Unqualified And Ideological: A Guide To Trump's Worst Judges

If you care about women's rights, LGBTQ rights or voting rights — or about judges being fit to serve — you oughta read this.
Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath in his Senate confirmation hearing and blamed politics — not the credible sexual assault allegations against him — for his rocky confirmation process. Is this really someone fit to be a Supreme Court justice?
Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath in his Senate confirmation hearing and blamed politics — not the credible sexual assault allegations against him — for his rocky confirmation process. Is this really someone fit to be a Supreme Court justice?
The Washington Post via Getty Images

WASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans are confirming so many of President Donald Trump’s nominees to lifetime federal court seats, it’s hard to keep up. Who are these people? What difference will they make in my life, anyway?

You’re in luck: We’re going to break it down here!

Two and a half years in, what stands out about Trump’s confirmed judges isn’t just the quantity, which is remarkable ― two Supreme Court justices, a record-breaking 43 appeals court judges and 99 district court judges.

It’s that a chunk of his judges shouldn’t be on the bench at all because they aren’t qualified or they’re so ideologically extreme that it’s next to impossible to imagine them as fair arbiters of justice. These judges are now on federal courts at every level, from the Supreme Court to appeals courts, which have the final say in nearly all federal cases, down to district courts, where these cases are first filed. For the appeals court judges in particular, the decisions these people make will affect you and millions of other people for generations.

“It is important for the public to appreciate that appeals court appointees serve on courts that are the courts of last resort for 99.9% of cases in their regions of the U.S. on issues like capital punishment, abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration, etc.,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor and an expert on federal judicial nominations. “The key is they resolve 50,000 cases per year and the Supreme Court resolves 100.”

Here’s a snapshot of Trump’s most alarming judges to date. Incredibly, all but one (Wendy Vitter) is or was a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers’ group that has effectively been picking Trump’s judicial nominees for him. There is a clear theme to these judges, too: They have records of being anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion and anti-voting rights.

Judges are supposed to "act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary," per the Judicial Code of Conduct. Does lying and lashing out at senators inspire public confidence?
Judges are supposed to "act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary," per the Judicial Code of Conduct. Does lying and lashing out at senators inspire public confidence?
POOL New / Reuters

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Credibly accused of sexual assault

Kavanaugh repeatedly lied under oath in his Senate confirmation hearing and, alternating between crying, yelling and interrupting Senate committee members as they pressed him on credible sexual assault allegations against him, he blamed his rocky confirmation process on politics. Kavanaugh’s unhinged behavior raised fresh questions about his temperament to be a justice on the nation’s highest court. As Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) concluded in opposing him, he failed to meet the standard spelled out in the Code of Judicial Conduct, Rule 1.2, which states that a judge must “act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”

The American Bar Association was prepared to revisit its previous “well qualified” rating of Kavanaugh after his disastrous hearing, but Senate Republicans went ahead and confirmed him, so the group let it go. Every Republican but one, Murkowski, voted to confirm him.

The guy got a unanimous "not qualified" rating by the American Bar Association but was still confirmed to be a lifetime federal judge. OK!
The guy got a unanimous "not qualified" rating by the American Bar Association but was still confirmed to be a lifetime federal judge. OK!
Tom Williams via Getty Images

Judge Leonard Steven Grasz on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit

Unanimously rated ‘not qualified’ by the ABA

Grasz earned an embarrassing and unanimous “not qualified” rating from the ABA, which has been evaluating federal judicial nominees since 1989 and rarely gives such an abysmal rating. Former colleagues described Grasz as “gratuitously rude,” per the ABA review, and expressed an “unusual fear” of consequences if they said anything bad about him because of his “deep connection” to powerful politicians. ABA members also raised concerns that Grasz is “unable to separate his role as an advocate from that of a judge,” given his record of opposing LGBTQ and abortion rights. Every Senate Republican present voted to confirm him.

