WASHINGTON—In response to reports that Jeff Mateer, Donald Trump’s nominee to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, has made a series of comments comparing policies including the contraception mandate at issue in the Hobby Lobby case to the policies of Nazi Germany, People For the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker issued the following statement:
“Even for Senate Republicans who have rubberstamped a series of Trump’s extreme and unqualified judicial nominees, Jeff Mateer’s record should be a bridge too far. To compare the Obama administration’s regulations allowing women to have access to birth control to the murderous regime of Hitler is sickening. No one with a record of that kind of inflammatory, offensive rhetoric should come within ten miles of serving on the federal bench. Senators of both parties should make clear that they won’t support such a nominee and that Mateer’s nomination should be withdrawn.”
The comments revealed today come in addition to previously unearthed remarks by Mateer in which he argued that transgender people are part of “Satan’s plan” and his attendance at a “Kill the Gays” conference organized by radical anti-LGBTQ activist Kevin Swanson. Last month People For the American Way unveiled digital ads calling on senators to demand that Mateer’s nomination be withdrawn.
People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy organization founded to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.
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