President Joe Biden will appoint Vermont magistrate Beth Robinson, who played a pivotal role in legalizing same-sex marriage and known for becoming the first openly LGBT woman to serve in a U.S. Court of Appeals judge. federal court. The White House has announced that Biden has selected Robinson, an associate judge of the Vermont Supreme Court since 2011, to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the second circuit (Connecticut, New York and Vermont). In 1999, before being named to the Vermont Supreme Court, Robinson helped support the case that led to the Vermont Civil Partnership Act, the country’s first legal recognition of same-sex relationships and a precursor to same-sex marriage.
Robinson was a legal counsel to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, from 2010 to 2011. From 1993 to 2010, she was a civil lawyer in private practice where she covered labor law, contract litigation and family law. The White House also announced that Biden will appoint labor attorney Charlotte Sweeney to the US District Court in Colorado, making her the first openly LGBT woman to serve as a federal district court judge in any state west of Mississippi.