Senate confirms LGBTQ labor lawyer to seat on appeals court

The top lawyer for one of the largest U.S. labor unions on Tuesday won U.S. Senate approval for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, making her the first openly LGBTQ judge to serve on the Richmond, Virginia-based court. The Democratic-led Senate on a 50-47 vote confirmed Nicole Berner, the Service Employees International Union’s general counsel, with Republicans opposing her citing her advocacy against right-to-work laws and for liberal causes. Democratic Sen.

Berner, a former staff attorney at Planned Parenthood, has worked since 2006 at SEIU, which represents about two million workers. She is also a partner at the union-side labor law firm James & Hoffman. She is married to Debra Katz, a prominent lawyer who during now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation hearings represented Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused him of sexual assault.

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