Donald Trump’s picks for lifetime positions on the federal bench continue to be so outrageous that if you put it in fiction, it would seem too unbelievable. Take this guy. Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett worked for George W. Bush back when he was governor of Texas … and Bush had to distance himself from Willett’s extreme views on women after Willett wrote a memo forcefully objecting to Bush mentioning pay equity in a proclamation honoring the Texas Federation of Business and Professional Women:
The future judicial nominee also urged Bush to strip language from the proclamation supporting women’s right to receive equal pay for equal work, as well as their right to be free from sexual harassment in the workplace. “I resist the proclamation’s talk of ‘glass ceilings,’ pay equity (an allegation that some studies debunk), the need to place kids in the care of rented strangers, sexual discrimination/harassment, and the need generally for better ‘working conditions’ for women (read: more government).”
Willett concluded his brief memo with a rhetorical flourish. “The proclamation can perhaps be re-worded to omit these ideological hot buttons while still respecting the contributions of talented women professionals. But I strongly resist anything that shows we believe the hype.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering Willett’s nomination to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week, having already approved Brett Talley, the laughably unqualified nominee who failed to disclose that he's married to a White House lawyer. The White House is making a push to defend its record number of judicial picks deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, sending around a New York Post op-ed by Betsy McCaughey, in which she claimed that “Talley is superbly qualified” and the American Bar Association ratings are just a “political hit job masquerading as high-minded objectivity.” And we should definitely trust the woman whose Affordable Care Act lies inspired the “death panels” lie over the American Bar Association when it comes to judicial qualifications.