Edward Carroll DuMont (born December 1961) is a former Solicitor General of California. In 2010 and 2011 he was nominated by President Barack Obama to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.President Obama Nominates Edward C. DuMont for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
White House press release (April 14, 2010). In November 2011, however, DuMont sent a letter to President Obama asking him to withdraw his nomination to the judgeship. Obama withdrew DuMont's nomination on November 10, 2011, nominating Richard G. Taranto in DuMont's place.

Early life and education

Born in Oakland, California, and raised in northern California, DuMont received a Bachelor of Arts (''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

,'' Phi Beta Kappa, Warren Memorial High Scholarship Prize) from Yale University in 1983, and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from Stanford Law School in 1986. DuMont then served as a law clerk to Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1986 to 1987. After his clerkship, he was awarded a Henry Luce Scholarship, which allowed him to spend a year working at a law firm in Bangkok, Thailand.

Career

DuMont spent several years as an assistant to the United States Solicitor General at that time, Seth Waxman, and as an associate deputy attorney general in the United States Department of Justice, handling issues relating to

computer crime A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing th ...

, e-commerce and

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

. DuMont has argued eighteen cases before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, and has briefed many more. Those cases have covered a wide range of legal issues. DuMont joined WilmerHale in 2002.

Failed nomination to the Federal Circuit

On April 14, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated DuMont to fill the vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that was to be created by Judge Paul Redmond Michel retiring on May 31, 2010. DuMont's nomination languished for more than 18 months without a hearing. NPR commented on the delay in an August 4, 2011 article, stating that "Some of the longest waiting nominees,

Louis B. Butler Louis Bennett Butler Jr. (born February 15, 1952) is a former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Butler was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Jim Doyle in August 2004; his term expired on July 31, 2008. He is the first African Amer ...

of Wisconsin, Charles Bernard Day of Maryland and Edward Dumont of Washington happen to be black or openly gay". DuMont would have been the first openly gay United States appeals court judge.Chris Geidner
Breaking Barriers: Edward DuMont, praised by colleagues as "brilliant," would be the first openly gay federal appellate judge in the country
''

Metro Weekly ''Metro Weekly'' is a free weekly magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Washington, D.C., United States. It was first published on May 5, 1994. ''Metro Weekly'' includes national and local news, interviews w ...

'' (April 16, 2010). His partner is Newton Kendig.Ryan Holman
Obama Nominates Gay Man to Fed. Court
, ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * ''The Advocate'' (LGBT magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States *''The Harvard Advocate'', a literary magazin ...

'' (April 23, 2010). The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary never scheduled a hearing on the nomination. On November 9, 2011, the National Law Journal reported that DuMont had submitted a letter to President Obama, asking that the president withdraw his nomination. Obama did so on November 10, 2011.

California Solicitor General

After his failed judicial nomination, DuMont remained at WilmerHale. On October 28, 2013, California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed DuMont to be California's solicitor general, serving as the chief appellate lawyer for the

California Department of Justice The California Department of Justice is a statewide investigative law enforcement agency and legal department of the California executive branch under the elected leadership of the California Attorney General (AG) which carries out complex cri ...

. DuMont stepped down effective August 19, 2019.

References

External links