The ABA concluded that Jonathan Kobes was "not qualified" to be a federal judge because he can't WRITE. Senate Republicans confirmed him anyway.
The ABA concluded that Jonathan Kobes was "not qualified" to be a federal judge because he can't WRITE. Senate Republicans confirmed him anyway.
Bill Clark via Getty Images

Judge Jonathan Kobes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit

Rated “not qualified” by the ABA

Kobes earned a “not qualified” rating by the ABA because he “was unable to provide sufficient writing samples of the caliber required” of a circuit judge. He also failed to demonstrate “an especially high degree of legal scholarship and excellent analytical and writing experience,” per the ABA review. Kobes certainly benefited from being a former aide to Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). Every Senate Republican but one voted to confirm him.

On the one hand, Neomi Rao blamed women for being victims of date rape. On the other hand, Senate Republicans confirmed her to be a lifetime federal judge.
On the one hand, Neomi Rao blamed women for being victims of date rape. On the other hand, Senate Republicans confirmed her to be a lifetime federal judge.
Zach Gibson via Getty Images

Judge Neomi Rao on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Blamed women for date rape

Rao published a series of inflammatory articles on sexual assault, race and LGBTQ rights as a Yale University student. “A good way to avoid a potential date rape is to stay reasonably sober,” she wrote, adding that if a woman drinks to the point where she cannot choose if she wants to have sex, “getting to that point was part of her choice.” Rao also denounced “special treatment for minority students” and called the fight for LGBTQ rights a “trendy political movement.” Every Senate Republican voted to confirm her.

Where to even begin with this guy.
Where to even begin with this guy.
C-SPAN

Judge John Bush on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit

Compared abortion to slavery

Bush previously compared abortion to slavery and called them “the two greatest tragedies in our country.” He has also said he strongly disagrees with same-sex marriage, mocked climate change, called for gagging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and proclaimed “the witch is dead” when he thought the Affordable Care Act might not be enacted. Every Senate Republican present voted to confirm him.

Amy Coney Barrett thinks Roe v. Wade was "an erroneous decision" and also is on Trump's short list for Supreme Court nominees. Cool, cool.
Amy Coney Barrett thinks Roe v. Wade was "an erroneous decision" and also is on Trump's short list for Supreme Court nominees. Cool, cool.
C-Span

Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Called the ACA’s birth control benefit “an assault on religious liberty”

Barrett has suggested Roe v. Wade was an “erroneous decision” and called the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit “an assault on religious liberty.” She is on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court picks, which Trump said only includes people willing to overturn Roe v. Wade. The former Notre Dame law professor also sparked questions about her membership in a tightly knit Christian group called People of Praise, in which members swear a lifelong oath of loyalty and are accountable to a personal adviser ― called a “head” for men and a “handmaid” for women ― and are taught that husbands are the heads of their wives and should take authority over the family. Every Senate Republican voted to confirm her.

Kyle Duncan questioned the legitimacy of the Supreme Court itself when it legalized federal marriage equality. He's a lifetime federal judge now.
Kyle Duncan questioned the legitimacy of the Supreme Court itself when it legalized federal marriage equality. He's a lifetime federal judge now.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Judge Kyle Duncan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit

Defended voter suppression law that targeted African Americans “with almost surgical precision”

As an attorney, Duncan defended North Carolina’s egregious voter suppression law that a federal appeals court struck down in 2016, ruling that it discriminated against black voters and “targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision.” Duncan appealed the case to the Supreme Court, calling it “ludicrous” to suggest the law echoed Jim Crow laws. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal. He also led Hobby Lobby’s Supreme Court fight against covering birth control under its employee health plans, and he claimed the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized marriage equality, “raises a question about the legitimacy of the Court.” Every Senate Republican present voted to confirm him.

This guy published an article calling claims of sexism "irrelevant pouting." Who wants to go before him as a judge the next time you sue someone for sexist treatment?
This guy published an article calling claims of sexism "irrelevant pouting." Who wants to go before him as a judge the next time you sue someone for sexist treatment?
SIPA USA/PA Images

Judge Kenneth Lee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

Called claims of sexism “irrelevant pouting”

Lee published a series of offensive articles as a student and newspaper editor at Cornell University. Claims of sexism are “irrelevant pouting,” he wrote, and LGBTQ rights advocacy is “yet another way to portray people as victims in need of preferential treatment.” He argued that gay people are more promiscuous than straight people, which is why “9 out of 10 people with AIDS are gay or drug users”; that multiculturalism is a “malodorous sickness”; and that African Americans’ fight for equality post-slavery is similar to other immigrants trying to overcome discrimination. Lee initially hid his writings from senators, but they were later uncovered by staff and the press. Every Senate Republican present voted to confirm him.

