From Ballotpedia: Darrin P. Gayles is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He is the first openly gay black man to serve on the federal judiciary. On February 6, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Gayles to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The United States Senate confirmed Gayles to the court on June 17, 2014, on a unanimous vote of 98-2. Prior to joining the federal judiciary, Gayles was a judge for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court, Civil Division, in Florida. He was appointed by former Governor Charlie Crist on December 23, 2010 to replace former Judge Ronald M. Friedman. He was officially sworn in on April 8. He was elected in 2012 and his term would have expired in January of 2019
In college, Jane Bolin was surrounded by white male students who would ignore her, and her career advisor told her to stop pursing her judicial dreams. She promptly ignored all the obstacles in her way, and became the first African-American woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to join the New York City Law Department. She was officially appointed as a judge the New York World’s Fair on July 22, 1939 and would serve on the bench until she was forced to retire at age 70. As a member of the NAACP, she strived to create racial equality in all of her causes. She encouraged such equality in child services, ensured that probation officers were hired without regard to religion or race, and funded childcare agencies that would help children regardless of race.
During Lorenzo Sawyer’s career on the senate, he made history and took a step forward for environmental rights. In 1884, the case of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company hit the court. During the Gold Rush, the Company was using hydraulic mining which was destroying farm land. He handed down what was later known as the Sawyer Decision which ended the use of hydraulic mining. It was the first environmental controversy in California, as well as being one of the first major environmental decisions.</span></p>
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A photograph of Lorenzo Sawyer, an American lawyer, judge, Chief Justice of California, and the first judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.