Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke on the Senate floor today regarding the talking filibuster and on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday civil rights march. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

My Republican colleagues love to extol the virtues of “regular order.” If only we could get back to the days of regular order, they say, the Senate would function again.

Well, yesterday we saw both sides of that. On one hand my Republican colleagues did not practice regular order. Instead they demanded a 60-vote threshold for confirmation of a qualified nominee, Caitlin Halligan, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Republicans hid behind a cloture vote – a filibuster by another term – to prevent a simple up or down vote on this important nomination. They took the easy way out.

On the other hand, one Republican Senator did return to regular order. And, as is his right, he spoke for as long as he was able. That is a filibuster.

After 12 hours standing and talking, this is how Senator Paul ended his filibuster: “I would go for another 12 hours to try to break Strom Thurmond’s record, but I’ve discovered there are some limits to filibustering and I’m going to have to take care of one of those in a few minutes here.” One thing I learned from my own experience with talking filibusters: to succeed, you need strong convictions but also a strong bladder. Senator Paul has both.

We should all reflect on what happened yesterday as we proceed with other nominations, including a number of judicial nominations. This can be a Senate were ideas are debated in full public view – and obstruction happens in full public view as well. Or it can be a Senate where a small minority obstructs from behind closed doors, without ever coming to the Senate floor.

Bloody Sunday

Forty-eight years ago today, a young man by the name of John Lewis set out on a march across Alabama, from Selma to Montgomery. By his side were a few hundred freedom-loving men and women calling for an end to discrimination and violence against African Americans.

Today John Lewis is a distinguished member of the House of Representatives. But back then he was a young civil rights leader, determined to fight injustice and force the United States to live up to its founding principle – that all people are created equal.

John expected to be arrested that day. Instead, John and the peaceful protesters by his side were met just six blocks into their march by state troopers with dogs, fire hoses and clubs. Many of the marchers, including John Lewis, were badly beaten.

The terrible violence of that day – known as Bloody Sunday – was broadcast across the country. For the first time, the bloody reality of the struggle for equal rights was beamed into America’s living rooms. Bloody Sunday marked a turning point in the Civil Rights movement, as Americans cried out against the injustice and bloodshed they saw on their television screens.

Later that month, protesters finally completed the march from Selma to Montgomery. And more than 25,000 patriots converged on the Alabama State Capitol Building. From the steps of the Alabama Capitol, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of the power of peaceful resistance. This is what he said: “Selma, Alabama, became a shining moment in the conscience of man. If the worst in American life lurked in its dark street, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it.”

Six months later President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law was one of many steps to make “freedom and justice for all” more than just a maxim.

But today the change Bloody Sunday helped bring to bear with the Voting Rights Act is under attack again. Last week, the Supreme Court considered striking sections of the law barring areas with a history of discrimination from changing voting practices without federal approval.

Critics say these protections are no longer necessary. But anyone who waited hours to cast a ballot in 2012 knows that’s not the case. And anyone who has watched as state legislatures pass laws designed to intimidate eligible voters and keep the poor, minorities and the elderly from the polls knows the fight for freedom is not over.

America has made great strides to eradicate racism, thanks to men like John Lewis. But together we must guard that progress with vigilance, keeping in mind the sacrifices made by so many 48 years ago today.

“If my Republican colleagues choose to filibuster [Caitlin] Halligan’s confirmation a second time, their naked partisanship will be exposed.”

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke on the Senate floor today regarding Republican obstruction of qualified judicial nominees. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

William Gladstone, four-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, wrote that, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” By that measure, millions of Americans who rely on courts that are overworked and understaffed are being denied the justice they rightly deserve.

With one out of every 10 federal judgeships vacant, Americans can no longer rely on a fair and speedy trial. More than half the nation’s population lives in a part of the country that’s been declared a “judicial emergency.”

The high number of vacancies isn’t due to a lack of qualified jurists. It is due, instead, to blatant partisanship.

President Obama’s judicial nominees have waited, on average, three to four times longer to be confirmed than those nominated by President George W. Bush. Even highly-qualified nominees – nominees who are eventually confirmed unanimously or almost unanimously – routinely wait weeks or even months to be confirmed.

Tomorrow, the Senate will consider highly-qualified Caitlin Joan Halligan. Ms. Halligan has been waiting more than two years to be confirmed.

Ms. Halligan is nominated – for the second time – to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The D.C. Circuit considers complex appeals of federal regulations. And it has jurisdiction over vital national security challenges. It is also one of the many courts in crisis across this country.

A third of seats on the D.C. Circuit Court are vacant. The last appointment to the D.C. Circuit was made in 2006. And in the years since, the number of pending cases per judge has grown from 119 in 2005 to 188 today.

When Ms. Halligan was nominated to the D.C. Circuit in 2010, she was nominated to fill one of two vacancies on the court. More than two years later, Ms. Halligan’s nomination is again before the Senate. And the D.C. Circuit now has four empty seats.

The last time the Senate considered Ms. Halligan’s nomination, some of my Republican colleagues claimed the D.C. Circuit didn’t really need more judges. So they filibustered her confirmation. No one could credibly make that argument today. If my Republican colleagues choose to filibuster Ms. Halligan’s confirmation a second time, their naked partisanship will be exposed.

Patricia M. Wald, who retired after serving two decades on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said this of the confirmation process: “The constitutional system of nomination and confirmation can work only if there is good faith on the part of both the president and the Senate to move qualified nominees along, rather than withholding consent for political reasons.” A second partisan filibuster of this highly-qualified nominee by my Republican colleagues would be in very bad faith.

One qualified, consensus judicial nominee ought to be treated like another – regardless of the political party of the President that made the nomination. Yet President Obama is the only president in the 65-year history of the D.C. Circuit Court not to have a single judge confirmed during his first term.

It’s certainly not because his nominees are anything less than supremely qualified. Ms. Halligan’s colleagues have called her a “brilliant legal mind.” She has outstanding credentials and the strong support of appellate lawyers, former judges, law enforcement officials and more than 20 former Supreme Court clerks from across the political spectrum. She graduated with honors from Princeton and Georgetown University Law. She clerked for Judge Patricia Wald, who I quoted a moment ago, and for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

If a truly exceptional candidate such as Caitlin Halligan isn’t qualified to be a judge in the United States of America, I don’t know who is.