Alliance for Justice Issues Statement on Reproductive Rights

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 -- The Alliance for Justice issued the following statement by President Nan Aron on the record of Matthew Kacsmaryk, Deputy General Counsel to the First Liberty Institute and President Trump's nominee for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas:

"Matthew Kacsmaryk's record shows he is fiercely hostile to both LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights. Like his fellow Texas judicial nominee and outspoken anti-LGBTQ activist, Jeff Mateer, he is affiliated with the First Liberty Institute.

"He has fought to allow landlords, businesses and government employees to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals, and has opposed not only abortion, but the ready availability of contraception as well.

"This is a nominee who would pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of millions of people in the Northern District of Texas, and he should not be confirmed to the federal bench."

Among other things, AFJ's report notes:

* Kacsmaryk has stated his belief that LGBTQ rights and women's reproductive rights stem from the "radical" and "libertine" sexual revolution, and has repeatedly sought to undermine their legitimacy.

* Kacsmaryk has defined the LGBTQ rights movement as a "clash of absolutes" between "religious liberty and sexual liberty." He vigorously opposed legislation that would add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to civil rights protections, blasting what he characterized as "a nationwide rule that 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' are privileged classes that give no quarter to Americans who continue to believe and seek to exercise their millennia-old religious belief that marriage and sexual orientation are reserved to the union of one and one woman."

* Kacsmaryk opposes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) position that sexual orientation and gender identity are covered by Title VII civil rights prohibitions against sex discrimination.

* Kacsmaryk attacked Roe v. Wade, describing the case as one in which "seven justices of the Supreme Court found an unwritten 'fundamental right' to abortion hiding in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the shadowy 'penumbras' of the Bill of Rights, a celestial phenomenon invisible to the non-lawyer eye."

* Kacsmaryk had a lead role in opposing a Washington state law that required pharmacists to stock a "representative assortment of drugs in order to meet the pharmaceutical needs of...patients," including birth control, a position rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Although Alliance for Justice does not customarily produce reports on federal district court nominees, Matthew Kacsmaryk's record merits especially close scrutiny. AFJ believes his work to deny equal rights to millions of his fellow Americans disqualifies him for a seat on the federal bench.

Read the full report online here (https://www.afj.org/our-work/nominees/matthew-kacsmaryk).

This document was posted showing the date: Nov. 8, 2017.