Senate confirms Bumatay to 9th Circuit

Anti-LGBT Van Dyke confirmed to the same court the next day

Lisa Keen | Keen News Service
lisakeen@mac.com

The U.S. Senate voted 53 to 40 on Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 10, to confirm a openly-gay man Patrick Bumatay to the nation’s largest federal appeals court. And on Wednesday, Dec. 11, the Senate confirmed U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lawrence VanDyke, who has been denounced by LGBTQ advocates, to the same court by a vote of 51-44.

Bumatay’s confirmation to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals makes him the second openly-gay person to be appointed to a federal appeals bench seat.

The first was Todd Hughes, appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Circuit Court for the Federal Circuit and confirmed by the Senate in 2013 by a 98-0 vote.

Charles Moran, managing director of the national Log Cabin Republicans, said the group was “heartened” Bumatay’s the confirmation, adding that it makes him “the highest-ranking LGBT jurist in the nation.”

“He is an accomplished prosecutor with solid experience, and we’re thankful to President Trump for pushing forward with Patrick’s nomination and the Senate confirming him,” said Moran. “I know all Americans will welcome Patrick’s arrival on the Ninth Circuit, bringing some sanity back to the circuit most known for being out of the mainstream.”

The vote on Bumatay was along strict party lines, with 53 Republicans voting for confirmation, 40 Democrats and Independents voting against, and seven senators not voting. The Senate’s two openly-LGBTQ senators — Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., voted against confirmation.

The Ninth Circuit is the nation’s largest federal appeals court, with 29 seats and jurisdiction over 20 percent of the nation’s population, covering California and eight western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has 12 judges, deals specifically with disputes involving international trade, government contracts and federal personnel, among other things.

Bumatay’s nomination was opposed by California’s two U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both Democrats. During Bumatay’s Oct. 31 confirmation hearing, Feinstein said she appreciated the diversity Bumatay would bring to the bench but added that she did not think he has the experience necessary for the job. She also said she was “dismayed to learn through Bumatay’s written answers that he had worked on Trump administration policies that separated migrant families at the border,” according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Feinstein voted against confirmation; Harris was not present for the vote.

Bumatay worked in the White House Office of Legal Counsel under President George W. Bush and worked as a federal prosecutor in San Diego since 2012.
During his opening statement at his confirmation hearing, Bumatay introduced the committee to his parents, his sister, his brother-in-law, two nephews and Alex, “my husband.” He noted he and Alex also had with them their two daughters, who were born in April. The daughters prompted a remark from Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy, who called them “precious.”

Bumatay’s confirmation hearing and his confirmation were overshadowed by controversy surrounding VanDyke’s nomination.

LGBT groups opposed VanDyke’s nomination and the American Bar Association expressed concern that VanDyke might not be “fair to persons who are gay, lesbian, or otherwise part of the LGBTQ community.” During his confirmation hearing, VanDyke said he was shocked by that criticism, but later he implied that he had worked to help an LGBT group when, in fact, he had represented a group that sought to bar LGBT members.

After the Senate voted Wednesday to confirm VanDyke, Lambda Legal issued a statement by Sasha Buchert, one of the organization’s senior attorneys. Buchert said VanDyke’s confirmation “represents the latest affront to the LGBT community by an administration that appears to revel in its disdain for LGBT people and our families.”

She continued, “As outlined in our letter of opposition, Mr. VanDyke’s long history of working to diminish the civil rights of the LGBT community renders it wholly implausible that he is capable of administering fair and impartial justice. In fact, it is precisely this concern that led the American Bar Association to rate him as ‘Not Qualified’ for this lifetime position of public trust.

“For our legal system to have credibility, people must have confidence that judges will follow the facts and the law, and yet Mr. VanDyke has refused to disavow his prior statements promoting harmful and unfounded myths about LGBT people, including the long-since discredited notion that marriage equality will somehow ‘hurt families, and consequently children and society,’” Buchert noted. “And yet, once again, Senate Republicans have chosen to vote in lockstep, and advance another dangerous ideologue to a position that he will occupy for decades to come. It is impossible to overstate the damage that is being done to the credibility of our system of justice by the confirmation of judges like Lawrence VanDyke.

“Particularly on days like today, we call on all people who believe in equal justice under law to make their voices heard and demand better from their elected representatives in Washington.”