Nomination of George Levi Russell III, to be Untied States District Judge for the District of Maryland

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I will be urging the people in my caucus to vote for these nominees, both of them. Today, the Senate is expected to confirm these two nominees: Judge Russell to the District of Maryland and Mr. Tharp to the Northern District of Illinois. As I said, I support the nominees, and I do, in fact, expect that both of them will be confirmed.

We continue to confirm the President's nominees at a brisk pace. In fact, with today's confirmations, we will have confirmed 145 of President Obama's district and circuit court nominees. I would like to put this in perspective.

We confirmed two Supreme Court nominees during President Obama's term so far. Everyone knows it takes a tremendous amount of time and resources to consider Supreme Court nominees.

The last time the Senate confirmed two Supreme Court nominees was during President Bush's second term. During President Bush's entire second term, the Senate confirmed only 120 district and circuit court nominees.

Compare that, if you will, to the 145 district and circuit court nominees we have confirmed so far since President Obama has become President. Let me say that same thing a different way. We have confirmed 25 more nominees for President Obama than we did for President Bush in a similar time period. Of course, President Obama's term is not over yet.

With these facts in mind, I hope my colleagues will understand why I get a little frustrated when I hear all of these complaints about how we are not confirming enough

nominees. The fact is President Obama is being treated much more fairly than Senate Democrats treated President Bush.

It is especially frustrating to hear the other side complain about the vacancy rate. The fact is the Senate is doing its job. We are confirming the nominees who are sent to us. Of course, we cannot confirm nominees who are not up here from the White House. If there is a problem, then it rests with the President.

Right now, there are 77 judicial vacancies. But the President has made only 29 nominations. That means 48 vacancies or over 60 percent--actually, nearly 63 percent--have no nominee. Stating it another way, there are currently 44 million Americans living in districts with vacancies where the President has not submitted a nominee to the Senate.

I suspect the President neglected to share that statistic with all the groups he summoned to the White House 1 week ago today to discuss judicial nominees, probably with the point of getting those organizations to put more pressure on the Congress to approve more nominees, and somehow approve nominees who are not even here yet for us to approve.

I could go on, but I do not intend to. I do not like to get into this back-and-forth with the other side. But it gets a little tiresome to hear the same misleading statements over and over. I want to set the record straight, and I have done that.

I congratulate the nominees who will be confirmed tonight. Both the nominees and their families should be proud.

George Levi Russell III, presently serving as an associate judge to the Circuit Court of Maryland, is nominated to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Maryland. Judge Russell received his BA from Morehouse College in 1988 and his JD from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1991. Upon graduation from law school, he clerked for Hon. Robert M. Bell, chief judge for the Court of Appeals of Maryland. Judge Russell then worked as an associate at the law firms Hazel and Thomas, P.C. and Whiteford, Taylor, and Preston, where he handled cases involving personal injury, product liability, and medical malpractice. In 1994, Judge Russell became an assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. He worked in the civil division for 5 years, defending government agencies in discrimination, automobile accident, and medical malpractice cases. In 2000, Judge Russell rejoined the private sector for 2 years, working at the law offices of Peter G. Angelos, where he represented plaintiffs in class action and private personal injury cases. In 2002, he returned to the U.S. Attorney's Office and joined the criminal division for 5 years. There Judge Russell prosecuted those accused of violent crimes and narcotics cases.

In 2007, then-Governor Robert Ehrlich appointed Judge Russell to be an associate judge on the Circuit Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. In November 2008, he was elected to a 15-year term. Judge Russell has sat on each of the four dockets of this court: criminal, civil, family, and juvenile.

The ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has given Judge Russell a rating of Substantial Majority ``Qualified'' and Minority ``Not Qualified'' for this position.

John J. Tharp, Jr., is nominated to be U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Tharp was first nominated to this position by President Bush in 2008. Mr. Tharp received his BA from Duke University in 1982 and his JD from Northwestern University School of Law in 1990. Mr. Tharp served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1982 to 1988, became a captain in 1987, and has received several military honors. Following graduation from Northwestern University School of Law in 1990, Mr. Tharp began his legal career as a clerk for Judge Flaum on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After working as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis for a year, he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago, as a Federal prosecutor where he served in the Criminal Receiving and Appellate Division, General Crimes Division, and Organized Drug Enforcement Task Force. He handled cases involving narcotics and money laundering investigations, financial frauds, political corruption, tax crimes, bank robberies, and firearms offenses.

In 1997, Mr. Tharp left the U.S. Attorney's Office and moved to his current firm, Mayer Brown, where his practice focuses on civil concerns, including tort, contract, intellectual property, environment, tax, and unfair competition claims, securities fraud, professional liability, and governmental investigations.

In 2009, Mr. Tharp's firm selected him to serve as coleader of the securities enforcement practice. In 2010, that group merged with the securities litigation group, and he continues to serve as coleader of the combined Mayer Brown securities litigation and enforcement practice. He has an ABA rating of Unanimous ``Well Qualified.'''

I urge my colleagues to support these nominees. I think they probably will be supported overwhelmingly.

I yield the floor.

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