Posted on 08/26/2018 2:30:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The confirmation hearing for President Donald Trumps latest judicial nomination was refreshingly bipartisan for Trump's first ever out lesbian pick.
Trump nominated Illinois judge Mary M. Rowland, through a June announcement, for a seat as a district judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Why is this significant for Instinct Readers? Because Rowland is an out lesbian and the first openly LGBTQ judge to be nominated by Trump since entering the White
Rowland has had a long standing history in the world of law. She got her bachelors degree from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
After that, she worked as a staff attorney and later Chief Appellate Attorney for the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois, according to the American Bar Association.
While working for the Federal Defender Program, Rowland represented 275 indigent defendants in federal criminal cases. She then moved on to join a private law firm, Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, before she was sworn in as a United States Magistrate Judge in 2012.
"Mostly, I'm just excited," she said at the time, according to the University of Chicago Law School. "I'm looking forward to the amount of variety the cases present. They present different areas of the law. Every day is different, every day is interesting."
According to the Washington Blade, the Senate Confirmation hearing for Rowland happened this past Wednesday (August 22), and went fairly smoothly.
Both Republican and Democratic senators seemed to respect Rowland and asked her easy questions. For instance, Louisiana senator John Kennedy (R) questioned Rowlands views on which Supreme Court decision, besides Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education, had the biggest impact on American society.
Rowland answered that Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 decision that established judicial review, was the most the influential.
North Carolina senator Thom Tillis (R) also asked how Rowland sees the difference in her experience as a lawyer and as a judge.
Rowland replied by saying:
At some point, I had to put a note on my bench saying you are no longer the lawyer because you can hear yourself talking out loud, Well, you could argue it this way and what if you said it that way, and, of course, youre not permitted to make arguments for lawyers anymore, Rowland said. It is also though a pleasure of being in a position of being unbiased and giving parties, both sides a fair shake, listening to what they have to say, and actually being in a position of helping them resolve the case.
While Republican senators respected her and went fairly easy on her during the confirmation hearing, Democratic senators and LGBTQ advocates celebrated her during and after the hearing.
Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth (D) introduced Rowland during the hearing and said that Rowlands reputation in the legal community is impeccable. She also added that people who know Rowland commend her good temperament, intelligence and fairness.
Meanwhile, Annise Parker, CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, commended the nomination of Mary Rowland.
Mary Rowland is well-respected by the LGBTQ community in Illinois and we are pleased that someone with her experience and integrity was nominated, Parker said.
It is wonderful that she is openly and proudly out, DArcy Kemnitz, executive director of the National LGBT Bar Association, told The Daily Beast on the matter. Visibility of the LGBT community, especially in the courts, is vitally important. A good judge is fair and open-minded. We hope that her life experiences as a lesbian inform her understanding of equality under the law.
“Her Sticking to the Constitution as written is her number one qualification for appointment.”
The number one qualification for appointment should be freedom from mental illness.
She is not free from mental illness.
Stop with the "God's law" nonsense, one only has to look at the scandals within the Evangelical and Catholic churches to know that your argument is crap............
If church leaders can't even follow "God's law", then what makes you think individuals of a particular sexual preference should be held to a higher religious standard? And how do you know they don't?
>>But Im an older white racist bigot homophobe sexual misogynist clinger to Biblical principles of the Founders.<<
Well don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, because believe it or not there are many millions of us out here.
>>Gods judgment is eminent.<<
It’s imminent, too.
Hypothetically, I concur.
Pragmatically, I doubt.
Just wow. What does her sexual orientation have to do with doing the job? I thought it was illegal to mention such when an employer decides to hire or not.
Not to change the subject, BUT:
I just found out today that David Hedison’s (Captain Lee Crane on the 60’s TV Series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) Daughter is “Married” to Jodie Foster. She also was with Ellen DeGeneres for four years back in the early 2000’s.
David Hedison is still alive at age 91. He is the last survivor of the Main Cast of the Show.
So much for silly LBQURTXYZ Trivia, back to the Thread.
She’s a rug muncher, not a Sodomite.
That was a good show. Got to meet the cast of McHale’s Navy while on the set during the Universal City Studio tour. It was much more studio than tour at that point. Burt Reynolds taught us kids a class on being a stunt man.
I met “The Skipper” Alan Hale Jr. at the Restaurant he used to own on La Cienega in Los Angeles. He was standing at the Bar talking to the Bartender having one (of many) Drinks.
Said hello, introduced my Date and told him I enjoyed his Work and the Steak I just ate. LOL
Small world...
My paycheck says not a chance. It would be against the sacred religion of the LGBTZXYZ idol.
Yeah, I remember his commercials on KCOP.
I don't have a problem with gay people, either.
Or those that loudly pass gas, belch, pick their nose or eat ketchup on their chocolate pudding.
So long as they don't do it in front of me and then demand that I accept and endorse said behavior as both normal and desirable.
I can'r understand why it's so difficult for so many to grasp that distinction.
I was also going to mention Tammy Bruce, Tammy was at one time a RABID LIB, she had a radio show here in CA. I couldnt stand her, when the whole thing happened with Bill Clinton and the intern Tammy was disgusted and WOKE UP!!! She is in no way an activist any longer but I am SO GLAD she is on our side!!! She is a VERY WELL SPOKEN and intelligent lady yes she is gay but NO LONGER wears it as a badge of honor keeps it personal unless asked or it is part of the conversation!!!
If she was a Lesbian Conservative, the Democrats would have reviled her the same way they reviled Clarence Thomas, who is a Black Conservative.
A terrible and weak decision by Trump.
I suggest you do more research on her before you claim President Trump made a mistake. Condaleeza Rice, Lindsey Graham and many others are pretty obviously gay.
I don't care if she's a Somali transvestite as long as she is a Constitutional Originalist.
The fact that Democrat Senators have endorsed her and praised her means she is a Left Wing judicial activist.
The Democrats haven't made a judicial mistake since Kennedy nominated centrist Byron White in 1962.
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