Nomination of Nancy L. Maldonado

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on another matter, I need to return today to another of the Biden administration's unfit judicial nominees: Judge Nancy Maldonado.

Alongside a crop of nominees distinguished by their radical views and affiliations and ties to dark money groups, Judge Maldonado's claim to notoriety is the historic backlog of unfinished work she has accumulated in her time on the district court in Chicago.

Earlier this month, I pointed out that with 125 motions pending for more than 6 months, Judge Maldonado sits behind more than 99 percent of all district judges nationwide for her ability to clear casework in a timely manner. She is the worst in her circuit, and it is not even close.

Our Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee don't seem all that concerned about the alarming aspect of her record. Perhaps they think there is more to being a judge than deciding cases, such as, perhaps, checking diversity boxes. In any case, they voted in lockstep to advance her nomination this spring.

But listening to some of our colleagues' comments from more recent committee meetings, you might wonder whether they made a terrible mistake. The senior Senator from Connecticut, a seasoned prosecutor familiar with the frustrations of the judicial process, recalled:

I can remember waiting literally years for a decision from a district court judge, and there is nothing anyone can do . . . other than seeking mandamus from the Circuit Court of Appeals, which is . . . close to a death sentence for any litigator.

Our colleague described such delays as ``frustrating and . . . costly.'' In no uncertain terms, he said that ending those delays is essential to ``achieving swifter, more expeditious justice.''

But just a couple of months ago, he voted to advance the nomination of a judge with a demonstrated inability to deliver swifter or more expeditious justice. With every other Democrat on the committee, he voted to give Nancy Maldonado and her Biden backlog lifetime tenure on the court of appeals.

It is incredible how clear-eyed our colleague sounds when he is not burdened with the uncomfortable responsibility of rubberstamping a favorite of the left's dark money royalty. His fellow Democrats should take note.

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