Nomination of William Gerry Myers III to be a United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE

NOMINATION OF WILLIAM GERRY MYERS III TO BE A UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Mr. CRAPO. Thank you very much, Mr. President, I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Hatch, for yielding me this time.

It is my honor to stand here in strong support of the nomination of William G. Myers to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Contrary to the remarks we have just heard, former Solicitor of the Interior, William G. Myers is a highly respected attorney who has had extensive experience in the field of natural resources, public lands, and environmental law. His nomination enjoys widespread support from across the ideological and political spectrum.

Mr. Myers has been nominated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which covers the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. He has a distinguished career serving on the issues that are critical to these States.

From July 2001 to October of 2003, Mr. Myers served as Solicitor of the Interior, the chief legal officer and third ranking official of the Department of the Interior. In that capacity, he was supervisor over 300 attorneys in 19 offices across the country and managed a $47 million annual budget, and provided advice and counsel to the Secretary of the Interior, as well as to the Department's offices and bureaus.

He was confirmed by the Senate as Solicitor of the Interior by unanimous consent. At that time, these arguments that are now being brought forward simply were absent from the floor.

The reason is because Mr. Myers' strong service is respected across the political spectrum.

Before coming to the Department of Interior, Mr. Myers practiced at one of the most respectable law firms in the Rocky Mountain region, where he participated in an extensive array of Federal litigation involving public lands and natural resource issues. Some of the attacks on him are attacks made against him because of positions he took on behalf of clients, something which Members across the board in this Senate have said is not the appropriate way to judge whether a person will, as a judge, take a balanced view.

An advocate in the courtroom is different than a judge. One should not be judged in their professional qualifications when they are serving as an advocate, as is being done to Mr. Myers today.

From 1992 to 1993, Mr. Myers served in the Energy Department as the Deputy General Counsel for Programs, where he was the Department's principal legal adviser on matters pertaining to international energy, Government contracting, civilian nuclear programs, power marketing, and intervention and State regulatory proceedings.

He served as Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States from 1989 to 1992. In this capacity, he prepared the Attorney General for his responsibilities as Chairman of the President's Domestic Policy Council.

Before entering the Justice Department, Mr. Myers served over 4 years as legislative counsel for one of our former colleagues, Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, where he was Senator's Simpson principal adviser on public lands issues. Mr. Myers is a nationally recognized expert in natural resource law and public lands law. He served as vice chairman of the Public Lands and Land Use Committee of the American Bar Association, the section on environmental and energy and resources. In his home State of Idaho, Mr. Myers chaired Idaho State Board of Land Commissioners, Federal Lands Task Force Working Group, and the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce State Affairs and Natural Resources Subcommittee.

He is an avid outdoorsman and committed conservationist. For the past 15 years, he served as a volunteer for the National Park Service and over that span has logged at least 180 days of volunteer service in numerous parks, performing trail work, campsite cleaning, visitor assistance, and park patrols.

He has widespread support, as I indicated, from across the political spectrum. Again, contrary to the comments made in the Senate today, Mr. Myers has the balanced demeanor to be an excellent Federal judge.

Former Democratic Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus, who also served as Secretary of the Interior in the Carter administration, supports Mr. Myers. He stated that Mr. Myers possesses "the necessary personal integrity, judicial temperament and legal experience, as well as the ability to act fairly on matters of law that will come before him on the court."

In addition, former Democratic Governor of Wyoming, Mike Sullivan, who also served as a U.S. Ambassador to Ireland under the Clinton administration, endorses Mr. Myers. He calls Mr. Myers a thoughtful, well-grounded attorney who has reflected, by his career achievements, a commitment to excellence, and states that Mr. Myers would provide serious responsible and intellectual consideration to each matter before him as an appellate judge and would not be prone to extreme or ideological positions unattached to legal precedence or the merits of a given matter.

Mr. Myers is backed by every member of the Idaho congressional delegation and 15 State attorneys general, including three Democratic attorneys general-Ken Salazar from Colorado, Drew Edmondson from Oklahoma, and Patrick Crank from Wyoming-who strongly support Mr. Myers. These chief law enforcement officers from their States say Mr. Myers would bring to the Ninth Circuit strong intellectual skills combined with a strong sense of civility, decency, and respect for all.

