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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the Senate will soon vote to confirm another outstanding nominee to the Federal bench: Arianna Freeman, nominated to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ms. Freeman is an accomplished appellate attorney and a ground- breaking pick for the Third Circuit. Her perspective, experience, and legal acumen will greatly benefit the court. And once confirmed, she will be the first Black woman to serve on the Third Circuit.
After earning her B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College and her J.D. from Yale Law School, Ms. Freeman clerked for three judges on the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, based in Philadelphia.
In 2009, following her clerkships, Ms. Freeman joined the Federal Community Defender's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, an office she has served with distinction. As a Federal public defender, Ms. Freeman has dedicated her career to representing indigent criminal defendants seeking to vindicate their constitutional rights-- to due process, effective assistance of counsel, and other constitutional guarantees.
Unfortunately, some of my Republican colleagues have suggested that Ms. Freeman's public defense work disqualifies her from judicial service.
In reality, Ms. Freeman has undertaken this work in support of the Constitution and the rule of law. Her zealous advocacy has helped to ensure that the protections of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments are made real for criminal defendants. Throughout her career, she has advanced the cause of equal justice under law.
Ms. Freeman received a unanimous rating of ``well qualified'' from the American Bar Association.
She has the strong support of Senator Casey, as well as many leaders in the Pennsylvania legal community. This includes four former Federal prosecutors who sent a letter to the Judiciary Committee writing, ``We are impressed by Arianna's diligence, intelligence, dedication, and integrity. It is because of her ethics and compassion, grounded in sensibility, that we are confident she will provide sound and measured opinions, while approaching each case without bias and with respect for the rule of law.''
I will support Ms. Freeman's confirmation, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
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