Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Edmund LaCour to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Mr. LaCour is another judicial nominee selected by President Trump for his extreme views. As the solicitor general of Alabama, Mr. LaCour has repeatedly put politics ahead of the rule of law.

He has resisted the orders of Federal courts--including the Supreme Court--after they ruled against him and the State of Alabama in voting rights cases. His role in that litigation was not confined to a courtroom. After the Supreme Court recognized that Alabama's voting maps likely violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Mr. LaCour helped State legislators draw new voting maps. He pushed for the inclusion of so-called ``legislative findings'' and wrote talking points for lawmakers. Despite his best efforts, Federal judges again found that these maps violated the Voting Rights Act. Yet Mr. LaCour and the State continue to argue the case and challenge the rulings against them.

Mr. LaCour has argued for extreme restrictions on abortion rights and the rights of transgender people. He has also aggressively advocated for the death penalty. Last year, Mr. LaCour argued in support of nitrogen suffocation--an untested and inhumane death penalty method-- which allowed Alabama to carry out the first execution in the world by nitrogen gas.

And just last week, in another case that Mr. LaCour argued, Alabama executed Anthony Boyd by nitrogen suffocation. Mr. Boyd reportedly ``convulse[d] and heave[d] for about 15 minutes before being pronounced dead.'' In her dissent from the Supreme Court's denial of a stay of execution, Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, concluded, ``Allowing the nitrogen hypoxia experiment to continue despite mounting and unbroken evidence that it violates the Constitution by inflicting unnecessary suffering fails to ` ``protec[t] [the] dignity'' ' of ` ``the Nation we have been, the Nation we are, and the Nation we aspire to be.'' ' ''

Based on Mr. LaCour's record, I am concerned that he will continue to display his clear ideological preferences if he is confirmed to the bench.

I oppose his nomination. I urge my colleagues to join me.

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