Nancy Beth Firestone (October 17, 1951 – October 3, 2022) was a judge of the

United States Court of Federal Claims The United States Court of Federal Claims (in case citations, Fed. Cl. or C.F.C.) is a United States federal court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government. It was established by statute in 1982 as the United States Claims Court, ...

, appointed to that court in 1998 by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

Early life, education, and career

Born in

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

,Joint Committee on Printing, ''Official Congressional Directory 2005-2006: 109th Congress'' (2005), p. 854. Firestone received 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 ...

from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

in 1973 and a Juris Doctor from the

University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law The University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law is a public law school located on the main campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri, near the Country Club Plaza. It was founded in 1895 as the Kansas Cit ...

in 1977.United States Court of Federal Claims page on Nancy B. Firestone
Firestone served in various capacities as an attorney with the

United States 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 Stat ...

from 1977 to 1989. She was the associate deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 to 1992, and a judge on that agency's environmental appeals board from 1992 to 1995, when she returned to the Justice Department as deputy assistant attorney general in the Environment and Natural Resources division. Firestone was also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Federal judicial service

On October 22, 1998, Firestone was appointed judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims by President Bill Clinton. On October 22, 2013, Nancy Firestone retired from active service on the

, effectively assuming

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 ...

in that capacity. On April 10, 2014 President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

nominated Firestone to a serve a second 15-year term. She received a hearing on her re-nomination before the

United States 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, ...

for June 4, 2014. On June 19, 2014 her nomination was reported out of committee by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

. On December 16, 2014, her nomination was returned to the President due to the ''sine die'' adjournment of the

113th Congress The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Barack Obama's presidency. It was composed of the ...

. On January 7, 2015, President Obama renominated her to the same position. On February 26, 2015, her nomination was reported out of committee by

. Her nomination expired with the end of the 114th Congress on January 3, 2017. She died on October 3, 2022, at the age of 70.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Firestone, Nancy B. 1951 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges Georgetown University Law Center faculty Judges of the United States Court of Federal Claims People from Manchester, New Hampshire United States Article I federal judges appointed by Bill Clinton United States Department of Justice lawyers University of Missouri–Kansas City alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni