June 3 / Administration of , 2013 tornadoes in Oklahoma and their aftermath. tive and judicial branches, or an agency leave The Federal Government has mobilized to re- bank established under 5 U.S.C. 6363, to do- spond to this major disaster, and many Federal nate unused annual leave for transfer to em- employees are dealing with overwhelming per- ployees of the same or other agencies (or the sonal losses. judicial branch) who were adversely affected To further assist Federal employees and by the storms and tornadoes in Oklahoma and their family members adversely affected by the who need additional time off for recovery. I storms and tornadoes in Oklahoma, I hereby further direct OPM to provide additional guid- direct the Office of Personnel Management ance to agencies on the program’s administra- (OPM) to establish an emergency leave trans- tion. fer program, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 6391. The program will permit employees in the execu- BARACK OBAMA

Remarks on the Nominations of Patricia A. Millett, Cornelia T.L. “Nina” Pillard, and Robert L. Wilkins To Be Judges on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit June 4, 2013

Good morning, everybody. Please have a about principled opposition, this is about polit- seat. ical obstruction. So one of the most important responsibili- I recognize that neither party has a perfect ties of a President is to nominate qualified men track record here. Democrats weren’t com- and women to serve as judges on the Federal pletely blameless when I was in the Senate. bench. But what’s happening now is unprecedented. And Congress has a responsibility as well. For the good of the American people, it has to The Senate is tasked with providing advice and stop. Too much of the people’s business is at consent. They can approve a President’s nomi- stake. Our legal framework depends on timely nee, or they can reject a President’s nominee. confirmations of judicial nominees. And no- But they have a constitutional duty to promptly where is this more apparent than with the DC consider judicial nominees for confirmation. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, throughout my first term as President, The DC Circuit is known as the second highest court in the country, and there’s a good the Senate too often failed to do that. Time reason for that. The judges on the DC Circuit and again, congressional Republicans cynically routinely have the final say on a broad range of used Senate rules and procedures to delay and cases involving everything from national secu- even block qualified nominees from coming to rity to environmental policy, from questions of a full vote. campaign finance to workers’ rights. In other As a result, my judicial nominees have wait- words, the court’s decisions impact almost ev- ed three times longer to receive confirmation ery aspect of our lives. votes than those of my Republican predeces- There are 11 seats on the DC Circuit Court. sor. Let me repeat that: My nominees have When I first took office, there were two vacan- taken three times longer to receive confirma- cies. Since then, two more judges have retired. tion votes than those of my Republican prede- That means there are four vacancies that need- cessor. These individuals that I nominate are ed to be filled. And by February of this year, qualified. When they were given an up-or- more than one-third of the seats on the Na- down vote in the Senate—when they were fi- tion’s second highest court were empty. I nally given an up-or-down vote in the Senate— mean, imagine if a third of the seats on the every one of them was confirmed. So this is not highest court—the Supreme Court—were

524 Administration of Barack Obama, 2013 / June 4 empty. We would rightly consider that a judi- arguments by a female lawyer. She served in cial crisis. If we want to ensure a fair and func- the Solicitor General’s Office for 11 years for tioning judiciary, our courts cannot be short both Democratic and Republican Presidents. staffed. Since then, in private practice, she’s represent- Now, in 2010, I put forward a highly quali- ed everyone from large businesses to individu- fied nominee for the DC Circuit: Caitlin Halli- al pro bono plaintiffs. And by the way, as the gan. Caitlin’s credentials were beyond ques- wife of a retired Navy officer, Patricia has tion. She had bipartisan support from the legal served our Nation outside the courtroom, as and law enforcement communities. She had well, as a member of a military family. the support of a majority of Senators. Nobody Nina Pillard’s career has been defined by an suggested she was not qualified to serve on the unshakeable commitment to the public good. court. If Caitlin had gotten a simple up-or- She twice served in the Department of Justice down vote before the full Senate, I am confi- and was an attorney for the NAACP Legal De- dent she would have been easily confirmed. fense and Education Fund. Her landmark suc- But instead, for 2½ years, Senate Republicans cesses before the Supreme Court include de- blocked her nominations. It had nothing to do fending the constitutionality of the Family and with Caitlin’s qualifications. It was all about Medical Leave Act and opening the doors of politics. And after 2 ½ years of languishing in the Military Institute to female stu- limbo, this brilliant and principled lawyer dents. And today, Nina is a professor at asked me to withdraw her nomination. Georgetown and, if confirmed, would continue Now, the good news is, last year, I put forward the DC Circuit’s strong tradition of distin- another highly qualified nominee: . guished scholars going on to serve as judges, And Sri’s credentials were also beyond question. from to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And no doubt due to some mounting public And finally, this is the second time I’ve pressure, along with the vocal bipartisan support called on Judge Robert Wilkins to serve, be- that he received, Sri was unanimously confirmed cause in 2010, I nominated Robert to the DC a few weeks ago, becoming the first South Asian District Court, and the Senate confirmed him American to serve as a Circuit Court judge in our without opposition. Before serving with dis- Nation’s history. tinction as a Federal judge, Robert spent 8 So I’m pleased that the Senate acted. I’m years in private practice and a decade as a pub- glad Republicans chose not to play politics and lic defender here in Washington, DC, provid- obstruct Sri’s nomination the way they did with ing legal representation to defendants who Caitlin’s. And I’m hopeful that we can now could not afford an attorney. And throughout build on that progress, because Sri’s confirma- his career, Robert has distinguished himself as tion was the first to the DC Circuit in 7 years. a principled attorney of the utmost integrity. So out of the four vacancies that existed, one So these three individuals are highly quali- has now been filled. There are three seats still fied to serve on the DC Circuit. They have vacant on the DC Circuit Court—one of them, broad bipartisan support from across the legal by the way—one of them has been vacant since community. The nonpartisan American Bar Chief Justice Roberts was elevated to the Su- Association have given them—each of them— preme Court in 2005. Anybody who values the its highest rating. These are no slouches. role of our courts should find that unaccept- [Laughter] These are no hacks. These are in- able regardless of your party, which brings me credibly accomplished lawyers by all accounts. to today. That’s why today I’m nominating And there are Members of Congress here to- three outstanding, highly qualified individuals day who are ready to move forward with these to fill those remaining seats. nominations, including the Chairman, Patrick Now, is one of our Nation’s Leahy. So there’s no reason—aside from poli- finest appellate attorneys and, until recently, tics—for Republicans to block these individu- held the record for the most Supreme Court als from getting an up-or-down vote.

