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| September 26th, 2008 |
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Media Contact(s): Mark Eddington or Heather Barney, 202-224-5251 |
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Printable Version |
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SENATE CONFIRMS WADDOUPS TO THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT IN UTAH
Hatch Says Utahn Will Do a Terrific Job |
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WASHINGTON – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called the Senate’s confirmation today of Clark Waddoups to the U.S. District Court in Utah as vitally important to the state.
Sen. Hatch's remarks for the Congressional Record follow:
Mr. President, I rise to express my pleasure at the confirmation today of Clark Waddoups to the U.S. District Court in Utah and my thanks to all those, in particular the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy, who facilitated this result.
Clark Waddoups will be a truly outstanding judge. He graduated from the University of Utah law school where he was president of the Utah Law Review and has been practicing law in Utah for nearly 35 years.
More than that, he has participated in the life of the law in our state, serving on the board of visitors of the law school at Brigham Young University and for 17 years on the Advisory Committee to the Utah Supreme Court on the Rules of Evidence.
Not surprisingly, the Utah chapter of the Federal Bar Association has recognized Clark as Utah’s outstanding lawyer and the American Bar Association. Not only is Clark Waddoups an outstanding lawyer, but he is a good man. He is active in his church and for many years served on and led the board of the Family Support Center of Utah.
Federal courts across America are very busy today, and no more so than in Utah. Utah has just five U.S. District Court seats and our population has increased by more than fifty percent since the last one was created in 1990. Because this vacancy occurred when Judge Paul Cassell resigned to go back to teaching, there was no senior judge available to help out. So the service of such an outstanding judge will be welcome indeed.
My colleague and friend from Utah, Senator Bennett, and I worked together to recommend the very best candidate to replace Judge Cassell. Clark Waddoups stood out from the many qualified and experienced lawyers we considered. He is known and respected through the legal community and will be a fair and wise jurist who will live up to the highest standards of the American legal system.
As everyone knows, the confirmation process, especially for judicial nominees, has its share, perhaps more than its share, of tension and controversy. As a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I know there are many competing demands and expectations.
But Chairman Leahy nonetheless scheduled not one but two hearings this month to consider a total of ten additional nominees to the U.S. District Court. And he made sure that they got on the Judiciary Committee agenda, reported to the floor yesterday, and confirmed today.
So I am deeply grateful to President Bush for nominating Clark Waddoups and to Chairman Leahy for facilitating his progress through the confirmation process. Utah and America will be better off with Judge Clark Waddoups on the bench.
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