A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series that serves to remind
us of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered
during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA
movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our memory as we
fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.

This week’s Trumptastrophe focuses on former President Trump’s efforts to
reshaped the federal judiciary by nominating judges that would uphold his
extreme MAGA agenda:

On Sept. 7, 2017, Trump nominated Matthew Kacsmaryk, a lawyer at
the religious-right legal group First Liberty, to become a lifetime
federal judge in the Northern District of Texas, one of several far-right
nominations Trump made the same day. Kacsmaryk, who was [ [link removed] ]confirmed by
the U.S. Senate in 2019, has become notorious as a judge that
[ [link removed] ]“judge-shopping” right-wing groups rely on to issue rulings twisting
the law in their favor.

[ [link removed] ]People For the American Way and other [ [link removed] ]civil and human rights
groups opposed Kacsmaryk’s confirmation based on his record of hostility
toward LGBTQ+ people and legal protections as well as his opposition to
Roe v. Wade and women’s right to contraception. As the Texas Tribune has
[ [link removed] ]reported, “Under his leadership, First Liberty was involved in several
legal fights over reproductive health care, including trying to block the
'contraception mandate' which required health insurers to pay for birth
control. Kacsmaryk himself has been [ [link removed] ]outspoken in his opposition to
LGBTQ rights.”

Kacsmaryk and First Liberty have been active in the religious-right
movement’s successful [ [link removed] ]efforts to use conservative judges to
[ [link removed] ]redefine and [ [link removed] ]weaponize religious liberty. As predicted, Kacsmaryk
has [ [link removed] ]used his position as a federal judge to [ [link removed] ]continue his career as
a right-wing culture warrior, advancing the legal and political positions
he advocated for as a religious-right activist. Legal analyst Ian
Millhiser wrote in 2022 that rules allowing right-wing groups to get their
cases before Kacsmaryk have made him “[ [link removed] ]one of the most powerful men in
America.”

More from Millhiser:

Often, Kacsmaryk’s opinions suggest not only that he knows he is defying
the law, but also that he revels in doing so. His opinion in Neese, for
example, [ [link removed] ]opens with a quote from Justice Samuel Alito’s dissenting
opinion in Bostock. A dissent, by definition, is not the law. Indeed, it
is often the opposite of the law, because dissenting opinions state
arguments that a majority of the Court rejected.

Among his controversial rulings:

 1. He ruled in Deanda v. Becerra that a federal program that provides
grants for family planning and contraceptive health care was illegal
because it did not require grant recipients to get parental permission
before providing teenagers with access to birth control.
 2. In 2022, Kacsmaryk overturned the Biden administration’s
interpretation that the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition of
discrimination “on the basis of sex” applied to discrimination based
on sexual orientation and gender identity.
 3. In Neese v. Becerra, Kacsmaryk [ [link removed] ]sided with Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton’s challenge to Biden administration rules applying the
Supreme Court’s Bostock ruling to protect transgender workers from
discrimination on the job.
 4. Last year, he [ [link removed] ]ruled in favor of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s
attempt to ban the distribution of a common abortion medication,
mifepristone, by challenging the FDA’s approval of the drug more than
20 years ago. In his ruling, he used language deployed by
anti-abortion activists.

On the same day Trump nominated Kacsmaryk, he also nominated another
former First Liberty lawyer, [ [link removed] ]Jeff Mateer, whose nomination was
[ [link removed] ]withdrawn after widespread outrage over comments denouncing
transgender children as part of “[ [link removed] ]Satan’s plan.” He also nominated
[ [link removed] ]Trump loyalist Gregory Katsas, a former Clarence Thomas clerk who
appeared on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court justices, to the DC
Circuit Court of Appeals. That same day, Trump’s Justice Department filed
a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that businesses have a
constitutional right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

Kacsmaryk and other [ [link removed] ]lower court Trump judges are a reminder that it is
not only the Trump Supreme Court justices who [ [link removed] ]threaten American’s
[ [link removed] ]freedoms. As People For the American Way has [ [link removed] ]pointed
out repeatedly, [ [link removed] ]bad judges can have devastating consequences, and it
should be unthinkable to give Trump the power to name hundreds of judges
in the Kacsmaryk mold to lifetime positions on the courts.

Just as importantly, good, fair-minded judges can and do make a powerful
difference, as the brilliant and diverse group of [ [link removed] ]judges nominated by
President Joe Biden make clear.

There are countless reasons to vote against Donald Trump this November,
but one of the most critical is stopping him and his MAGA allies from
further reshaping the federal judiciary with judges who back their extreme
and dangerous agenda. [ [link removed] ]Join us today and pledge to "Vote the Courts"
this November >>

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this
election cycle.

For members who are interested in sharing the weekly Trumptastrophe
series, [ [link removed] ]you can find all previous editions on our website! This post
will be published by Thursday so you can share with your friends and
family and remind them of the importance of ensuring that Trump is
defeated again this November.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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Thanks for your support.

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