Executive Session

EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - July 24, 2006)

NOMINATION OF JEROME A. HOLMES TO BE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT

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Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Judiciary Committee, which I chair, is pleased to report the nomination of Mr. Jerome A. Holmes to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Mr. Holmes comes to this position with an excellent academic and professional background. He was nominated to be a judge on the court on May 4 of this year, received a hearing on June 15 of this year, and was reported out of the Judiciary Committee on July 13 on a voice vote.

The unique situation with Mr. Holmes is that he would be the first African American to serve on the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. I am about to yield to the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Coburn, who obviously has great familiarity with that circuit, being from the State of Oklahoma. Before moving to Pennsylvania to go to the University of Pennsylvania some years ago, I began my own academic career at the University of Oklahoma, having been a lifelong resident up to that point of the State of Kansas. The Tenth Circuit is near and dear to my heart. I can testify firsthand about the desirability and, in fact, the need for diversity on the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. There ought to be diversity to the extent practical and possible on all of our courts. It gives the constituency, the litigants, and the people who practice before the court, the sense that there are judges from every walk of life. The broader the background a court possesses, the more understanding it has of the problems we all face in a very diverse society, which is the melting pot of the world, the better.

That does not mean in any way, shape, or form that qualifications ought to be subordinated, that we should pursue diversity for diversity's sake, regardless of other considerations. But when someone has the qualifications that Mr. Holmes presents to the Senate and in addition would bring diversity to the court to which he has been nominated, that is something to be considered. Certainly the desirability of having diversity on the Supreme Court of the United States is evident and highly visible. Thurgood Marshall was the first Justice on the Supreme Court to be African American. Now we have Justice Clarence Thomas, again, the only African-American judge. It took a long time for women to find a place on the Supreme Court, with the nomination and confirmation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981. That was the first year of my service in the Senate, after being elected in 1980. It was a great day when Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took her place on the Supreme Court of the United States. We now have, in addition, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is important to have that diversity.

While there is not a Hispanic on the Supreme Court, we have Alberto Gonzales who is the Attorney General of the United States. There is no doubt these individuals are role models. They demonstrate that an Hispanic can come to the highest levels of the Government, as can an African American, as can a woman. It took a long time for women's suffrage, for women to have the right to vote, and to move into the upper echelons of all facets of American life. There is, realistically viewed, still a glass ceiling which imposes some limitation.

Now on to Mr. Holmes and his very excellent qualifications. He graduated from Wake Forest University cum laude in 1983 and the Georgetown University Law Center in 1988. At Georgetown, he served as editor in chief of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. In the year 2000, he earned a master's in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Between college and law school, he worked as a social services assistant in the D.C. Department of Corrections. Following law school he clerked for Judge Wayne Alley of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and then Tenth Circuit Judge William J. Holloway. Following the clerkship, he spent 3 years in private practice as an associate with the well-regarded law firm of Steptoe & Johnson.

In 1994, Mr. Holmes began a distinguished career as a Federal prosecutor serving as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of Oklahoma. Among other duties, he prosecuted public corruption, Federal criminal civil rights violations, and was the office's antiterrorism coordinator. He also worked on the prosecuting team that built a case against the perpetrators of the Oklahoma City bombing. Since 2005, he has been a director of the private Oklahoma law firm Crowe & Dunlevy, where he has focused on white collar criminal defense and complex litigation. He also chairs the firm's diversity committee.

Mr. Holmes has given back to the people of Oklahoma by taking leadership roles in a wide variety of civic organizations, including service as a director of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, trustee of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation, director of the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals, chairman of the City Rescue Mission, and vice president of the Oklahoma Bar Association. The American Bar Association has unanimously found Mr. Holmes to be qualified to serve on the Tenth Circuit.

Before yielding the floor and turning over the management of the nomination to my distinguished colleague on the Judiciary Committee, I wish to make a few comments about a release of the American Bar Association today on so-called signing statements. I have discussed with Senator Coburn that I will take a few more minutes at this time. May the record show he is nodding in the affirmative. I shall not take too long.

(The remarks of Mr. SPECTER are located in today's RECORD under ``Morning Business''.)

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, at this point, I yield to my distinguished colleague, Senator Coburn, who did an excellent job as Mr. Holmes's principal advocate before the Judiciary Committee, as my designee to handle the proceedings in the Senate this afternoon and tomorrow on the confirmation of Mr. Holmes.

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