Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I thank Senator Nelson for that introduction.

The first thing we have to decide is how to pronounce his last name. Everyone knows whom we are talking about. He has an extraordinary reputation in our community.

I have a few things I wish to add. I have a bias because I also graduated from the University of Miami School of Law, where I have both my law degree and my student loan, so I am grateful to them for that.

He was only 37 years old when he was appointed to the bench. It says a lot that over the years he has garnered a reputation for being fair but also for his intellect. He is highly regarded for his intellect. One will find in legal circles particularly in south Florida that Judge Jordan is somebody for whom people have a tremendous amount of respect, not just for his fairness but for his intellect, his ability to understand complex legal issues. His background is one that would lead a person to that conclusion. He was the chief of the appellate division in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, which is extremely busy, one of the busiest districts in the country for the Justice Department. As Senator Nelson has already pointed out, he spent a year clerking on the U.S. Supreme Court. He also clerked with the Eleventh Circuit, where he now seeks to return and hopefully will return today as one of its judges.

Let me say a couple of things about the Eleventh Circuit. It has two current vacancies--one in Florida and one in Georgia. It is the busiest per judge in the entire country. They have caseloads that range in cases from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. They include death penalty appeals. It is so overwhelming that they routinely invite judges from other circuits to hear its cases. So it is critically important that we fill these vacancies, and that is hopefully what we will do today.

There are a couple more points I wish to make about the judge. He continues to be very involved in our community, both through his family and as an individual. He teaches courses at both the University of Miami School of Law and at the Florida International College of Law, which is a new school that started operations a few years ago.

He is an integral part of my community. I can tell my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that, being from south Florida, running in the same circles in which he has run in terms of the legal community, he is highly respected. I think as a nation we are fortunate to have someone such as Judge Jordan, who is willing to bypass the many comforts of private practice and serve his country in a role such as this. I hope that as a body we will confirm him in an overwhelming and bipartisan fashion.

With that, I thank the Chair for this opportunity, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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