Judge Beverly Martin
Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Beverly Baldwin Martin was born in August 1955 in Macon, Georgia. She earned an undergraduate degree from Stetson University and received a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law. She engaged in the private practice of law.
She was an assistant attorney general in the State Law Department of the Office of the Attorney General in Georgia for 10 years. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia for three years and United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia for four years.
Martin was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She was confirmed by the Senate and received her commission in August 2000. Her service terminated when she was elevated to the Eleventh Circuit. President Barack Obama nominated Martin to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The Senate confirmed her in a 97-0 vote, and she received her commission in January 2010. She has indicated she will retire from the bench effective the end of September 2021.
In the News…
Last August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Georgia ruled in favor of a Florida transgender student challenging the legality of sex-separated bathrooms in public schools on the grounds of both the 14th Amendment equal-protection clause and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 which bars sex discrimination in federally-funded schools.
Now a new opinion has been released that suggests some behind-the-scenes discussion on whether or not the full appeals court would consider the case. This reveals an apparent division over the issue of legal protections for transgender students.
The new opinion rules only on equal protection grounds in the case of the student that was barred from the boys’ restroom by school board policy after he began presenting as a boy when he entered a Florida high school in 2015. That student is now in college in Florida.
Chief Judge Beverly Martin said that just after the panel had issued its original ruling last August, one member of the full 11th Circuit court took a procedural step that delayed the issuance of a final judgment in the case. That was evidently to give the full court time to consider whether to rehear the case.
“In an effort to get broader support among our colleagues, we vacate the opinion issued on August 7, 2020… and replace it with this one,” Martin wrote. “This revised opinion does not reach the Title IX question and reaches only one ground under the Equal Protection Clause instead of the three Equal Protection rulings we made in the August 7 opinion.”
The new opinion in the Florida case comes as transgender student rights continue to be debated in courtrooms and state legislatures. At least one other federal appeals court has ruled that Title IX protects transgender students as they seek to use school restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Judge Martin today? You can let her know at:
The Honorable Beverly Martin
Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
John C. Godbold Federal Building
56 Forsythe Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30303
