When President Barack Obama nominated Edward DuMont to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, it seemed that DuMont might become the first out gay appellate judge in the country. But after waiting more than 18 months for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination, DuMont formally asked Obama to withdraw his nomination because, “drawing the process out further does not seem either sensible for me or fair to the Federal Circuit, which has important work to do and deserves to be able to address it with a full complement of active judges.” So are the committtee’s Republicans or Democrats to blame for holding up his hearing?
According to Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly:
Democratic committee spokespeople have said that Republicans had held up the nomination, although Republican committee spokespeople pointed out that the chairman of the committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) could call for a hearing on the nomination at any time.
Geidner told Queerty that appellate court nominee Victoria Nourse has also been held up indefinitely from serving on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Because she co-authored the Violence Against Women Act with Vice President Joe Biden, one has to wonder about the politics at play in her and DuMont’s case.
Goodwin Liu also got held up as a Ninth Circuit nominee but now she’s a Justice on the California Supreme Court, so perhaps DuMont’s loss here will yield an eventual high gain later down the line.
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Mark
Corporate run government at work
Mark
Actually I should have said “corporate run government NOT at work.”
Fodolodo
Goodwin Liu is a “he.”
J
Not only is Goodwin Liu a man, but also, DuMont would not have been the first out gay appellate judge in the country. Just the first out gay _federal_ appellate judge. There are out gay state judges at the appellate, and even state supreme court, level.
Mike Hipp
Don’t use the language of the opposition. ‘Openly gay’ has a very negative, almost accusatory connotation.
If you can’t just say ‘gay’ then say ‘out’ or even something as stupid as ‘proudly gay’ Whatever you do, just don’t use language that make a gay person sound as if they are acknowledging a criminal charge.
Joetx
Republicans are our enemies, yet Dems OFTENTIMES aren’t our friends, either.
Matt
This article/interview is so poorly informed. As other commentators have stated. Goodwin Liu is a he. Senators from the home state representing open appeals court seats MUST BOTH sign off on the nominee to get a hearing (based on senate courtesy and tradition). Also Victoria Norse is not being held up because she wrote the VAW Act. Senator Ron Johnson is holding her up because he does not think she has any significant tie to Wisconsin (which the open seat on the 7th circuit belongs to).
I suggest you do a basic wikipedia search before you scramble to quote from another source just to boost your word count when you write a last minute article.
Caliban
@Mike Hipp:
“Openly gay” is offensive? To me that sounds like an even more than usually picayune complaint.
Coming out is one of the most important things gay people can do. Over and over again it has been shown to have a positive influence on how those around them view gay people in general. Why split hairs over a phrase used to differentiate between “out” vs “closeted” persons?