Eric Murphy spent years trying to make it harder for minorities and low-income people to vote. Here's to Voting Rights Act lawsuits never coming before him in court!
Eric Murphy spent years trying to make it harder for minorities and low-income people to vote. Here's to Voting Rights Act lawsuits never coming before him in court!
Tom Williams via Getty Images

Judge Eric Murphy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit

Led efforts to make it harder for minorities to vote

Murphy led repeated efforts to make it harder for minorities to vote. The former Ohio solicitor general defended getting rid of the state’s “Golden Week,” a five-day period in which voters could register and vote at the same time, and defended Ohio’s notorious voter purge law before the Supreme Court. The court upheld that law in a contentious 5-4 decision, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing in her dissent that the law will disproportionately make it harder for “minority, low-income, disabled, homeless, and veteran voters to cast a ballot.” Every Senate Republican present voted to confirm him.

Allison Jones Rushing, who said there were "moral and practical reasons" for banning same-sex marriage, is only 37. She's going to be on the federal bench for a long, long time.
Allison Jones Rushing, who said there were "moral and practical reasons" for banning same-sex marriage, is only 37. She's going to be on the federal bench for a long, long time.
Tom Williams via Getty Images

Judge Allison Rushing Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit

Claimed “moral and practical reasons” for banning marriage equality

Jones worked for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian organization that has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. She has argued that there were “moral and practical” reasons for banning same-sex marriage. At 37, Jones is also the youngest federal judge in the country, and some Democrats opposed her on the grounds that she lacks the experience or legal ability to be a U.S. circuit judge. Every Senate Republican voted to confirm her.

Don Willett has a track record of consistently ruling against same-sex marriage rights. For good measure, he went ahead and mocked a transgender student's participation in school sports too.
Don Willett has a track record of consistently ruling against same-sex marriage rights. For good measure, he went ahead and mocked a transgender student's participation in school sports too.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Judge Don Willett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit

Regularly ruled against same-sex marriage rights

The former Texas Supreme Court Justice consistently ruled against same-sex marriage rights, including a June 2017 ruling that same-sex spouses of Houston city workers have no inherent right to benefits under Obergefell v. Hodges, the federal marriage equality ruling. Willett also mocked a California law relating to transgender students’ participation in school sports. He has bragged that “there is no ideological daylight to the right of me,” and in his 2012 judicial election, he was endorsed by rabidly anti-LGBTQ advocates including Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Christian revisionist historian David Barton. Willett is on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court picks, which Trump said only includes people willing to overturn Roe v. Wade. Every Senate Republican voted to confirm him.

Eric Miller made a career out of fighting Native American tribes' rights. Now he's a federal judge on a court with jurisdiction over hundreds of tribes.
Eric Miller made a career out of fighting Native American tribes' rights. Now he's a federal judge on a court with jurisdiction over hundreds of tribes.
Tom Williams via Getty Images

Judge Eric Miller on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

Made a career out of fighting Native Americans’ tribal sovereignty

Miller built a legal career out of fighting tribal interests and sovereignty, so much so that one Native American leader described Miller’s law firm, Perkins Coie, as the go-to destination for jurisdictions that want “to fight an Indian tribe.” Two prominent Native organizations ― the National Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund ― wrote to Judiciary Committee leaders raising concerns about Miller’s advocacy for “undermining the rights of Indian tribes, often taking extreme positions and using pejorative language to denigrate tribal rights.” But every Senate Republican voted to confirm him. He now sits on a court with jurisdiction over 427 federally recognized tribes.

