Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am pleased the Senate is going to vote today on the nomination of Sharon Coleman to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. We currently have at least five vacancies. She is an amazing, accomplished jurist who will fill one of those vacancies with distinction, I am sure. She has devoted her entire legal career to government service.

She was elected to be Cook County trial court judge in 1996, a campaign where I first met her and her great family. She won retention election in 2002. As a trial judge, she presided over 600 cases that went to verdict.

In 2008, she received promotion. She was elected to the prestigious Illinois Appellate Court. She has a reputation for fairness and impartiality and for having an outstanding judicial temperament.

Not surprisingly, all members of the American Bar Association evaluation committee gave Justice Coleman the highest possible rating of well qualified.

Before tenure on the bench, Justice Coleman served for 4 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago and for 8 years in the Cook County State Attorney's Office. As Cook County prosecutor, she handled a wide variety of cases--from muggings to murders. She was promoted to be chief of the public interest bureau, where she supervised over 75 attorneys and created a special unit to protect senior citizens from exploitation and abuse.

As additional evidence of her commitment to the legal profession, she served on the boards of numerous bar associations and public interest organizations in the great city of Chicago. She has received many awards for her work, including the prestigious C.F. Stradford Award from the Cook County State Attorney's Office, the Esther Rothstein Award from the Women's Bar Association of Illinois, and a ``Women of Excellence'' award from the Chicago Defender newspaper. Finally, I note that Justice Coleman was one of the top candidates recommended to me by my bipartisan merit selection committee I established last year to review applications for judgeships in the northern district. This screening committee is chaired by Abner Mikva, who served at the highest levels of government in all three branches. Also, Senator Burris has joined me in supporting Justice Coleman.

I hope we can receive a very strong vote for her nomination when it is considered by the Senate in a few moments. The State of Illinois will be very fortunate to have Justice Shirley Coleman to be serving on the Federal bench.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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