Two interesting judicial stories today, one from Wisconsin and one from New York.
In New York, according to the Gay City News, Governor David Paterson named two openly lesbian women to appellate judgeships in the state, the first openly gay or lesbian appellate judges in the state’s history.
One of the jurists, Judge Rosalyn Richter, headed up the organization that became Lambda Legal and was named to the important First Department, located in Manhattan. The other, Judge Elizabeth Garry, was named to the Albany-based Third District. Both had served as state Supreme Court judges — the trial courts in New York — prior to being named to the appellate benches.
In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Law Journal reports on two judicial vacancies in the state. President Bush’s nominees for the two federal district court judgeships are not seeking to be reappointed, with one willing to talk. Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge J. Mac Davis said that “he expects Obama will appoint a ‘judicial liberal,’ which he said he is not.“ He went on:
He also suggested one of the candidates may have an inside track on the position.
“The rumor mill is that Louis Butler is going to get the appointment as a consolation for getting beat in the Supreme Court race,” Davis said.
Awkward.
Assuming he has “an inside track,” here’s some more information about Butler. The two sides of Butler’s failed re-election campaign can be found here (Butler ad) and here (anti-Butler ad) on YouTube, as well as a Wisconsin Public Television extended interview here. (FYI, Butler is a former public defender, Berman.)
Other potential nominees also are named in the article.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found