Lawyers arguing about whether to strike down same-sex marriage bans in two states will appear in Denver before three judges appointed by presidents George Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Oral arguments in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are set to begin in Denver in the Utah case on April 10 and April 17 on the Oklahoma case, court Clerk Betsy Shumaker said Thursday.
Federal judges have struck down the bans in both of those states. Colorado has a similar ban.
Circuit judges Paul K. Kelly Jr., picked by George Bush in 1991; Carlos F. Lucero, chose by Clinton in 1995; and Jerome A. Holmes, appointed by George W. Bush in 2006, have been empaneled to oversee both state cases at this level of appeals.
Similar appeals filed by states across the country are winding through different circuit courts on the gay marriage issue. The Utah and Oklahoma cases heard in Denver will be the first to reach this stage of appeals. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on these cases.
Lucero attended college and worked in private practice in Alamosa for 29 years before becoming an appeals court judge. Lucero also was an adjunct professor at Adams State College between 1968 and 1995.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Adams State College in 1961 before earning a law degree at George Washington University Law School in 1964. He served as a law clerk for a federal judge in Colorado in 1964 and 1965.
Kelly received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Notre Dame in 1963 and his law degree from Fordham University School of Law in 1967.
He had a private practice in Santa Fe, N.M., between 1967 and his judicial appointment in 1992. He was a New Mexico state representative between 1977 and 1981.
Holmes received a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University in 1983 and his law degree from Georgetown University law center in 1988. He received a masters of public administration from Harvard University in 2000.
Holmes served as a law clerk for a federal judge in Oklahoma and for a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge before working in private practice in Washington, D.C. between 1991 and 1994. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for Oklahoma between 1994 and 2005.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kmitchelldp