Obama Renominates DuMont, Would Be First Gay Federal Appeals Judge

By Chris Geidner -

Today, President Barack Obama sent the name of Edward C. DuMont, a District resident, to the Senate for nomination to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The name was one of a spate of judicial nominees resubmitted to the new 112th Congress after the nominees were not voted on in the 111th Congress.
DuMont's renomination follows the Senate action on Dec. 22 returning the nomination to the president, who had nominated DuMont to the specialty court on April 14, 2010.
Metro Weekly previously reported that DuMont, a lawyer at the WilmerHale law firm, would be the first out gay appellate judge in the country if the Senate approves his nomination.
A nominee to the Federal Circuit, DuMont would sit on a unique appellate court that has its cases determined by the subject of the litigation and not geography -- as is the situation with other federal appellate courts. Among the cases the court hears are those dealing with patent law and certain types of lawsuits against the government.
DuMont was one of eight circuit judge nominees whose names were resubmitted, including one other Federal Circuit nominee -- Jimmie V. Reyna of Maryland. Of the appellate nominees, DuMont was the only one nominated before mid-year in 2010 who did not receive a hearing on his nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Earlier this week, the press secretary for the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee told Metro Weekly that a hearing had not been held on DuMont's nomination because "[t]here was still some paperwork that was being reviewed by the committee."
Asked to elaborate, she said, "I think that the Republicans were still reviewing some information. I am not aware of any hold-up on the Democratic side."
At that time, the press secretary for the Republicans on the committee did not have a comment on the matter.

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