let me also remind you that, in the first 2 years of the Biden administration, we had a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 Judiciary Committee. We needed bipartisanship for anything to work.
The American people deserve Federal judges who not only look like America but understand what it means to be an American. That is an important part of our work that we began under President Biden. It is a work we must finish.
We celebrate these 150 judges, and we will continue elevating jurists who are qualified, principled, and committed, above all, to protecting our constitutional rights. The American people deserve nothing less.
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