[The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday unanimously approved the nomination of Peter Hall to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  Hall, the current U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont, was nominated in December 2003.  Hall enjoyed bipartisan support from the Vermont delegation and Vermont Gov. James Douglas. Sen. Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the panel, worked closely with Douglas and U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., to advance Hall’s nomination.  The nomination now moves to the full Senate for consideration. Below is Leahy’s statement from today’s Judiciary Committee voting session.]

Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Nomination Of Peter Hall To The United State Court Of Appeals
For The Second Circuit
April 1, 2004

I am pleased today to be able to vote favorably to report Peter Hall to the United States Senate for confirmation to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  He currently serves as our United States Attorney in Vermont, and has the strong support of Governor Douglas and the entire Vermont delegation.  I thank Chairman Hatch for holding a hearing on this nomination last month, and I believe it is one that has widespread support on the Committee.

By tradition, there has always been a Vermont seat on the Second Circuit.  The reason it is vacant is because of the sudden and tragic death of the last judge to hold the seat, the late Fred Parker.  Judge Parker was appointed to the United States District Court for Vermont in 1990 by the first President Bush on the strong recommendation of Senator Jeffords and with my support.  He was a well-known Republican and had served as the Deputy Attorney General of the State of Vermont. After distinguished service on the District Court bench, he was appointed to the Second Circuit by President Clinton, again on my recommendation and with the strong support of Senator Jeffords.  Over the years Senator Jeffords and I have tried to keep partisan politics out of judicial selection, and I think if you look at the quality of the people we have recommended, you will see we have been quite successful.  Fred Parker was just such an example.  Fred was a good man, a good lawyer, and a good judge.  From the time we met in law school at Georgetown, until his untimely death last year, I knew Fred Parker to be a man of integrity and intelligence.  He served the courts and the people of Vermont with dedication and fairness, and he will be missed.

Peter Hall has big shoes to fill, but from what I know about him, he is up to the job.  Peter had the nerve to be born in Connecticut and to go all the way to North Carolina for college and to attend law school in New York.  Fortunately he came to his senses as soon as he graduated from law school and came to Vermont to clerk for the well-respected Judge Albert Coffrin of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont.  He has been in Vermont ever since. 

His career and the exemplary way he has served the United States Government and the law are to be admired.  After completing his clerkship with Judge Coffrin, Peter joined the United States Attorney’s office in Vermont.  He was a federal prosecutor for the next 18 years, rising to the position of First Assistant and then later being named United States Attorney.  During those years he has gained invaluable trial experience so beneficial for any judge, and learned about federal criminal law.  But his resume is not limited to government service.  In 1986 he began a 15-year career in the private practice of law, focusing on civil practice, with a particular emphasis on mediation.  He also used his time during that period to serve the bar, providing ethics training to Vermont State prosecutors, and holding the office of the President of the Vermont Bar Association, where he advocated for funding for public defenders and equal access to justice.  He found time for pro bono work, getting involved in the Vermont family court system and serving as guardian ad litem for children caught up in disputes between their parents.

In 2001, President Bush nominated Peter Hall to be the United States Attorney for Vermont.  His record in that office is one of a tough but fair prosecutor.  I supported Peter’s nomination to that position and support him now.

Let there be no misunderstanding about Peter’s party affiliation.  Peter Hall is a Republican.  From 1986 to 1993 he was variously a member of the Town of Chittenden, Rutland County, and State of Vermont Republican Party Committees, and he is a member of the National Republican Party.  He has helped run statewide Republican campaigns, and he was an elected Republican official for five years, holding one of the most important offices a citizen can hold in Vermont, as a Member of the Select Board of his town, the Town of Chittenden.  He was recommended to the President by Vermont’s Republican Governor.  As Governor Douglas notes in his letter of support for this nomination, Peter is “a dedicated public servant, a strong leader and will be an asset to the Second Circuit.”  I ask that the letter be included in the record.    

Equally clear, however, is Peter’s commitment to the law, to fair judging and to leaving any partisan label or interest at the courthouse door.  Peter Hall is the type of nominee this President should send us more often.  He is universally respected and is someone in the nature of a consensus selection.  He has proven himself over long years of federal service and private practice to be the sort of straight-shooting, fair-minded person that any litigant in a federal courtroom can be confident will give him a fair hearing and a fair shake.  I am pleased to support his confirmation. 

One example of the fairness and lack of bias that litigants in the Second Circuit can expect is seen in his answer to one of the questions I asked him at his hearing last month.  I asked him what his practice would be if a case came to the Second Circuit that had been in the U.S. Attorney's Office when he was there, even if he had not been the attorney handling the case.  His answer, which I consider the model of fairness, was simple.  He told me he would recuse himself from any case that had been before his office while he was there.  No ifs, ands or buts. 

Not all of President Bush’s nominees have answered this question in so sensible and straightforward a manner.  For example, when I asked Mr. Haynes if he would recuse himself from cases arising from terrorism-related policies he helped develop as the General Counsel at the Department of Defense, he would only pledge to “adhere strictly to all applicable statutes, court decisions, policies, and ethical rules.”  As we know from Justice Scalia’s duck-hunting controversy, the applicable recusal rules are largely left to an individual judge’s discretion and are difficult to enforce.  Mr. Haynes’ refusal to give as clear an answer as Mr. Hall will do nothing to clear away the doubt in the minds of many who have questions about his ability to be fair in the cases which rest on the interpretation of a policy he forged for this Administration.  I wish more nominees, Mr. Haynes included, would follow Mr. Hall’s fine example.

As I hope I made clear, Peter’s qualifications, experience and support across the political spectrum makes him the kind of consensus nominee who proves that when there is thoughtful consideration and collaboration, this process can work as it should.  I look forward to his swift confirmation.   

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BIOGRAPHY:

[Peter Hall, 55 years old, is currently the U.S. Attorney in Vermont.  He graduated from the University of North Carolina (B.A. 1971, with honors; M.A. 1975) and Cornell Law School (J.D., 1977, cum laude).  Hall clerked for Judge Albert W. Coffin on the U.S. District Court Judge for Vermont.  In 1978, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s office in Vermont and served as a federal prosecutor for the next 18 years.  From 1986 to 2001, Hall worked as a partner at a law firm in Rutland, Vermont, and while in private practice he served for a year as the President of the Vermont Bar Association.  On September 14, 2001, he was confirmed to be the U.S. Attorney in Vermont.  He lives in Rutland, Vermont.  On December 9, 2003, Hall was nominated to fill the Vermont seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.]  

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