Senate panel okays openly gay U.S. attorney for federal bench to serve Texas
U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman of Austin is one of three Texas judicial nominees to clear a major hurdle Thursday when the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved their names to get a vote on the Senate floor.
The decision puts him one step closer to filling the longest-running judicial vacancy in the state, a San Antonio position in the Western District of Texas that has remained empty for six years.
Pitman, who took office as the top prosecutor for the district in October 2011, was nominated by President Obama in June and must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a December vote before he can be sworn in.
Senate panel OKs U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman for federal bench photo
U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman
A Fort Worth native and graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Pitman is a former assistant U.S. attorney, was the acting U.S. attorney for the district after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and has served as an adjunct professor at the UT School of Law. He previously served as a U.S. magistrate judge in Austin.
He is the first openly gay U.S. attorney to serve Texas.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/senate-panel-oks-us-attorney-robert-pitman-for-fed/njB5g/