Small Business Lending Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I rise today to address the need to move quickly and to confirm several qualified judicial nominees--I would say many qualified judicial nominees. You are going to hear about a number of them today. I am going to talk specifically about the highly qualified nominee for the District of Minnesota who was unanimously voted out of our Judiciary Committee more than a month ago.

Our failure to confirm Susan Richard Nelson quickly has consequences for my State. The judge she has been nominated to replace took senior status as of last October and is stepping down from the Federal bench altogether in a couple of weeks. That means a smaller number of judges will be doing the same heavy workload until she is confirmed, which is not fair to my State or many of the States you will hear from today.

This nomination is important to our district. Our district's caseload has increased significantly in recent years. In fact, as of June 2008, our district had the second highest number of case filings per judgeship in the entire country--the second highest in 2008 in the entire country. Yet, if she is not confirmed after coming through our committee unanimously, we will be down a judge even though we have this high caseload. Even as of December 2009, we were still in the top 10 most overloaded districts in the country. From 2008 to 2009, the district saw a 54-percent jump in the number of civil cases filed. That is over 5,000 civil cases currently pending and only 6 judges on a full-time status to deal with these cases, not to mention the docket of criminal cases on top of that. The district needs Judge Nelson to be confirmed quickly. Delay is not an option.

It is worth noting that by this time in President Bush's administration, we had confirmed 61 judicial nominees. By contrast, we have only confirmed 36 of President Obama's.

When a vacancy arose on the Federal district court in Minnesota, I convened a judicial selection committee to consider mainly highly qualified candidates. From this fine pool of applicants, I recommended Susan Richard Nelson to the President. President Obama formally nominated her for this position, and I appreciate the work of Senator Leahy and Senator Sessions, who is also here, in making sure she had a speedy nomination hearing. However--this is a familiar story for several nominees--after Susan Richard Nelson received a unanimous vote in the committee, her nomination stalled on the Senate floor.

There is no reason to hold up this nomination. Susan Richard Nelson is exactly the kind of person you would like to see sitting in a judge's seat. She has been a magistrate judge for the District of Minnesota for the last 8 years, where she has earned the respect of litigants, lawyers, and judicial colleagues alike. She has the judicial temperament, personal integrity, and keen legal mind that are absolute prerequisites for this job. Throughout her tenure, she has gained a reputation as a fair but stern magistrate judge, one who is thorough and prepared. She has been described as a judge ``who favors neither plaintiff nor defendant, who listens carefully to both sides of every matter she hears, and who can be relied upon to give articulate, well-reasoned explanations for her decisions.'' The ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously gave Judge Nelson their highest rating.

I believe she will make a fine Federal judge, and that is why I rise to speak today. But this is not just a Minnesota issue; this is a national issue. As a
former prosecutor, I know what happens when you have an overloaded judiciary, when you do not have the players in place, either the prosecutor, the public defender, or the judges. When you do not have judges available to hear cases, judges whose time is spread too thin, cases do not get heard, victims do not get justice, and litigants do not get their problems solved. In other words, it slows down the wheels of justice when you do not have the people in place to actually hear the cases.

It is my hope again that we can end this waiting game and confirm these nominees. I truly appreciate the bipartisanship work on our committee to get these judges through to the floor. But now is the time to get the work done.

I know we will be asking for unanimous consent for a group of the judges whom we are addressing. I know Susan Richard Nelson's name will be included at that time.

I yield the floor.

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