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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Micah Smith to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.

Mr. Smith attended Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School before completing two prestigious clerkships--first, for Judge Guido Calabresi on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and, later, for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.

He then entered private practice and focused on complex civil litigation, including intellectual property, labor law, product liability, and the False Claims Act. In 2012, Mr. Smith joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York as an assistant U.S. attorney in the office's criminal division. As a line prosecutor, he handled cases including racketeering, murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, tax fraud, and money laundering. For 2 years, he also supervised 20 line prosecutors in the office's violent and organized crime unit. Mr. Smith is now a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii and currently serves as the deputy chief of the office's criminal division, as the criminal civil rights coordinator, and as the chief of appeals and legal strategy. Throughout the course of his career, he has tried 10 cases to verdict.

The American Bar Association unanimously rated Mr. Smith ``well qualified'' to serve on the district court. Senators Schatz and Hirono recommended him to the White House and strongly support his nomination.

Mr. Smith is a seasoned practitioner with significant litigation experience in federal court, and he will be an asset to the District of Hawaii. I will be supporting this outstanding nominee, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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