Nice.
File under: because there are no issues of greater importance…
IF YOU THOUGHT that fights over judicial nominations couldn’t get any worse, consider the case of Janet T. Neff, whom President Bush has nominated to a federal district judgeship in Michigan… [I]t turns out, [she] once attended a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple — and that has Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (R) reaching for the smelling salts and blocking the nomination.
Mr. Brownback has said he wants to satisfy himself that the judge was not presiding over an “illegal marriage ceremony” in Pittsfield, Mass., in 2002 — before the state legalized same-sex marriage. He has written to Judge Neff asking for an explanation, his spokesman says, and will hold up her nomination until he learns the nature of the ceremony and its legality. “It seems to speak about her view of judicial activism,” the senator told the Associated Press.
Except that a commitment ceremony has nothing to do with the state and is not a legal union. As the Washington Post points out, “[k]eeping Judge Neff off the federal bench over such a matter is perilously close to declaring her unfit to serve because she has lesbian friends.”
Mr. Brownback won 69% percent of the votes in Kansas in 2004. I’m sure Michigan district judges are the #1 issue for Kansas voters; well played, sir.
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