The Times has taken the nomination of an openly gay lawyer, J Paul Oetken, to the Federal Bench as an occasion to revisit the aborted nomination, last year, of Daniel Alter, a matter that gets more coverage in Benjamin Weiser’s story.

Mr. Alter declined to comment on Thursday, but told The New York Law Journal in October that his nomination appeared to have run into trouble because of “certain false attributions” to him of statements that he denied making.

The Washington Blade had earlier reported that Mr. Alter, while working for the Anti-Defamation League, was quoted in a news service article as recommending against merchants using “Merry Christmas” instead of a more generic greeting and in remarks in a magazine suggesting the group favored legal challenges to the use of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Alter told The Law Journal: “Neither of the quotations attributed to me are accurate or in any way reflect my personal reviews.” The White House has declined to comment on the issue.

Last summer, 66 of his former colleagues in the United States attorney’s office wrote to Mr. Schumer, urging the senator to fight for his nomination.

A fasten-seatbelts warning to Mr Oetken?

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Friday, January 28th, 2011 at 8:00 pm.