President Barack Obama announced March 23 his intent to nominate one of the first 11 women to be ordained to the priesthood of The Episcopal Church as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
 
Since her confirmation by the Senate in 1998, the Rev. Emily C. Hewitt has served on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, where she has handled cases in all areas of the court’s jurisdiction, chaired the court’s Rules and Building and Space Committees, and served on its Management Committee.
 
In 2006, she was appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to serve on the Financial Disclosure Committee of the United States Judicial Conference. She initially entered government service when she was appointed general counsel to the General Services Administration during the Clinton Administration.
 
Judge Hewitt is one of the so-called “Philadelphia 11,” who were ordained irregularly to the priesthood in 1974 before General Convention approved a new interpretation of its canons on ordination in 1976. She is canonically resident in the Diocese of New York, but served in parochial ministry for only a few years as an assistant at St. Mary’s Church, Manhattanville, after ordination.
 
A Baltimore native, Judge Hewitt, 65, is a graduate of Cornell University, Union Theological Seminary and Harvard Law School. Before entering government service, she practiced law from 1978 to 1993 with a Boston-based law firm, according to American Chronicle magazine.
 
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