Biden nominates first LGBTQ woman to federal circuit court
President Joe Biden is nominating Vermont judge Beth Robinson who played a critical role in paving the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage to become the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve on any federal circuit court.
The White House has announced that Biden has tapped Beth Robinson, 56, an associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court since 2011, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The court’s territory includes Connecticut, New York and Vermont.
In 1999, before she was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court, Robinson helped argue the case that led to Vermont’s civil unions law, the first legal recognition in the country of same-sex relationships.
Robinson served as counsel to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin (D) from 2010 to 2011, and prior to that role was a civil litigator in private practice at Langrock Sperry & Wool where she focused on employment law and family law. She also worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C., focusing on white-collar criminal defense, and was a law clerk for Judge David Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 1989 to 1990.
Robinson identifies as a lesbian. She and her wife Kym Boyman entered into a civil union in 2001 and were married in 2010. Robinson is one of eleven openly LGBT state supreme court justices currently serving in the United States. She lives in Ferrisburgh, Vermont.
Born in 1965 and raised in Indiana, she received a BA from Dartmouth College in 1986 and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1989.
President Biden thus far has announced 35 judicial nominees to serve on the federal bench.
