Category Archives: Shin Inouye

Gay judicial nominee confirmed to Oregon federal court

Michael McShane, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Washington Blade, gay news

The U.S. Senate confirmed Michael McShane to the federal bench by voice vote. (Photo courtesy of the United States Senate)

The Senate confirmed a gay Oregon judge to the federal bench on Monday after nearly an eight-month wait from when he was first nominated by President Obama.

By voice vote, U.S. senators confirmed the nomination of Michael McShane for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon — making him the sixth openly gay person to serve on the federal bench.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who recommended the nomination, praised the Senate in a statement for sending McShane to the federal bench.

“Over the years Oregon has been blessed with a long line of distinguished judges,” Wyden said. “Judge McShane will be a tremendous asset to the court and he will certainly add to that tradition. He’s got a heart for people, a head for the law and a high-minded sense of justice.”

Previously, McShane served as a judge on the Multnomah County Circuit Court. Now that the Senate has confirmed him to the federal judiciary, McShane will serve as a replacement for U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan.

Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, also commended the Senate for confirming McShane, whom Obama first named in September before renominating him at the start of the 113th Congress.

“The president welcomes the confirmation of Michael McShane,” Inouye said. “He will serve the American people well from the District of Oregon bench.

McShane’s confirmation makes him fifth openly gay nominee during the Obama administration to obtain confirmation by the Senate.

Other openly gay judicial nominations that are outstanding are Nitza Quinones Alejandro, who was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Todd Hughes, who was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; Elaine Kaplan, who was nominated to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; and William Thomas, who was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Obama cements legacy as ‘fierce advocate’

Citizens Metal, Barack Obama, gay news, Washington Blade

LGBT advocates applaud Obama’s Prop 8 brief, but still want more. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The relationship between the LGBT community and President Obama has arguably never been stronger in the wake of the administration’s decision to participate in the lawsuit challenging California’s Proposition 8 — but advocates want him to continue that momentum on other LGBT issues.

On one hand, LGBT rights supporters are pleased with the Justice Department’s friend-of-the-court brief because it marked the first time the administration argued that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. On the other hand, some advocates continue to clamor for advances in other areas — in particular by signing an executive order barring LGBT workplace discrimination for federal contractors.

Fred Sainz, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, was among those who said the brief signaled that Obama continues to lead on issues facing the LGBT community.

“In ways big and small, he continues to distinguish himself as a leader on issues important to our community.” Sainz said. “So, the truth is, I think the president has by filing this brief cemented his legacy as a ‘fierce advocate’ for LGBT people.”

Following calls from LGBT advocates, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli filed the Justice Department’s brief last week before the Supreme Court. It applies the administration’s reasoning for why the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional — namely that laws related to sexual orientation should be subject to heightened scrutiny – to California’s Prop 8.

While the brief focuses on the constitutionality of Prop 8, which is the question before the Supreme Court, the filing also has language suggesting that same-sex marriage bans in other states are unconstitutional. The brief observes that eight states including California have bans on same-sex marriage while offering domestic partnerships to same-sex couples with the same benefits of marriage.

During a news conference at the White House on Friday, Obama himself said the reasoning presented against Prop 8 in the brief may apply to other cases.

“Now, the court may decide that if it doesn’t apply in this case, it probably can’t apply in any case,” Obama said. “There’s no good reason for it. If I were on the court, that would probably be the view that I’d put forward. But I’m not a judge, I’m the president. So the basic principle, though, is let’s treat everybody fairly and let’s treat everybody equally.”

Richard Socarides, a gay New York advocate who was pushing for Obama to speak out against the constitutionality of Prop 8, said the brief reiterates Obama’s views that laws against gay people should be subject to heightened scrutiny, but extends the president’s views further.

“It’s having the president of the United States say for the first time in a legal brief to the Supreme Court that gays and lesbians have historically been discriminated against, and that they’re entitled to heightened constitutional scrutiny, and that in this particular case, they’ve been discriminated against,” Socarides said. “I do think it was a big victory for the community, so I think it was an important milestone and definitely a step forward.”

In addition to filing the brief, the Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to grant the solicitor general speaking time during the oral arguments in the Prop 8 case – a move that wasn’t publicly called for by LGBT advocates. The Supreme Court has yet to respond to the request.

