OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Executive Session

Date: Sept. 29, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Judicial Branch


EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - September 29, 2005)

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts for his leadership on these issues through the decades.

Mr. President, today John Roberts will be confirmed as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States, so it is a historic day. Not everyone in this Senate will vote for him, and our opinions differ on many things: How much we were consulted, how many documents we received, how fair John Roberts will be, how ideological he will be.

In the end, I decided that while there was a very good chance that Judge Roberts would be a very conservative but mainstream Justice without an ideological agenda, he was not convincing enough. And the down side, even a minority downside that he would be a Justice in the mold of Scalia and Thomas, was too great to risk, so I will vote no.

But no matter how we vote, today we all share a fervent hope that Justice Roberts becomes a great jurist and serves our Nation well. In the end, I cannot vote for Judge Roberts, but I hope he proves me wrong in my vote and that he takes the goodwill of this body and the American people with him onto the bench; that he rules fairly; that he looks out for the little guy if the law is on the little guy's side; that he will be the lawyer's lawyer, without an ideological agenda; that he sees justice done in the many areas of the law that he will profoundly affect over the next several decades.

However, as the curtain falls on this vote, the curtain is about to rise on the nomination of a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. If ever there was a time that cried out for consensus, the time is now. If the President nominates a consensus nominee, he will be embraced, the President will be embraced, and the nominee will be embraced with open arms by people on this side of the aisle. Not only we on this side of the aisle, but the American people hope and pray in these difficult times for a consensus nominee. The ball is in your court, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

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