It took a while, but Mary Rowland, the first LGBTQ person nominated by President Trump to a federal judgeship, was finally confirmed last week by the U.S. Senate. How did Rowland, who once volunteered for the Obama campaign, manage to get appointed by Trump?
Rowland, a U.S. magistrate judge (not a position appointed by the president), was nominated by Trump last August to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois—but despite a “breezy confirmation hearing,” as the Washington Blade reported, her nomination never came before the full Senate before the Congressional session ended. The nomination list was long; that’s not so surprising. Trump re-nominated most of his other yet-to-be-confirmed nominees, however, but Rowland was not among them, Keen News Service tells us. Her name came back on the list in May as part of a deal between Illinois Democratic senators and the Trump administration. For every three federal district judges in Illinois whom the Republicans want, the Democrats get one. The deal was made in order to avoid having the senators use their customary veto power over district court nominees in their home states, explains the Chicago Sun-Times, and blocking all nominees.
Rowland earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge Julian Abele Cook, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the White House tells us. She has been a U.S. magistrate judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 2012. Before that, she spent twelve years as a partner in the Chicago firm of Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym, Ltd., after serving for ten years in the Chicago office of the Federal Defender; as a staff attorney and then as the office’s chief appellate attorney. She volunteered as a legal observer for Barack Obama’s campaign during the 2008 election and worked on Carl Levin’s (D) Senate campaign in 1984. She is also a member of the Gay and Lesbian Bar Association. Rowland and spouse Julie Justicz, also a lawyer, have two grown children.