This guy, hoo boy.
This guy, hoo boy.
CSPAN

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Called being transgender “a delusion”

Kacsmaryk called it “a grave mistake” to include protections for LGBTQ people in the Violence Against Women Act, and he signed a 2016 letter that called being transgender “a delusion.” He also criticized the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, saying “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.” (What?) Every Senate Republican but one, Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), voted to confirm him.

Wendy Vitter once falsely linked abortion to cancer, and endorsed spreading the word that birth control leads to violent death. What?
Wendy Vitter once falsely linked abortion to cancer, and endorsed spreading the word that birth control leads to violent death. What?
Bill Clark via Getty Images

Judge Wendy Vitter on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

Falsely linked abortion to cancer

Vitter claimed that Planned Parenthood “kills over 150,000 females a year.” The former general counsel to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans and wife to former Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) also falsely linked abortion to cancer while moderating a 2013 anti-abortion panel, and urged audience members to tell their doctors to put brochures in their waiting rooms that falsely link birth control to “violent death.” Every Senate Republican but one, Susan Collins, voted to confirm her.

Howard Nielson once argued that a gay judge should have recused himself from a case relating to same-sex marriage because he wouldn't be a fair judge. I guess Nielson can't oversee any cases that involve straight people!
Howard Nielson once argued that a gay judge should have recused himself from a case relating to same-sex marriage because he wouldn't be a fair judge. I guess Nielson can't oversee any cases that involve straight people!
C-SPAN

Judge Howard Nielson Jr. on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah

Argued that a gay judge couldn’t be fair on a same-sex marriage case

As an attorney, Nielson argued that sexual orientation is a choice in his 2010 legal defense of Proposition 8, California’s former ban on same-sex marriage. He also disputed evidence that discrimination against LGBTQ people leads to higher rates of depression and suicide. When a U.S. district court ruled that Prop 8 violated the Constitution, Nielson argued the judge should have recused himself because he was gay and therefore unable to be fair. Every Senate Republican but one, Susan Collins, voted to confirm him.

This federal judge has a record of being Islamophobic, homophobic and extremely anti-abortion. A hat trick of crap!
This federal judge has a record of being Islamophobic, homophobic and extremely anti-abortion. A hat trick of crap!
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Judge Mark Norris on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee

Opposes abortion “under any circumstances”

Norris previously led an effort to ban communities from removing monuments to Confederate leaders and set up a website that used images of refugees next to pictures of Islamic State terrorists. The former Tennessee state senator also backed legislation allowing mental health counselors to discriminate against LGBTQ clients and said he does not “favor abortion under any circumstances.” Every Senate Republican present voted to confirm him.

When has same-sex marriage ever led to polygamy? Maybe someone will bring that lawsuit before this guy's court.
When has same-sex marriage ever led to polygamy? Maybe someone will bring that lawsuit before this guy's court.
C-Span

Judge Stephen Clark on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri

Claimed same-sex marriage leads to polygamy

Clark claimed that same-sex marriage leads to polygamy in a 2016 speech at Duke University, and in another 2016 speech, he criticized the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, stating that marriage equality “is not an issue for nine unelected, unaccountable people with lifetime tenure … [to] be deciding because there is not a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.” Clark was also on the board of directors of Lawyers for Life, which issued a 2016 flyer with Clark’s name on it, declaring: “Roe vs. Wade gave doctors a license to kill unborn children. Like the Dred Scott decision, Roe is BAD LAW.” Every Senate Republican present voted to confirm him.

Patrick Wyrick really didn't want minors to have access to emergency contraception. He also tried to make adult women prove they were old enough to get it. What?
Patrick Wyrick really didn't want minors to have access to emergency contraception. He also tried to make adult women prove they were old enough to get it. What?
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Judge Patrick Wyrick on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma

Tried to make emergency contraception access harder for minors and adults

The former Oklahoma solicitor general defended a law that would have required minors to get a prescription before buying emergency contraception and forced adult women to prove their age before they could have such contraception. The legislation was permanently blocked by a state judge in 2014. Wyrick also filed an amicus brief in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case before the Supreme Court, arguing that the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage mandate was unconstitutional because “religious faith is more than mere belief. It is practice.” Every Senate Republican voted to confirm him.

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