Trump's nominees to the federal bench are gunning for same-sex marriagehttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-nominees-to-the-federal-bench-are-gunning-for-same-sex-marriage/ar-AA1Kj41u?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=88e0ce43b1c44e57a0cb4b0ed3f4faf1&ei=112John Gallagher (11 Aug 2025)
With so many weekly outrages from the Trump administration, it's easy to overlook its long-term plans. Chief among them is reshaping the federal judiciary. As the first batch of nominees wends their way through the Senate confirmation process, the stakes for marriage equality are incredibly high.
The nominees don't come out and say how much they hate Obergefell v. Hodges, the 10-year old Supreme Court decision that granted the right to marry to same-sex couples. But between their non-answers to direct questions about the ruling and their own anti-LGBTQ backgrounds, it's pretty clear that they would like nothing more than to see the ruling overturned.
Right now, there are 47 vacancies in the federal judiciary, and Trump has put fourth 11 nominees. The results has been, in the words of JP Collins, an associate professor at The George Washington University Law School, "a horror show." Collins, writing for the legal site Balls and Strikes, analyzed the nominees and found that they haven't been hiding their animus toward LGBTQ+ rights.
That the nominees are a collection of anti-LGBTQ extremists isn't surprising. But what is alarming is how cagey they are when asked about marriage equality. As Collins notes, when asked point blank about Obergefell as precedent, they issue a string of weasel words. Strikingly, several had no problem saying that Supreme Court rulings striking down school segregation (Brown v. Board of Education) and bans on interracial marriages (Loving v. Virginia) were correctly decided, but punted when asked about Obergefell.
