Highlighting the degree to which the Trump administration is reshaping the judiciary, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed Kyle Duncan—”a darling of right-wing social crusaders”—to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The confirmation, said The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, “should send shockwaves across the nation.”
Among those “sounding alarm” on Duncan—ultimately confirmed 50-47 by the Republican majority, with one Democratic vote coming from Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.)—was Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). Though “the Trump administration from day one has made attacking basic civil liberties a guiding principle of the policies it supports,” Blumenthal said Tuesday that “President Trump’s attempts to stack our courts with extremist judges may in the end have the most long-lasting and devastating impacts.”
And Duncan, Blumenthal added in a statement, “is straight out of the Stone Age” and “is almost a Saturday Night Live caricature of the judicial nominees who have come from the Trump administration.”
“Time and again,” added Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), “Mr. Duncan has been on the wrong side of justice.”
Indeed, Duncan’s background had sparked outrage from numerous members of Congress and civil liberties groups who said his record on issues from marriage equality to women’s health to “his stalwart support of legislative efforts to curb the right of people of color to exercise the right to vote” bode ill for the notion of equal justice under the law.
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