Chai Feldblum
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Chai Rachel Feldblum (born April 1959)Professor of Pride: Georgetown Law's Nan Hunter wields academic activism
November 27, 2008. MetroWeekly ashington, DC. Accessed October 11, 2009.
is an American author and activist for
disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, dev ...
and
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...
.Biography: Chai Feldblum

Georgetown University Law Center
Accessed October 11, 2009.
A former law professor at
Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...
, she served as Commissioner at the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
. She was nominated to the position on the EEOC by 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 U ...
in 2009. In April 2010, she received a recess appointment to the EEOC, and in December 2010 she was confirmed to serve on the EEOC by 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 ...
. The Senate confirmed her in December 2013 for a second term on the Commission which expired in July 2018.


Early life and education

Chai Feldblum was born in New York City to Meyer Simcha and Esther Feldblum. Meyer Simcha Feldblum was born in Lithuania and survived
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
by living in the forests of Poland.Pollak, Suzanne (July 22, 2015).
Out in Front: Openly gay EEOC commissioner feels 'blessed'
(subscription required). ''Washington Jewish Week''.
He came to the United States following WWII, where he earned his ordination and Ph.D. from
Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universit ...
in New York City and became a rabbi and a professor of Talmud, first at Yeshiva University and then at
Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...
in Israel. Esther Feldblum was the daughter of Rabbi Ephraim Eliezer Yolles, a Hasidic Rebbe (the Samborer Rebbe) of Philadelphia. Esther Feldblum received her Ph.D. in Jewish history from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and taught for one year at
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...
before dying in a car accident at the age of 41. Her dissertation, ''The American Catholic Press and the Jewish State: 1917-1959'', was published as a book posthumously. Chai Feldblum grew up in Washington Heights in New York City.Orthodox-raised woman nominated as commissioner for EEOC
September 15, 2009. ''Voz iz neis?'' newspaper, Washington, DC. Accessed October 21, 2009.
Her Orthodox Jewish upbringing shaped her commitment to social justice work. Chai Feldblum attended the Yeshiva University High School for Girls in
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, New York before majoring in Ancient Studies and Religion at
Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
in the class of 1979. Feldblum received her J.D. from
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
in 1985.Obama Nominates Chai Feldblum, LGBT/Equality Scholar, to EEOC Post
, September 14, 2009. Accessed October 11, 2009.
Coming from a long line of Orthodox Jewish rabbis
, May 12, 1999.
United States House Committee on the Judiciary The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...
. Accessed October 21, 2009.
she once aspired to be a
talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
ic scholar. She left Orthodox Judaism by the time she was a "young adult."http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Interview%20-%20Equality%20in%20Employment.pdf


Career

After graduating from law school, Feldblum clerked for federal Judge Frank M. Coffin on the
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maine * District of Massachusetts * ...
and then for Justice
Harry A. Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon, Black ...
on 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 ...
. While working from 1988 to 1990Bio: Chai Feldblum
, March 4, 2005. Yale Law School. Accessed October 14, 2009.
as Legislative Counsel to the AIDS Project of the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
, Feldblum was the lead attorney on the team drafting the
Americans with Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...
, which became law in 1990. She joined the faculty of
Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...
in Washington, DC in 1991, teaching classes on "legislative lawyering," a phrase she coined to describe the work of the attorneys who craft or lobby for legislation. She founded and is the director of the university's Federal Legislation Clinic. Since joining Georgetown, Feldblum has continued her own legislative lawyering career. In 1993, she was the legal director for the Campaign for Military Service, a group which lobbied to overturn policies forbidding gay and bisexual people from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces.U.S. opposes court interference in gay troop ban
March 5, 1993. New York Times. Accessed October 11, 2009.
The CMS was the first organization to air a nationwide television commercial on a gay rights issue.Campaign for Military Service: Ad Title "West"
, 1993.
GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...
Media Library. Accessed October 11, 2009.
In 2003, Feldblum became co-director of Georgetown's Workplace Flexibility 2010 project, which works to improve conditions for employers and employees.Workplace Flexibility 2010
, official site. Accessed October 11, 2009.
The program focuses on flexible work arrangements (FWAs), including phased retirement, non-traditional
flextime Flextime (also spelled flexitime ( BE) or flex-time) is a flexible hours schedule that allows workers to alter their workday and decide/adjust their start and finish times. In contrast to traditional work arrangements that require employees to wo ...
and
working time Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid labor. Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Many countries regulate the work week by law, s ...
,
remote work Remote work, also called work from home (WFH), work from anywhere, telework, remote job, mobile work, and distance work is an employment arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, ware ...
, and multiple points of exit and re-entry into the workforce. In 2006, she founded the Moral Values Project, with the mission statement: She was the lead drafter of the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is legislation proposed in the United States Congress that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or, depending on the version of the bill, gender ...
, which would prohibit employment discrimination based on someone's real or perceived sexual orientation. She also worked on passage of the
ADA Amendments Act of 2008 The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–325, ADAAA) is an Act of Congress, effective January 1, 2009, that amended the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and other disability nondiscrimination laws at the Federal level of th ...
, and has testified before Congress on numerous occasions.


Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

In 2009, 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 U ...
nominated Feldblum for one of the seats on the five-member
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
. In response to attacks on her, Obama stated in an
October 10 Events Pre-1600 * 680 – The Battle of Karbala marks the Martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali. * 732 – Charles Martel's forces defeat an Umayyad army near Tours, France. *1471 – Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with ...
speech to the gay rights group
Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGB ...
: Following her nomination, Feldblum came under attack on various grounds. In testimony before the
United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) generally considers matters relating to these issues. Its jurisdiction also extends beyond these issues to include several more specific areas, as defined by Sena ...
, Feldblum testified that claims that she believed in governmental endorsement of polygamy or polyamorous relationships were wrong, consistent with her own writings in which she had always restricted such endorsement to non-sexual domestic partners. Obama made a
recess appointment In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the President is empowered to nominate, and with the advi ...
of Feldblum and three other nominees to the EEOC on March 27, 2010. On December 22, 2010, the U.S. Senate confirmed Feldblum to the seat on the EEOC for a term expiring July 1, 2013. She is openly lesbian and became the first openly LGBT person to serve on the EEOC. In 2013, Feldblum was nominated by President Obama to serve a second term on the EEOC, expiring on July 1, 2018. On December 9, 2013, Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...
filed for
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. ...
on Feldblum's nomination. On December 11, 2013, the Senate voted 57–39 to break the filibuster, paving the way for a final vote on Feldblum's nomination. On December 12, 2013, Feldblum was confirmed to a second term in a 54–41 vote. Feldblum was nominated for a third term on the EEOC by President Donald Trump, but her nomination wa
blocked
by Senator Mike Lee.


After the EEOC

In March 2019, Feldblum became a partner at the law firm of
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,200 legal professionals in 31 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Mergers with other law firms stimulated global growth and led to ...
, stating to ''Bloomberg Law'' that the move from public service to a " Big Law management-side firm", considered unusual, was the best way to help employers implement the
workplace harassment Workplace harassment is the belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers. Recently, matters of workplace harassment have gained interest among practitioners and researchers as it is becoming one of the ...
guidelines outlined by herself and
Victoria Lipnic Victoria Ann Lipnic (born 1960) is an American lawyer and public figure. She served in multiple senior United States government positions. She was Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), nominated to two terms by ...
at the
EEOC The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
. She described the firm as "the place from which to help make that institutional change", of preventing harassment from happening in the workplace. Feldblum left the firm in March 2021, after helping to expand the firm's DEI and respectful workplace practice. In November 2020, Feldblum was named a volunteer member of the
Joe Biden presidential transition The presidential transition of Joe Biden began on November 7, 2020 and ended on January 20, 2021. Unlike previous presidential transitions, which normally take place during the roughly 10-week period between the election in the first week o ...
Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to 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 State ...
.


AbilityOne Commission

President Joe Biden appointed Feldblum to the AbilityOne Commission in August 2021 and she was subsequently elected vice chair of the commission. During Feldblum's first year on the commission, she helped develop a new strategic plan for the commission that would modernize the program.


Personal life

Feldblum is a lesbian. She is married to Nan D. Hunter.


Select bibliography

* Sexual Orientation, Morality, and the Law: Devlin Revisited (1996). * The Federal Gay Civil Rights Bill: From Bella to ENDA in ''Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, & Civil Rights'' ( J. D'Emilio, W. Turner & U. Vaid eds. 2000). * Rectifying the Tilt: Equality Lessons from Religion, Disability, Sexual Orientation and Transgender, University of Maine Law Review (Tenth Annual Coffin Lecture) (2003). * The Art of Legislative Lawyering and the Six Circles of Legislative Advocacy, 34 McGeorge L. Rev. 785 (2003). * Gay is Good: The Moral Case for Marriage Equality and More, 17 Yale J.L. & Feminism 139-184 (2005). * The Definition of Disability in the Americans With Disabilities Act: Its Successes and Shortcomings, 9 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 473-498 (2005) (co-authored piece). * Moral Conflict and Liberty: Gay Rights and Religion, 72 Brook. L. Rev. 61-123 (2006). * The Right to Define One's Own Concept of Existence: What ''
Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...
'' Can Mean for Intersex and Transgender People, 7 Geo. J. Gender & L. 115-139 (2006).


See also

*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2) Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Mos ...


References


External links


Testimony of Chai Feldblum on the Religious Liberty Protection Act of 1999
May 12, 1999,
United States House Committee on the Judiciary The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...

Testimony of Chai Feldblum: Introductory Biographical Statement
November 19, 2009,
United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) generally considers matters relating to these issues. Its jurisdiction also extends beyond these issues to include several more specific areas, as defined by Sena ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Feldblum, Chai 1959 births Living people Barnard College alumni American disability rights activists Georgetown University Law Center faculty Harvard Law School alumni Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Recess appointments Equal Employment Opportunity Commission members LGBT appointed officials in the United States American lesbian writers LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) American LGBT rights activists Women legal scholars 21st-century LGBT people 21st-century American women