The Trump administration, with the help of the U.S. Senate, is continuing its crusade to reshape the nation's federal courts—by appointing one of its most anti-LGBTQ judges yet. The Senate officially confirmed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Wednesday, in a vote of 52-46. The only one to break party lines with their vote was Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who cited Kacsmaryk's “alarming bias against LGBTQ Americans and disregard for Supreme Court precedents” in her decision to vote against his appointment.



While Kacsmaryk is one of many far-right judges to be appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate, LGBTQ advocates and Democrats have singled his appointment out as being particularly harmful. “He is one of Trump’s most extreme nominees,” University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told the Huffington Post, adding that litigants in cases involving LGBTQ and abortion rights “will have difficulty believing that he will fairly resolve their cases.” Seventy-five LGBTQ and other human rights groups signed a letter opposing his nomination, which said that the then-nominee's record “reveals that he will be incapable of treating LGBT litigants fairly—no matter what body of law is at issue in the cases over which he may preside—because he does not acknowledge LGBT people as having a right to exist.”

Democrats blasted Kacsmaryk's appointment on the Senate floor: Sen. Dick Durbin declared Kacsmaryk “yet another extreme nominee outside the mainstream of American thinking” and noted it was “unusual, more than coincidental” that Republicans would schedule Kacsmaryk's vote during Pride month. “Why on earth is this man a nominee for a lifetime appointment?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked. “Why would my colleagues want to drape black robes over these bigoted views? Our judicial system is designed to protect liberties, not denigrate them.” (Republicans other than Collins, meanwhile, have supported Kacsmaryk, whom Sen. Ted Cruz described as “an accomplished attorney with a proven record of excellence, professionalism, and fidelity to the U.S. Constitution.”)


Judicial appointments like Kacsmaryk's have become one of the hallmarks of the Trump administration, as Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have worked to fill federal judicial positions at a record pace. Trump touted his judicial appointments during his 2020 campaign kickoff in Orlando, Florida, Tuesday, where he bragged about appointing his 145th judge and the “record percentage” of judges he'd put on the bench as president. “By the time we’re finished with the rest we will have record percentages, our percentage will be a record except for one person and one person has a higher percentage than your favorite president, Donald Trump,” Trump said Tuesday, making a claim that has been debunked in the past. “He’s got a higher percentage than me, and it’s devastating. His name is George Washington.”

More Great Stories from Vanity Fair






— Why Chernobyl’s unique form of dread was so addicting