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Despite that, some Republicans recently els of the Federal court system—told the Sen- have suggested that by nominating these three ate that the current workload before the DC individuals, I’m somehow engaging in—and Circuit requires 11 judges. So they should I’m quoting here—in “court-packing.” [Laugh- know. That was just 2 months ago. ter] No, I—people laugh, but this is an argu- Chief Justice , the Chief Jus- ment I’ve made. For those of you who are fa- tice of the highest court in the land and former miliar with the history of court-packing, that member of the DC Circuit Court, says they involved Franklin Delano Roosevelt trying to need 11 judges. So it’s important we don’t play add additional seats to the Supreme Court in games here, and it’s important that we cut order to water down and get more support for through the verbiage. his political agenda. We’re not adding seats An essential part of our democracy is the here. We’re trying to fill seats that are already separation of powers. The executive, the legis- existing. Each of the past five Presidents has lative, and the judiciary each have a role to seen at least three of their nominees confirmed play. And when it comes to judicial nominees, to the DC Circuit. Since I’ve been President, my responsibility is to put forward qualified in- obstruction has slowed that down to one. dividuals. These are threeof the most qualified Right now there are three open seats on a individuals you’ll ever meet. The Senate’s re- critical court. I didn’t create these seats. I sponsibility in turn is to promptly give them an didn’t just wake up one day and say, let’s add up or down vote. three seats to the District Court of Appeals. These are open seats. And the Constitution de- So today I’m doing my part. I hope in the mands that I nominate qualified individuals to coming months that the Senate does its part, fill those seats. What I am doing today is my because I assure you, when these three out- job. I need the Senate to do its job. standing individuals are on the bench, they will The fact that Republican Senators are now do their part. That’s what the Constitution de- pushing a proposal to reduce the number of mands. It’s what the American people expect. judges on this independent Federal court also And I look forward to years of outstanding ser- makes no sense. When a Republican was Presi- vice by these outstanding lawyers of incredible dent, 11 judges on the DC Circuit Court made integrity. complete sense. Now that a Democrat is Presi- And I promised that I would mention this dent, it apparently doesn’t. Eight is suddenly to—before all of you: They also have really enough. [Laughter] People are laughing be- good-looking families. [Laughter] Because I cause it’s obviously a blatant political move. just saw their kids and—[applause]. All right. We know that because some of the same Thank you very much, everybody. Republicans behind this current proposal to reduce the number of seats on the DC Circuit NOTE: The President spoke at 10:28 a.m. in Court voted in 2007 to keep 11 judges on the the Rose Garden at the White House. In his DC Circuit, same folks. They say the workload remarks, he referred to former Chief Judge has decreased since then, but in April, the Ju- David B. Sentelle and former Judge Douglas dicial Conference of the United States— H. Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for which, by the way, is led by Chief Justice John the District of Columbia Circuit; and Robert Roberts and includes judges from various lev- King, husband of Judge-designate Millett.

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