And the moves in the Prop 8 case are coupled with the Obama administration’s active involvement in the litigation against the Defense of Marriage Act. In recent weeks, the administration has taken action elsewhere.

The Pentagon has started the process for implementing certain partner benefits for gay troops. That action comes in the wake of the inaugural address in which Obama issued a national call to advance the rights of “our gay brothers and sisters.”

John Aravosis, editor of AMERICAblog, said Obama deserves credit for filing the Prop 8 brief, but also criticized the White House for refusing to talk to about it before submitting it to the Supreme Court and filing it on the last possible day.

“Obviously, there was a hiccup in actually getting this brief,” Aravosis said. “It sort of appeared at the last minute. … Had they decided earlier to file a brief, they could have just gotten credit for it, but instead it became a controversy. They got credit at the end, but it still felt like it was begrudging support.”

In the wake of the filing, advocates say they continue to want more from Obama on LGBT issues and at the top of the list is signing an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers.

HRC’s Sainz was among those saying the directive is next on the plate for LGBT advocates in terms of administrative action.

“The non-discrimination executive order definitely remains our top priority, so that is where we turn our attention to next,” Sainz said.

Socarides said he wants Obama to sign the executive order, but also wants Obama to push ahead with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act amid promises from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to advance the legislation this year.

“It’s past time for the president to sign the executive order extending non-discrimination provisions to federal contractors,” Socarides said. “I’m hoping that he will do that soon, and at the same time, continue to fight and actually fight more aggressively for ENDA, for federal legislation, and I think that we can flip the House Democratic in the next mid-term election, we could have a pretty good chance of getting ENDA in two years.”

Other requests include the appointment of an openly LGBT Cabinet member and holding in abeyance the marriage-based green cards for married bi-national couples until the Supreme Court makes a final determination on DOMA.

Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, said Obama remains concerned about LGBT issues and will continue to work on them.

“President Obama is proud of the strong record he’s established on LGBT rights, and he looks forward to building on that progress in the months and years to come,” Inouye said.

Aravosis said predicting whether the administration will follow the brief with other actions that benefit the LGBT community is difficult — but that doesn’t mean advocates should stop pushing for them to happen.

“People who aren’t necessarily working on your issues don’t understand that one fix does not address every problem, and they get sort of annoyed sometimes when we keep asking for more,” Aravosis said. “We keep asking for more because we don’t have our equal rights yet. Once we get full and equal rights, then you can complain that we’re asking for too much, but we have less than everybody else right now.”

Senate confirms first openly gay Asian-American to federal bench

Pamela Ki Mai Chen, federal judge nominee, lesbian, attorney, New York, Senate Judicial Committee

Judge Pamela Chen was confirmed to the bench on Monday by a voice vote in the Senate. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The U.S. Senate on Monday evening made history with little difficulty when it confirmed the first openly gay Asian-American for a seat on the federal bench.

By a voice vote, the Senate confirmed Pamela Ki Mai Chen, a lesbian, for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. President Obama first nominated her a judgeship in August and renamed her along with others at the start of the 113th Congress.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who recommended the nomination to Obama, praised the Senate for confirming Chen in a statement and said her background will serve her well on the federal bench.

“Ms. Chen’s wealth of experience and devotion to public service make it clear that she will be an excellent judge,” Schumer said. “Ms. Chen has proven time and again that she is a leader and a pioneer in the legal field. I have every confidence that she will serve her jurisdiction well.”

Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, echoed that sentiment over the confirmation of Obama’s judicial nominee.

“The President welcomes the confirmation of Pamela Ki Mai Chen,” Inouye said. “She will serve the American people well from the Eastern District of New York bench.”

Michael Cole-Schwartz, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, also commended the Senate for taking action to add LGBT representation to the federal bench.

“We congratulate Judge Chen on a much deserved achievement and thank the White House and Senate for their continued commitment to nominating and confirming well-qualified, diverse individuals,” Cole-Schwartz said.

A Chinese-American, Chen’s parents were both born in China, but met after they moved to the United States. Before her confirmation, she worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York for 14 years and focused, among other areas, on combatting human trafficking.

During her confirmation hearing in September, Chen pledged fairness on the bench, saying politics “will play no role in my decision making were I fortunate enough to be confirmed.”