Two former Attorneys General of the United States support Mr. Myers, one Republican and one Democrat. Former Attorney General William P. Barr states that Mr. Myers represents the epitome of judicial temperament and would do a great job, while former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh calls Mr. Myers exceptionally well-qualified to serve as a member of the Federal judiciary.

There have been some attacks made against Mr. Myers today to which I will briefly respond. As I said earlier, many of the attacks made against him are for positions he took advocating on behalf of clients or on behalf of an employer when he was working in the Department of the Interior or in other capacities.

Some groups claim that Mr. Myers did not adequately protect the environment as the Solicitor of the Interior. The record simply belies this argument. As Solicitor of the Interior, Mr. Myers vigorously fought to safeguard the environment and conserve natural resources. Mr. Myers sought to protect this country's lands and national parks and monuments. The list I have in front of me is extensive, listing actions he has taken as the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior to preserve and protect the incredible environmental resources which we have in this Nation.

He is also recognized for protecting indigenous animals as well as the environment and supported an agreement removing dams from the Penobscot River, in what conservationists called the biggest restoration project north of the Everglades. His involvement in working on wolf issues and on issues regarding nesting sites of endangered birds to protect them from harassment of bird watchers has been significantly noted. He has a very procon servationist leaning.

Mr. Myers fought to protect our Nation's waters and to ensure the Nation was adequately compensated for the private use of natural resources. Again, he has been attacked in the Senate today for his defense of private property rights by those who do not want to see a balance brought back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Myers has defended reasonable interpretations of the Outercontinental Water Royalty Relief Act to ensure that oil and gas companies did not enjoy unjustified windfalls through royalty-free activity and supported record royalty recoupment against Shell Oil Company regarding natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico.

This shows when there are actions taken by those who would harm the environment, he is prepared and ready to step forward. Yes, he does protect private property rights. He has a belief that private property protection means something in this country. He recognizes the value of private property in our Constitution and in our system of government in America. For that, he is being criticized in the Senate today.

We should be glad to have a nominee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who will help us bring some sense of balance back to that court. Our colleague from New York, Senator Schumer, who just debated, stated last year on the nomination of Jay Bybee that the Ninth Circuit is by far the most liberal of any court in our country. Most of the nominees are Democrats and from Democratic Presidents. It is the Ninth Circuit that gave us the Pledge of Allegiance case, which is way out of the mainstream on the left side. Mr. Myers would bring some conservative balance back to that Ninth Circuit court, it is true. Frankly, I personally believe one of the reasons he is being so strongly objected to in the Senate today is because there are many who do not want to see that balance brought back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Finally, I conclude by discussing a little bit more the qualifications of Bill Myers. I know him personally. As has been stated, he is from Idaho. He has shown throughout his legal career that he can be a fierce, strong, eloquent advocate for those who were his clients and for those who were his employers. His effectiveness in advocating on behalf of his clients and his employers is now being utilized against him. If that were done to other nominees, as it has been done to some nominees, very few who were eloquent, strong advocates as attorneys or who were strong public servants serving as attorneys in the public service of our country would be able to pass through this Senate. We could find quotations in their briefs, quotations in their statements and in their advocacy which we could use in an isolated way to say they were taking too strong a stand.

The reality is, those who know him-Idaho Democratic Governor Cecil Andrus, Wyoming Democratic Governor, the Democratic Attorneys General who have worked with him-have given the true picture of Bill Myers. He is a man who with passion fights for that in which he believes but who has the ability, the skill, and the demeanor as a judge to stand in judgment with balanced reference to the precedent that comes before him. He would be an outstanding addition to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. I encourage all Members in the Senate to vote to give him a chance to have his nomination considered.

In conclusion, let's remember what the vote is that we are having today. The vote we are having today is not on the nomination of Mr. Myers; it is on the effort to get cloture on the filibuster of his nomination.

We are voting today to answer the question of whether he is entitled to a vote on his nomination-something that, until this Congress, has always been allowed on someone who was put out of the Judiciary Committee and brought to the floor of the Senate. Never, before this Congress, has a nominee sent from the Judiciary Committee to the floor of the Senate been denied a vote on their nomination. Yet today we see, for the seventh time in this Congress, an honorable person who is nominated, and has made it all the way to the floor of this Senate, being threatened with the denial of even a vote on their nomination.

I encourage all of my colleagues to afford Mr. Myers the kind of opportunity that all persons before him-until this Congress-have been allowed to have; and that is, a vote on his nomination to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of my time.