Executive Session

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today I rise to support two outstanding nominees to the federal bench in the Southern District of New York.

Over the years, I have had the great good fortune to support many outstanding candidates to the federal bench.

Rarely, however, have I come across two nominees who are as qualified, in every possible way, to be federal judges as Edgardo Ramos and Judge Andrew Carter.

Ramos is the quintessential example of the American dream--he was born in Puerto Rico and was 1 of 7 children raised by a single mother in Newark, NJ. He excelled in school, earning his bachelor's degree from Yale and his law degree from Harvard.

After graduating, he was an associate at the New York firm Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett, and then served for 10 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, including as Deputy Chief of the Narcotics Section. Since 2002, he has been a partner in the New York law firm Day Pitney. Ramos has earned an outstanding reputation among his fellow lawyers, prosecutors, and judges and in the Hispanic community. I have complete confidence that he will make an excellent judge.

Magistrate Judge Andrew Carter was born in Albany, GA and he came to New York after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Law School. After law school, he worked for two years at the Ford Foundation and became a public defender in New York courts, both state and federal. He spent nine years at the New York office of the Legal Aid Society, and then four years at the Federal Defenders of New York.

Since 2009, he has served as a United States magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York, a position for which he was selected by a vote of the sitting district judges. And that is terrific training to be a Federal judge. Judge Carter is widely respected as a fair and mild-mannered magistrate judge who understands the courtroom and the needs of litigants.

Both Ramos and Judge Carter embody the three criteria that I look for in a federal judge--excellence, moderation, and diversity.

Both have consistently risen to the top, academically and professionally.

Both are entirely non-ideological--they are lawyers who are respected by all of their peers, and who have approached the law with respect and humility.

And, both increase the diversity of a bench that serves one of the most diverse populations in the country. I have always said that, all other things being equal, diversity of backgrounds, experience, and ethnicity is an important consideration for federal judges. So, I am pleased to have recommended two nominees to the federal bench who are outstanding in every way.

The bench of the Southern District of New York has been one of the hardest hit by judicial vacancies--currently, 21 percent of its seats are open. With the addition of Edgardo Ramos and Judge Andrew Carter, this important court will be closer to firing on all cylinders.

I look forward, with all New Yorkers, to their joining the bench.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source