Lambda Legal and 28 other national, state and local LGBT organizations sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of a vote today urging them to oppose the nominations of Leonard Steven Grasz to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and Mark Norris to the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, stressing that their records “demonstrate that their appointments to the bench would cause grave harm to the LGBT community, as well as many other communities who rely on the federal judiciary to administer fair and impartial justice.”
The United States Senate this evening confirmed Gregory Katsas – the legal architect of many of Donald Trump’s anti-LGBT efforts – to the powerful U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
We strongly condemn the Senate GOP leadership and those Senators who confirmed Katsas for this lifetime position on the federal bench, and note that this evening’s vote marks the beginning of a year-end surge by the GOP leadership and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to jam through a series of similarly dangerous nominees to other federal courts.
Lambda Legal urged the United States Senate to reject the nomination of Deputy White House Counsel Gregory Katsas to the powerful U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. A vote on Katsas’ nomination is expected this evening.
Lambda Legal and 40 other national, state, and local LGBT organizations sent a letter to the United States Senate urging members to oppose the confirmation of Gregory Katsas to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, citing his central role in the anti-civil rights efforts of the Donald Trump administration, including “morphing the trans military ban from tweet to policy,” as well as his record outside the administration of “litigation seeking to dismantle legal protections for LGBT people,” all of which together make it impossible for him to be viewed as a fair and impartial judge.
Lambda Legal joined the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund in calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold additional hearings on two district court nominees: Brett Talley and Thomas Farr.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, the American Bar Association defended its unanimous rating of “Not Qualified” on Leonard Steven Grasz’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Lambda Legal continued standing up against Donald Trump’s long line of dangerous nominees to the federal bench, specifically around a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning on the nomination of Don Willett to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
This week, Lambda Legal will be out front in its continued opposition to President Donald Trump’s nominations for lifetime appointments on the federal bench.
Today the Senate Judiciary advanced confirmation of Trump's Deputy White House Counsel Gregory Katsas to the second most powerful court behind the U.S. Supreme Court.