[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 191 (Monday, November 1, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7528-S7529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Beth Robinson

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the Senate today is going to vote on the 
confirmation of Vermont's own Justice Beth Robinson, a vote to confirm 
her to serve as a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
  As an advocate, Beth Robinson has been rightfully hailed as a 
tireless champion for equal rights and equal justice, but more 
importantly, her record as a Vermont Supreme Court justice clearly 
demonstrates her fairness, her impartiality, and loyalty to the rule of 
law above all else.
  We Vermonters overwhelmingly support her nomination, including 
elected officials--both Republicans and Democrats--the entire Vermont 
Supreme Court, and the Vermont Bar Association; they overwhelmingly 
support her.
  Justice Robinson will fill Vermont's seat on the Second Circuit, and 
I believe she is the best, strongest candidate for this position. She 
deserves bipartisan support in this Senate, as she got last week on a 
vote.
  Beth Robinson was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court by Governor 
Peter Shumlin in November 2011. To give you some idea of the bipartisan 
support she has had over the years, the Vermont Senate, Republicans and 
Democrats, have to vote on her nomination, and they voted unanimously 
to have her on the Vermont Supreme Court.
  All current Vermont Supreme Court justices, appointed by both 
Democratic and Republican Governors, have signed a letter supporting 
her nomination to the Second Circuit. For the past decade, she has 
served on the court honorably. She has also participated in nearly 
1,800 decisions.
  Now, I am a member of the Vermont bar, and I pay attention to what 
happens, and I see her tenure as being a display of a commitment to the 
rule of law. Her unwavering, decade-long dedication as a jurist and her 
loyalty to the law above all else has made Beth Robinson an outstanding 
Vermont Supreme Court justice. No Vermonter doubts she will carry that 
approach to justice with her in the Second Circuit.
  Let me talk a little bit about before she was on the bench. Prior to 
the time on the bench, Justice Robinson dedicated her legal career to 
pursuing liberty and justice for all. She spent the beginning of her 
legal career defending workers' rights and advancing discrimination 
cases. It was during this time that she worked pro bono as cocounsel to 
the plaintiffs in the case Baker v. State that challenged Vermont's 
then-protection on same-sex marriage.
  She successfully litigated this landmark decision in which the 
Vermont Supreme Court upheld equal protections for same-sex couples and 
actually led Vermont to become the first State in the Union to enact 
civil unions in the country.
  As a litigator, her work served as a blueprint for LGBTQ advocacy 
across the country. She successfully represented an employee at the 
University of Vermont, who sought recognition of his Canadian marriage 
to a same-sex partner for health insurance purposes; another, a couple 
seeking recognition of their out-of-State marriage in the context of 
second-parent adoption; and

[[Page S7529]]

a same-sex partner seeking Social Security survivor benefits for her 
child after her civil union partner died.
  In every case, she fought to secure legal protections and equality 
under the law. In fact, Beth changed the trajectory of LGBTQ rights in 
this country. Her tireless work has led our Nation toward justice.
  Unfortunately, in what is becoming more and more of a toxic 
atmosphere, Justice Robinson's path to confirmation has faced baseless 
attacks. At her confirmation hearing, Justice Robinson's commitment to 
religious liberty was called into question. Now, these attacks are 
simply not grounded in reality. Any honest reading of her record proves 
that Justice Robinson is committed to protecting religious liberty. 
Some members argued that Robinson's work representing a Catholic woman 
who believed she had been discriminated against due to her own 
religious beliefs was, astonishingly, evidence of Robinson's hostility 
toward religious liberty.
  At Justice Robinson's hearing, other members of the Judiciary 
Committee quoted her out of context in what I saw as an attempt to 
support a false narrative. One member of the committee read part of a 
sentence from a marriage law symposium that Justice Robinson 
participated in and suggested that it was proof of her hostility toward 
religious liberty.
  I said ``read part of'' it, but the attack line falls apart the 
moment you bother to read the full sentence. In the full quote, Justice 
Robinson states:

       I've always said that if somebody tried to force the 
     Catholic Church to do a gay wedding, I would represent the 
     Church pro bono.

  You can't construe that as hostility to religious freedom.
  Justice Robinson has a long record of supporting the fundamental 
right to religious liberty, both as a judge and as an advocate.
  The Vermonters I have heard from--regardless of party or ideology, 
regardless of their religion--are delighted that President Biden 
nominated Beth Robinson to fill the Vermont seat on the Second Circuit. 
Our leading Republicans, our leading Democrats agree with that.
  If confirmed, she knows she will become the first openly gay woman to 
serve on a Federal circuit court of appeals.
  I would urge all Senators to evaluate Justice Robinson's record. And 
I hope that Senators of both parties will see, as I have, that she 
possesses exactly the right qualities, skills, and experience to excel 
as a judge on the Second Circuit.
  Before I was in the Senate, I had the privilege to argue cases before 
the Second Circuit. I saw it as a court where you never thought of 
whether they were Republicans or Democrats; you thought about their 
abilities, and I always felt comfortable arguing there. Justice 
Robinson, when she becomes Judge Robinson, will give that same view to 
anybody who is a litigant before that court.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.