That's my iphone photo of U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Claire being officially sworn in yesterday in the Sacramento federal court's ceremonial courtroom. (I added another photo to my twitter feed @balazslaw.) Here's an excerpt from today's Sacramento Bee:
No one until now has made the jump from the federal public defender's office to the federal bench in Sacramento.
Those who know and have worked with Allison Claire describe her as "super smart," a hard worker and compassionate, and they harbor no doubt it will be an effortless transition for her.
Claire was officially sworn in Friday as Sacramento's seventh U.S. magistrate judge at an installation in the federal courthouse's ceremonial courtroom.
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Claire, 52, is the first member of the federal judiciary in the nation, at any level, to be in a state-sanctioned same-sex marriage. She and her wife were married during the 4 1/2-month window – June 16 to Nov. 5, 2008 – between the California Supreme Court's validation of same-sex marriage and the passage of Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution outlawing it.