fill the position with the most qualified candidate, he was supported by Texas' two United States Senators, both Republicans. With their support, the United States Senate confirmed Pitman to be the chief federal law enforcement officer in the Western District of Texas on September 26, 2011. He took office on October 3, 2011. He left office on December 19, 2014, upon receiving his judicial commission. He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law. Federal judicial service On June 26, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Pitman to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, to the seat vacated by Judge William Royal Furgeson, Jr., who took senior status on November 30, 2008. He received a hearing before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary for September 9, 2014. On November 20, 2014, his nomination was reported out of committee by voice vote. On Saturday, December 13, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a motion to invoke cloture on the nomination. On December 16, 2014, Reid withdrew his cloture motion on Pitman's nomination, and the Senate proceeded to vote to confirm Pitman in a voice vote. He received his federal judicial commission on December 19, 2014. On October 6, 2021, Pitman ordered Texas to suspend the Texas Heartbeat Act, a law which banned most abortions, calling it an "offensive deprivation of such an important right." Two days later the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Pitman's suspension order, permitting the law to be enforced again. On December 1, 2021, Pitman struck down a Texas law which attempted to prevent censorship by social media platforms, in the case, NetChoice, Inc. v. Paxton. Personal life Pitman is a sixth-generation Texan and lives in Austin. He is an avid outdoorsman and horseman. Pitman was the first openly gay United States Attorney in Texas. He was one of four openly LGBT U.S. Attorneys, alongside Jenny Durkan of the Western District of Washington, Laura Duffy of the Southern District of California and Anne Tompkins of the Western District of North Carolina. Upon receiving his judicial commission, Pitman became the first openly gay judge to sit on the federal bench within the Fifth Circuit of the federal court system, which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. See also List of LGBT jurists in the United States References External