Nomination of Britt Grant

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, first, later today, the Senate will vote to advance the nomination of Britt Cagle Grant, the President's selection to serve on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

This Stanford Law graduate has served the people of Georgia for 6 years, most recently as a justice on the State's supreme court. All eight of her fellow justices had this to say about Justice Grant in a letter to Chairman Grassley and Senator Feinstein:

She is highly intelligent, [with] a breadth and depth of legal experience. . . . Her first focus is always to get the law right.

They go on to write:

Justice Grant's character and integrity is unquestioned. She has an excellent reputation in the legal community [and] a well-balanced judicial temperament.

In sum, they write:

Justice Grant displays all the qualities of an excellent judge. . . . Our loss would be the Eleventh Circuit's gain.

Justice Grant's colleagues on the Georgia Supreme Court include appointees of Republican Governors and Democratic Governors. They have seen her work up close. They have seen her legal expertise and her commitment to the rule of law. They have seen her conviction that--in her own words--``the role of judges is to interpret the law rather than make it.''

Her reputation reaches beyond State lines. In another letter to our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, current and former State solicitors general from across the country testify to her ``congeniality,'' ``integrity and work ethic,'' and say that Justice Grant ``has treated colleagues, opposing counsel, and the litigants appearing before her with respect.''

The understanding of a judge's role and the temperament to execute it is precisely the approach our constitutional order requires of our judges. I look forward to voting to advance Justice Grant's nomination later today, and I urge each of my colleagues to join me.

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