Ghislaine Maxwell trial: Who is judge Alison Nathan?


Quote

...A graduate of Cornell Law School, Judge Nathan was appointed in 2011 to the District Court by then President Barack Obama.

She had previously served as an associate White House counsel and special assistant to President Obama, and later as a special counsel to New York State’s solicitor general.

In 2019, Judge Nathan presided over a case involving Tesla founder and Time person of the year Elon Musk.

During an ongoing dispute with the SEC over Mr Musk’s use of social media, Judge Nathan ordered the two parties to meet to decide what the billionaire should be allowed to post on Twitter.

After the case was resolved, Mr Musk said in a statement he had “great respect” for the judge.

Judge Nathan also oversaw a request from disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who in 2019 asked for an emergency appeal in connection with a sex trafficking charge he faced.

She rejected Weinstein’s claim, ruling that the the order of a fellow judge who died earlier that year was “careful and convincing,” the Associated Press reported.

While presiding over the most high profile case of her career, she is also preparing to go before the Senate for a confirmation vote after being selected by President Joe Biden for promotion to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

If confirmed, she would be one rung on the judicial ladder below the Supreme Court, and just the second openly LGBTQ woman to serve on a federal circuit court.

At just 49 years old, Judge Nathan would still have plenty of time left to continue her ascent.

She is no stranger to the Supreme Court, having clerked for former Justice John Paul Stevens.

Her nomination to become a district court judge in 2011 was met with fierce objection by conservative groups including Heritage Action for America, which threatened to “punish senators who voted to confirm her”, according to The Advocate.

Another conservative activist organisation, Concerned Women for America’s Legislative Action Committee, reportedly wrote to senators to complain about her LGBTQ “political activism” and “judicial temperament”.

The group said Judge Nathan had provided “pro bono representation for the ACLU, Lambda Legal, Service Members Legal Defense Network, and individual service members in challenges to the so-called ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.”

“Her biases are so ingrained and so much the main thrust of her career that it is not rational to believe that she will suddenly change once confirmed as a judge,” they wrote, according to The Advocate.

She was supported by New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who argued on the Senate floor there should not be a “different standard” for Judge Nathan.

She was eventually confirmed 48-44.

Judge Nathan and her partner, law professor Meg Satterthwaite, are the parents of twin sons, according to The Advocate.