Trump is enlisting anti-LGBT+ and anti-abortion judges to vote on the nation’s laws
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President Donald Trump is packing American courts with anti-LGBT and anti-abortion judges – and he’s choosing more than any of his three predecessors.
10 months into his presidency, Trump has nominated more Senate judges than President Barack Obama, President George W. Bush or President Bill Clinton.
And looking at the views held by these judges, it seems as though there will be a far more conservative group of people now helping to shape US laws.
Carl Tobia, a University of Richmond law professor who specialises in judicial nominations, told HuffPost: “Trump’s speed in nominating judges has been perhaps the most successful aspect of his presidency.
“Trump has easily surpassed Obama, Bush and Clinton at this point in the first year of their presidencies in terms of the sheer number nominated.”
Trump also has more court seats to fill, due to inheriting 108 court vacancies after winning the presidential race.
This is thought to be due to the Republican’s lengthy strategy aimed at keeping the seats empty for a future GOP president to fill by denying votes to Obama’s court picks.
Considering the way things are looking now, this strategy seems to have worked.
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An example of those being nominated by Trump is John Bush, for the US Court of Appeals’ 6th Circuit.
Confirmed by the Senate in July, he has joked about “faggots,” mocked same-sex parents and criticised the Kentucky Supreme Court for making consensual gay sex immune from criminal prosecution.
Bush has compared abortion to slavery, referring to them as “the two greatest tragedies in our country.”
He has also strongly disagreed with same-sex marriage, ridiculed the idea of climate change, and claimed that “the witch is dead” when it was thought that the Affordable Care Act – which provides healthcare to millions – may not be put into effect.
Another judge confirmed by the Senate was 58-year-old Ralph Erickson, who was confirmed for the US Court for the 8th Circuit.
Erickson was one of two judges in America to order the federal government not to enforce healthcare non-discrimination protections for transgender people.
Other nominees include Leonard Grasz, who proposed an amendment to the Omaha City Charter in 2013 that would allow employers to discriminate against LGBT+ people.
Grasz also compared the civil rights of Native Americans and African-Americans to the “personhood” of fetuses, according to a report released by the Alliance for Justice.
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Trump has also nominated 37-year-old attorney Damien Shiff, who has previously criticised efforts made to prevent LGBT+ students from being bullied, labelling the promotion of equality as “teaching ‘gayness’ in schools.”
The Alliance for Justice report also showed Shiff arguing that states should be allowed to criminalise “consensual sodomy.”
It has been said that the White House is not reviewing nominee’s records as thoroughly as prior administrations did, which will supposedly lead to more controversial nominees.
