Presumed FBI Nominee James Comey Signed SCOTUS Brief Backing Marriage

Word leaked out this week that President Obama is set to nominate former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, a Republican who served under Bush II, to head up the FBI.  Today the Human Rights Campaign points out an interesting detail on Comey:

Six decades after J. Edgar Hoover created a “Sex Deviate” program to investigate, red-flag and target gay and lesbian federal employees, today’s nominee for FBI Director not only supports marriage equality, but he’s a Republican to boot. Comey signed onto the groundbreaking GOP amicus brief filed in the Prop 8 case earlier this year. Not only that, but the FBI he inherits will next year begin releasing hate crimes data that, for the very first time, include both sexual orientation and gender identity-based crimes (sexual orientation-only data has been kept since the 1990s). Following the rash of hate-motivated violence and even murder in New York City, this data will only improve the investigation and prosecution of these despicable crimes. Clearly this is not your grandfather’s FBI. And we can all be glad for that.

Comey's confirmation hearing should be fascinating.