Biden ties Obama’s record of 11 out federal judges

Eleven out judges nominated by President Joe Biden have been confirmed by the US Senate, tying the record set by former President Barack Obama.

The most recent LGBTQ appointees to be confirmed include Melissa DuBose, who is joining the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island, and Nicole Berner, who is joining the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

The progress builds on the decades of work to diversify the federal judiciary. In 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated Debora Batts to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in a move that paved the way for her to become the first out federal judge in the US, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. It took Obama two terms to select the same number of out judges as Biden. Trump appointed two out judges: Patrick Bumatay of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Mary Rowland of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Biden’s other out appointees are Daniel Calabretta of the US District Court for the Eastern District of California, Gina Méndez-Miró of the US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Nina Morrison of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Alison Nathan of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York), Casey Pitts of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Ana Reyes of the US District Court for the District of DC, Beth Robinson of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Vermont), Charlotte Sweeney of the US District Court for the District of Colorado, and Jamar Walker of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

There are now 23 out federal judges, though a majority of US states still have yet to see an out federal judge sit on a district court — and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights notes that only 2.6% of federal judges are out queer people despite LGBTQ individuals representing a greater share of the overall population. Most notably, an out trans judge has never even been nominated, let alone confirmed, to a position as a federal judge.

However, trans judges have emerged in other courts. Seth Marnin became a New York Court of Claims judge last year, making him the first out trans man to serve as a judge in the United States and the first out trans judge in New York State. Other trans judges include Victoria Kolakowski, a New York native who serves on the Alameda County Superior Court in California; Andi Mudryk of the Sacramento County Supreme Court in California; and Phyllis Randolph Frye, an associate judge in the Houston municipal courts.