“The assurances I can give you are based on my career as a public servant and working for the Department of Justice,” she said at the time. “No one accused me of ever making a decision based on any kind of political ideology, and I think my record speaks for itself over the last 20 years.”

Prior to her confirmation, Chen was a trial attorney in the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Justice Department. She began her legal career in D.C., at the criminal defense firm of Asbill, Junkin, Myers & Buffone and at the law firm of Arnold & Porter after receiving her law degree in 1986 from the Georgetown University. Chen received a rating of “unanimously qualified” from the American Bar Association.

Chen’s confirmation means four additional openly gay judicial nominations remain pending before the Senate. Two of these nominations — Michael McShane, nominated as U.S. District Judge for the District of Oregon; and Nitza Quinones Alejandro, nominated as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania — face a committee vote during an upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday.

Other openly gay judicial nominees on which the Senate has yet to take action include William Thomas, who was nominated as U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida. Obama also nominated Todd Hughes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Court. If confirmed, he’d be the first openly gay person to sit on a federal appeals court.

Chen’s confirmation means a total of four openly gay nominees have been confirmed to the federal bench under the Obama administration. The three others, who were confirmed during the 112th Congress, are Alison Nathan, who was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, J. Paul Oetken, who was confirmed to the same court; and Michael Fitzgerald, who was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

NOTE: This article has updated to include a comment from Shin Inouye.

Still waiting for first LGBT Cabinet appointment

California Assembly Speaker John A. Perez is set to be in contention as labor secretary, but are LGBT groups pushing for his nomination? (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

California Assembly Speaker John A. Perez is set to be in contention as labor secretary, but are LGBT groups pushing for his nomination? (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

President Obama is facing a flurry of requests to take administrative action on behalf of the LGBT community at the onset of his second term. One call that has so far been ignored is for the appointment of an openly LGBT Cabinet member.

In recent months, LGBT groups — such as the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund — have said the appointment of an openly LGBT Cabinet member is important because it would provide visibility to the community and break a key remaining glass ceiling. No president has ever appointed an openly LGBT Cabinet member.

In November, Fred Sainz, HRC’s vice president of communications, told the Washington Blade the LGBT community is “rightly interested” in a Cabinet appointment as well as a G-20 ambassadorship.

But in comparison to other requests, such as participation in the lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court against California’s Proposition 8 or an executive order barring anti-LGBT workplace discrimination among federal contractors, the issue of appointing an LGBT Cabinet member hasn’t yet received significant attention.

Richard Socarides, a gay New York-based advocate and proponent of an LGBT Cabinet appointment, said he couldn’t say whether action from advocacy groups on the appointment is sufficient because he doesn’t know what’s happening behind the scenes, but acknowledged the public pressure is “rather muted.”

“I think that right now the organized political gay community in Washington has a very strong connection with, and relationship with the president, and he has delivered for us in many ways,” Socarides said. “So I think that there is, no doubt, a reluctance to rock the boat for the most part.”

Jim Burroway, a gay editor of the Tuczon, Ariz.-based blog Box Turtle Bulletin, said he hasn’t given the issue the “thought it deserves,” but acknowledged the importance of pushing for high-profile LGBT appointments.

“I’m always reluctant to say that this appointment or that appointment needs to be an LGBT person, but in the general scheme of things, it’s certainly time that an appointment somewhere reflects the diversity of the nation, or even of corporate America, when it comes to LGBT inclusion,” Burroway said.

HRC and the Victory Fund had no comment last month when Obama selected Sally Jewell, a Washington State-based businessperson, for the role of interior secretary, even though that selection meant John Berry, the gay head of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, didn’t get the job. Although Berry was passed over, Jewell is a known advocate of the LGBT community and helped drive business support for marriage equality when it was on the ballot last year in her state.

Media speculation that Berry would be tapped to head the Interior Department was widespread because of his close ties to the administration and his background as a lower-level official in the department during the Clinton years and service as head of the National Wildlife Federation and National Zoo.

Comparatively, LGBT groups like HRC and OutServe-SLDN were aggressive in calling on Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to extend the available benefits to gay troops with same-sex partners, which ultimately led to the Pentagon taking action.

Michael Cole-Schwartz, an HRC spokesperson, said in response to the comparative silence that HRC has “been clear from the start” that it would like high-profile LGBT appointments during Obama’s second term.

