Judge Brett Kavanaugh

President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, 53, to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh led the investigation into the suicide of Hillary Clinton advisor Vince Foster, worked for Ken Starr and was the attorney trying to prevent the reunification of Elian Gonzalez with his father. He was a Republican attorney who brought the Bush v. Gore case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In other words, if you were looking for someone to piss off Democrats, Kavanaugh is your man. During his nomination process to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called him the Forrest Gump of Republican politics.Reaction to his nomination has been fierce.

“Brett Kavanaugh’s record as a judge and lawyer is clear: hostile to health care for millions, opposed to the CFPB & corporate accountability, thinks Presidents like Trump are above the law — and conservatives are confident that he would overturn Roe v. Wade,” tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “I’ll be voting no.”

She left off LGBT rights, but Equality Texas CEO Chuck Smith took care of that:

With Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring, the progress we have made toward full equality for LGBTQ people is at risk. We need a Supreme Court justice who will protect the rights of all Americans, not someone just looking out for the privileges of the wealthy and powerful.

We call on Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of whom serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to commit to a rigorous vetting process and to vote “no” on the nominee if he doesn’t live up to that principle of fundamental fairness.

Justice Kennedy said in Obergefell v. Hodges, his landmark decision on LGBTQ rights, “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution gives them that right.”

Equality Texas will fight to ensure that we never go back to the days when LGBTQ Americans were told that the Constitution did not extend to them.

— David Taffet