TRANSCRIPT: Majority Leader Schumer Remarks Introducing Hector Gonzalez, Nominee For EDNY District Court Judge, And Jessica Clarke, Nominee For SDNY District Court Judge, At Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today delivered remarks at the Senate Judiciary Committee introducing Hector Gonzalez, nominee to be a District Judge for the Eastern District of New York and Jessica Clarke, nominee to be a District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Twenty years ago, on a beautiful day – much like this one – our country, our people changed forever.

I thank you Chairman Durbin and my colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Today, I return to the committee to introduce not one but two remarkable nominees to serve as judges on the federal bench.

The first is Hector Gonzalez, nominated by President Biden to serve as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York.

The second is Ms. Jessica Clarke, nominated by the President to serve as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

And I want to thank both of them for being here. And of course I want to thank their families: If families are here please stand up so we can see you. Very nice. How could anyone vote against such nice people? Anyway, there in the audience are Mr. Gonzalez’s two sons and his wife, Aimee. And we also have Mrs. Clarke’s husband, Malik, in attendance today.

Now, a generation ago, it would have been difficult to imagine nominees like Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Clarke here before this committee. But today—because of their talents, their expertise, and their dedication to the rule of law, they are both here in one sitting and I want to thank them and commend them.

I want to begin by sharing a little about Hector Gonzalez—whose life story is the embodiment of the American Dream.

Hector was born not in New York but in Havana, Cuba, under a regime that offered no freedoms and few doors of opportunity.

When Hector was five, his parents took a risk, left the island, and came to America in search of ladders up, and in search of a better life for Hector and his family.

Growing up in Queens, Hector once said he had a pretty “stereotypical” Queens upbringing. That is to say the world around him shared some things in common with the world he came from: he grew up in an immigrant community, didn’t come from a lot of money, but grew up in a family that instilled in him the values of hard work and the virtues of earning an honest living.

That upbringing paid off: Hector was the first in his family to go to college. He earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, served as Editor of the Law Review, years later won a Fulbright Scholarship which took him to Guatemala to serve as a guest lecturer on trial advocacy.

Over the course of his career he became one of the top attorneys in New York.

His experience in private practice is first rate: he is an expert in complex commercial and securities litigation, white collar crime, the SEC and CFTC enforcement and other areas.

But his depth and reach of his public service is also impressive. He has been appointed at both the state and federal level to assist with a number criminal and civil initiatives, from investigating questions of misconduct among New York public employees, to serving as Chief for a major narcotics unit with the Southern District of New York, to serving as court-appointed special master for the Eastern District overseeing the individual relief claims process in a lawsuit involving discriminatory hiring practices for New York firefighters.

And through it all, he has won admiration and support of judges and fellow attorneys alike.

Here are just some of the things Mr. Gonzalez’s peers had to say about him: “an outstanding lawyer, a person of high integrity.” Another said “being a judge might be his true calling” because of his temperament. And one judge said that while “a lot of young assistants waste time getting to the point; he gets right to the core.”

I have every single bit of confidence that he will continue working with integrity, with precision, and will be an outstanding Judge in the Eastern District.

This morning, it is also my honor to introduce our second nominee to the bench, Jessica Clarke, whom President Biden has nominated to serve as a judge for the New York’s Southern District.

The first thing to know about Ms. Clarke is that the cause of justice, civil rights, and the rule of law runs in her family. Over a half century ago, her grandmother worked as a legal assistant at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, working alongside such civil rights legends as Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley.

It was her grandmother’s dream for Jessica to go to law school one day, to follow in her footsteps in the fight to make our country a better place for all Americans, regardless of the color of their skin or the circumstances of their birth. 

And after growing up in Ohio, that is exactly what Jessica did, graduating from Northwestern University and earning her law degree from Ohio State.

After completing her clerkship with a federal district judge, Ms. Clarke had all the opportunities in the world to enter private practice in New York, a worthy and rewarding path.

But instead, she chose to join the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. During her time at DOJ she focused on fair housing, public accommodations discrimination, religious land use, and police misconduct cases.

In private practice, she continued her focus on Civil Rights and criminal defense, representing everyone from business owners, to artists, to individuals wrongly convicted of crimes.

And at the New York State Office of Attorney General, she now serves as Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau.

All her career, Ms. Clarke has demonstrated her ability and dedication to ensuring the law and our institutions work for – and represent – all of us, all of us equally. And I am certain she will continue to do so as a member of the federal bench.

My colleagues, as I have said so many times, our courts for too long have been overrepresented by individuals who check certain, very-familiar boxes. To this day the bulk of our judges on the bench are male, are white, and either come from Big Law firms or prosecutorial backgrounds.

And while many of these jurists have served admirably on the court, I have worked tirelessly with the Biden Administration and all of you to elevate men and women who bring a fresh perspective to the bench, who show diversity not only in their backgrounds but also in their experiences.

I am proud that last year, Senate Democrats worked to confirm more of President Biden’s judicial nominees to the bench in the first year of any President since Ronald Reagan, and we did it with diverse men and women who redefined the possibilities of who merits consideration to the bench.

I look forward to continuing to restore balance back to our judiciary with even more highly-qualified, diverse, and impartial nominees in the months and years to come. And we are off to a strong start this year with the nominees of Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Clarke. 

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