Alumni Update: Beth Robinson '86

Beth Robinson '86 has had a long and momentous legal career; this week has not stopped that trajectory.  

On August 5, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Robinson to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. On Monday, November 1, 2021, her nomination was confirmed in the United States Senate by a 51–45 vote. 

Robinson's confirmation is a historic one as she will be the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to serve on a federal appellate court. She is well-known for her advocacy to legalize same-sex marriage in Vermont years before it was legal nationwide — a legacy that her supporters' tout as evidence of her commitment to equal rights, but her detractors have used to question her capability as an impartial judge.

Previously in her career, she worked on issues of workers' compensation, personal injury, constitutional law, and, most prominently, gay and lesbian rights. Robinson served as co-counsel in the case of Baker v. State, the landmark 1999 decision that led to Vermont becoming the first state to enact civil unions. 

In 2011, she was appointed to the associate justice's seat on the Vermont Supreme Court and sworn in on November 28th, 2011 as an interim member. The Senate voted on her official nomination on February 7, 2012, and approved it by a vote of 26–0.

Closer to home, Robinson has also been a senior lecturer here at Dartmouth College during the 2006 summer term and again during the 2009 spring term.