Judge Mary Kathleen Costello, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. – Photo: afj.com
The U.S. Senate confirmed Mary Kathleen Costello to serve as a district court judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, making her the 12th LGBTQ judicial nominee to be seated.
The September 17 vote on Costello’s nomination sets a record for the Biden administration for having nominated the most LGBTQ judges who were confirmed in history.
It breaks the previous record of 11, held by former President Barack Obama. Costello will be the second openly LGBTQ lifetime judge to serve in Pennsylvania and the second to serve anywhere within the 3rd Circuit.
The Senate voted 52-41 along largely party lines, with 45 Democrats, as well as independent Sens. Angus King (Maine), Bernie Sanders (Vt.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Mitt Romney (Utah) voting to back Costello.
Both of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators praised the confirmation of Costello, a U.S. Air Force veteran and former prosecutor who has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, where she’s fought public corruption, fraud, and drug trafficking cases since 2008.
“Mary Kay Costello’s historic confirmation is a win for every American who believes our courts are stronger when they reflect the diversity of the people they serve,” Sen. John Fetterman said in a statement. “Mary Kay represents the best of our commonwealth — tough, smart, and unafraid to take on powerful interests. Today, she brings those values to the federal bench. I’m proud to have championed her nomination, and I know she will make Pennsylvania proud throughout her tenure.”
Advocacy groups have long argued that having the judiciary more accurately reflect the makeup of the U.S. population is beneficial because LGBTQ judges can bring unique perspectives to the bench, particularly concerning the nuances of LGBTQ-related cases.
Yet despite LGBTQ people comprising about 7% of the U.S. general population, only 2.7% of the country’s lifetime federal judgeships are held by LGBTQ people, according to a report from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Additionally, no openly transgender or nonbinary judge has ever been nominated, let alone confirmed, to the federal bench. An openly LGBTQ person has never served on nine of the 13 federal circuit courts, or on 77 of the country’s 94 federal district courts.
An openly LGBTQ person has also never served as a lifetime district court judge in 39 states — or within the borders of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction extends to the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
“Having more judges, including openly LGBTQ judges, who come from all of our communities helps to build more trust in the judiciary and brings vitally important perspectives into our justice system,” Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement.
“As LGBTQ rights are being subject to litigation across the country, it is increasingly clear that we need judges at all levels of the judiciary who understand what’s at stake. .. It’s important that we continue to push for the selection and appointment of more openly LGBTQ judges who understand the real consequences that their and their colleagues’ decisions will carry as they rule on issues that impact the lives of all people.”
Lambda Legal noted in a press release that the Biden administration has also nominated more Black women to appellate courts than all previous administrations combined, as well as appointing Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. The group praised Costello’s confirmation as a “significant milestone” and a sign of Biden’s commitment to diversifying the federal judiciary.
