[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S3812]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Mr. President, Leader McConnell comes to the floor often to laud the 
quality of his party's judicial picks. But even the slightest scrutiny 
reveals that many of these judicial picks will disgrace the Federal 
bench.
  Take the nominees we are considering this week. Several have terrible 
records on women's reproductive health, LGBTQ equality, and other 
issues, but Matthew Kacsmaryk from the Northern District of Texas takes 
the cake. Mr. Kacsmaryk has demonstrated a hostility to the LGBTQ 
community bordering on paranoia. He has opposed marriage equality. He 
has defended businesses that discriminate against people on sexual 
orientation, and he has opposed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 
protections for people based on orientation.
  Here is what he said. This is a man who is being given a lifetime 
appointment to the Federal bench. He said the nationwide right to 
marriage equality was a ``road to potential tyranny.'' He called the 
inclusion of LGBTQ protections in VAWA ``a grave mistake.'' He labeled 
the Equality Act a ``public affirmation of the lie that the human 
person is an autonomous blob of Silly Putty, unconstrained by nature or 
biology, and that marriage, sexuality, gender identity, and even the 
unborn child must yield to the erotic desires of liberated adults.''
  This is a judge? Is this someone who is weighing both sides carefully 
and who is giving equal consideration to plaintiffs and defendants?
  It is unbelievable that this man has been nominated, and he is not 
alone. The parade of narrowminded, often bigoted people who are being 
put on the bench simply because they are members of the Federalist 
Society is unprecedented in this country--unprecedented.
  Beyond his work for the anti-LGBTQ group called the First Liberty 
Institute--which boasts such luminaries as Jeff Mateer, who said 
transgender children were ``part of Satan's plan''--Mr. Kacsmaryk has 
no judicial experience. None. Why on Earth is this man a nominee for a 
lifetime appointment? Why would my colleagues want to drape black robes 
over these bigoted views? Our judicial system is designed to protect 
liberties, not denigrate them.
  One Republican Senator rightfully voiced concerns about this man's 
fitness. Where are the others? Where are the others? I urge my friends 
on the other side to study this man's record because any fairminded 
look at his qualifications would demand a ``no'' on his nomination.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.