Judiciary
First Openly Gay Man Confirmed to Federal Bench
The U.S. Senate has confirmed the first openly gay man to the federal bench.
The Senate approved the nomination of J. Paul Oetken on Monday, report the National Law Journal and the New York Times. He will be a federal trial judge in Manhattan.
Oetken, a Yale law graduate, is a former Justice Department lawyer and associate counsel to President Clinton. He has worked at Cablevision since 2004, where his most recent job was associate general counsel.
The first lesbian judge, Deborah Batts, has been on the bench since 1994. Another federal judge, Vaughn Walker, confirmed he was gay after resigning from the federal bench.
