Executive Session

Floor Speech

EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - July 22, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise in support of two nominees to be district judges in the Southern and Northern Districts of New York.

I was pleased last week that the Senate voted unanimously to confirm two other excellent New York nominees, Kiyo Matsumoto and Paul Gardephe.

Like last week's candidates, both of the nominees before us today--Cathy Seibel and Glenn Suddaby--were rated unanimously well qualified by the American Bar Association, and both were unanimously recommended out of the Judiciary Committee.

I am particularly pleased to support Ms. Seibel to be a judge in the Southern District of New York because I personally recommended her to the President.

The Judges in her district respect her, the defense bar knows her to be fair and reasonable. and I myself found her to be thoughtful, modest, and blessed with a perfect judicial temperament.

These are the qualities that compelled me to recommend her to the bench.

Ms. Seibel has been a Federal prosecutor for 21 years and has long ties to the Southern District of New York where she has served as both the deputy U.S. attorney and the first assistant.

During her time as a prosecutor, she has earned a reputation for fairness and effectiveness.

Indeed, she is described as the very model of grace under pressure.

And while at the Southern District, she has trained several generations of young prosecutors, who also sing her praises.

She has prosecuted a number of high-profile tax fraud cases, as well as the very first case where the Violence Against Women Act was used for a murder charge--a subject obviously very close to my heart since I was the chief author of the Violence Against Women Act when I was in the House.

She is the recipient of numerous well-deserved honors, including the prestigious Stimson Medal for federal prosecutors in New York.

Despite the demands on her time as a prosecutor, Ms. Seibel has also found time to teach a course on trial practice at Columbia Law School, and previously has taught courses at Fordham.

Ms. Seibel graduated magna cum laude from Princeton and received her J.D. cum laude from Fordham University, where she was editor-in-chief of the Fordham Law Review. Ms. Seibel also clerked for Judge Joseph McLaughlin in the Eastern District after graduation.

Additionally, Ms. Seibel's confirmation will help to rectify the serious underrepresentation of women in our Federal judiciary.

In the Southern District today, only a paltry 25 percent of district court judges--11 of 44--are women. I believe that our Federal bench should reflect the same broad diversity of experience as America writ large.

Glass ceilings are abhorrent, but they especially have no place in our Federal courthouses, where every citizen is held as equal before the law.

Ms. Seibel's confirmation will be an important step to remedying an unfortunate gender gap in one of the country's most important courts.

Finally I would like to say a few words in favor of Mr. Glenn Suddaby, a nominee for the Northern District of New York.

Mr. Suddaby has been a U.S. attorney since 2002, but his ties to the Northern District go back much further than that. He received his B.A. from State University of New York at Plattsburgh, then received his law degree from Syracuse University. Mr. Suddaby then began his long career as a prosecutor in Onondaga County before joining the U.S. attorney's office.

Between college and law school, Mr. Suddaby even spent time as a legislative aide in the New York State Assembly, so he also has experience shaping the law from inside the halls of a legislature. I think its a good idea to have more judges with a little experience writing the law, and not only enforcing it and interpreting it.

Mr. Suddaby has worked especially hard to target corruption in his district, and has demonstrated his commitment to placing the rule of law ahead of ideology.

Both of these nominees will make excellent judges who will be impartial and thoughtful guardians of our legal tradition. I urge my colleagues to support them.

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