“We have not called for any specific position to be filled by any specific individual and it is not our intent to comment on every personnel decision,” Cole-Schwartz said. “As the president continues to make nominations in his second term, there remains an abundance of exceptional LGBT Americans willing and able to serve and it is our hope that we will see an openly gay Cabinet secretary and other historic appointments.”

Denis Dison, a Victory Fund spokesperson, touted the success of the Presidential Appointments Project in response to a similar inquiry. The Project has helped facilitate the appointment of at least 260 openly LGBT officials within the Obama administration.

“The Project continues to advocate for qualified, experienced openly LGBT individuals who are capable of becoming leaders at all levels of government, including at the Cabinet level,” Dison said. “Because personnel decisions are by their nature sensitive, we believe our advocacy is best done privately.”

Even though the position of interior secretary will be off the table once Jewell receives Senate confirmation, other positions are open in the Cabinet that are possibilities for LGBT appointments.

One that has sparked media attention recently is the potential appointment of gay California Assembly Speaker John Perez as a replacement for Hilda Solis as labor secretary.

John O’Connor, executive director of Equality California, said Perez would be an excellent choice as labor secretary because he’s a champion of both LGBT people and the working class.

“Perez has built bridges between the LGBT community and labor,” O’Connor said. “Given his legacy of accomplishment in our state, we are incredibly supportive of his candidacy and would be so proud to see it happen.”

Fred Hochberg, the gay head of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, has been viewed as a potential candidate for the role of commerce secretary. In December, an administration official told the Blade the White House is “looking carefully” at Hochberg for the position. However, he may have been passed over as well if media reports are correct that Obama is close to nominating banker Penny Pritzker for the role.

Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, said in response to a Blade inquiry on whether the administration values sexual orientation and gender identity as an element of diversity in high-profile appointments that he has “no personnel announcements.”

Advocates urge Obama to issue ENDA executive order

GetEQUAL, Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, White House, President Obama

GetEQUAL members gathered outside the White House on Feb. 10 to urge President Obama to sign an ENDA executive director. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Activists who gathered outside the White House on Sunday urged President Obama to sign an executive order that would ban federal contractors from discriminating against their LGBT employees.

Roughly a dozen members of GetEQUAL and the Maryland Light Brigade held panels with illuminated letters that spelled out “Sign ENDA EO” on the Ellipse and in front of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

“The State of the Union is coming up in two days and our hope would be the president would get the message,” Heather Cronk, managing director of GetEQUAL, told the Washington Blade. “He has the power to take action to end employment discrimination.”

Obama specifically mentioned gay men and lesbians, marriage rights for same-sex couples and the Stonewall riots in his second inaugural address last month. LGBT advocates with whom the Blade spoke last week said they hope the president would urge lawmakers during his State of the Union address on Tuesday to pass the long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act this year.

“While it is not our usual practice to discuss executive orders that may or may not be under consideration, we do not expect that an executive order on LGBT non-discrimination for federal contractors will be issued at this time,” White House spokesperson Shin Inouye told the Blade in response to GetEQUAL’s protest. “We support ENDA and we will continue to work to build support for it.”

Cronk said such an executive order would impact a quarter of the American workforce.

“If he [Obama] is taking workplace equality seriously and if he’s taking unemployment seriously than this is something that he could do very easily the night of the State of the Union and show LGBT Americans that he’s actually in our corner in a significant way,” she said.

White House responds to R.I. marriage equality bills

The White House has responded to pending legislation in Rhode Island that would legalize marriage equality in that state, suggesting President Obama backs the approval of the bills in the last New England state without same-sex marriage rights.

“While the President does not weigh in on every measure being considered by the states, he believes all couples should be treated fairly and equally, with dignity and respect,” said White House spokesperson Shin Inouye. “As he has said, his personal view is that it’s wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so.”

Inouye delivered the statement to the Washington Blade earlier this week in response to a request for comment on the legislation, which was introduced last week in the House by State Rep. Arthur Handy and the Senate by lesbian State Sen. Donna Nesselbush. A vote is expected later this month.

The response to the Rhode Island legislation is similar to a statement on legislation in Illinois issued late last month. In that response — the first time the White House has weighed in on pending marriage equality legislation before a state legislature — Inouye specifically mentioned Illinois and said Obama would vote for the marriage equality legislation if he were still a member of the state legislature.