The Massachusetts Governor's Council
has confirmed Governor Deval Patrick's pick for the state's Supreme
Judicial Court, Barbara Lenk, The Boston Globe reported.
The 60-year-old Lenk, a veteran Appeals
Court judge, becomes the first openly gay judge to serve on the
state's highest court.
The council confirmed Lenk with a 5-3
vote on Wednesday.
Lenk also makes history as the first
justice able to marry her spouse as a result of the court's
groundbreaking 2003 ruling that brought gay marriage to Massachusetts
the following year, making it the first state in the nation to do so.
Social conservatives opposed Lenk's
appointment to the SJC, arguing that it would lead to a greater
number of children being indoctrinated into the “homosexual
lifestyle.”
Former Governor William Weld appointed
Lenk to the Superior Court in 1993. Two years later, Weld appointed
her to the Appeals Court.
A native of New York, Lenk holds a
doctorate in political philosophy from Yale University and received
her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1979.
Lenk succeeds retiring Associate
Justice Judith A. Cowin, whose last day on the court was Tuesday,
April 5.