Patrick Joseph Bumatay (born February 14, 1978) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Early life and education

Bumatay was born in 1978 in Secaucus, New Jersey. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 2000 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

, '' cum laude''. He spent three years as a political campaign staffer and as a paralegal in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the ''

Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy The ''Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy'' is a law review for conservative and libertarian legal scholarship. It was established by Harvard Law School students Spencer Abraham and Stephen Eberhard in 1978, leading to the founding of the Fed ...

'', graduating in 2006 with a Juris Doctor.

Early career

After graduating from law school, Bumatay was a law clerk to Judge

Timothy Tymkovich Timothy Michael Tymkovich (born November 2, 1956) is the United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Early life and education Born in Denver, Colorado, Tymkovich is a third-generation Coloradan. Hi ...

of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2006 to 2007. He was a special assistant in the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

Office of Legal Policy The Office of Legal Policy (OLP) is a division within the United States Department of Justice which describes itself as the "focal point for the development and coordination of Departmental policy." In addition to rendering legal advice to the Un ...

from 2007 to 2008 and Office of the Associate Attorney General from 2008 to 2009. He then clerked for Judge

Sandra L. Townes Sandra Lynn Townes (September 29, 1944 – February 8, 2018) was a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Early life and education Born in Spartanburg ...

of the

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, ...

from 2009 to 2010. From 2010 to 2012, Bumatay was in private practice as an associate at the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

law firm Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello. From 2012 until his judicial appointment in 2018, Bumatay was a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of California in the San Diego office, where he was a member of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces Section. He has been a member of the

Federalist Society The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (abbreviated as FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquarter ...

since 2003, the

Federal Bar Association The Federal Bar Association (FBA) is the primary voluntary professional organization for private and government lawyers and judges practicing and sitting in federal courts in the United States. Six times a year, The Association prints ''The Fede ...

(San Diego chapter) since 2016, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in 2015 and again since 2018, the National Filipino American Lawyers Association from 2017 to 2018, and the Tom Homann LGBT Law Association since 2017.United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees: Patrick Bumatay
/ref>

Federal judicial service

Court of appeals

On October 10, 2018, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

announced his intent to nominate Bumatay to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

. Both

U.S. Senators The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from California,

Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she wa ...

and

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...

, announced their opposition to his nomination, saying they had not included Bumatay's name among those they recommended for the 9th Circuit. On November 13, 2018, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Bumatay to the seat vacated by Judge

Alex Kozinski Alex Kozinski (; born July 23, 1950) is a Romanian-American jurist and lawyer who was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1985 to 2017. He was a prominent and influential judge, and many of his law clerks went on to ...

, who retired on December 18, 2017. On January 3, 2019, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. On September 20, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent once again to nominate Bumatay to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the

. On October 15, 2019, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Bumatay to the seat being vacated by Judge

Carlos Bea Carlos Tiburcio Bea (born April 18, 1934) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was appointed to that court by President George W. Bush in 2003 to replace Judge Charles Edward Wi ...

, who previously announced his intention to assume

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on a date to be determined."Twenty-five Nominations and Three Withdrawals Sent to the Senate" White House, October 15, 2019
/ref> On October 30, 2019, a hearing on Bumatay's nomination was held before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

. On November 21, 2019, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On December 9, 2019, the Senate invoked

cloture Cloture (, also ), closure or, informally, a guillotine, is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. ' ...

by a 47–41 vote. On December 10, 2019, the Senate confirmed his nomination by a 53–40 vote. He received his judicial commission on December 12, 2019. Bumatay is the first Filipino American to serve as an Article III federal appellate judge and the first openly gay judge on the 9th Circuit.

Notable cases

In February 2020, Bumatay dissented from a denial of rehearing ''en banc'' in which a three-judge panel ruled that the denial of sex-reassignment surgery to an Idaho prisoner violated the Eighth Amendment. In his dissent, Bumatay argued that "the panel's decision elevates innovative and evolving medical standards to be the constitutional threshold for prison medical care. In doing so, the panel minimizes the standard for establishing a violation of the Eighth Amendment."

Withdrawn nomination to district court

On January 30, 2019, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Bumatay to a seat on the

United States District Court for the Southern District of California The United States District Court for the Southern District of California (in case citations, S.D. Cal.) is a federal court in the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appe ...

. On February 6, 2019, his nomination was sent to the Senate. He was nominated to the seat vacated by Marilyn L. Huff, who took

on September 30, 2016."Twelve Nominations Sent to the Senate", The White House, February 6, 2019
/ref> His nomination was withdrawn on October 15, 2019, when he was once again nominated to a seat on the

Personal life

Bumatay is a Filipino American and openly gay.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bumatay, Patrick J. 1978 births Living people 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges American gay men American jurists of Filipino descent American people of Filipino descent Asian conservatism in the United States Assistant United States Attorneys California lawyers Federalist Society members Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Lawyers from Washington, D.C. American LGBT people of Asian descent LGBT appointed officials in the United States LGBT judges LGBT lawyers LGBT people from New Jersey People from Secaucus, New Jersey United States court of appeals judges appointed by Donald Trump United States Department of Justice lawyers Yale University alumni