The far-right Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas who authored the opinion revoking the US Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion drug mifepristone failed to disclose interviews he gave on Christian talk radio when he was being confirmed by the Senate, reported CNN on Thursday.
"In undisclosed radio interviews, Matthew Kacsmaryk referred to being gay as 'a lifestyle' and expressed concerns that new norms for 'people who experience same-sex attraction' would lead to clashes with religious institutions, calling it the latest in a change in sexual norms that began with 'no-fault divorce' and 'permissive policies on contraception,'" reported Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck. "Kacsmaryk ... made the unreported comments in two appearances in 2014 on Chosen Generation, a radio show that offers 'a biblical constitutional worldview.' At the time, Kacsmaryk was deputy general counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit religious liberty advocacy group known before 2016 as the Liberty Institute, and was brought on to the radio show to discuss 'the homosexual agenda' to silence churches and religious liberty, according to the show’s host."
"In a statement sent to CNN, Kacsmaryk said he did not locate the interview when searching for media to disclose and he did not recall the interview," said the report. "I used the DOJ-OLP manual to run searches for all media but did not locate this interview and did not recall this event, which involved a call-in to a local radio show," he told CNN.
"After listening to the audio file supplied by CNN, I agree that the content is equivalent to the legal analysis appearing throughout my SJQ and discussed extensively during my Senate confirmation hearing. Additionally, the transcript supplied by CNN appears to track with the audio and accurately recounts my responses during the phone call — when quoted in full.'"
This comes after earlier reporting that Kacsmaryk also failed to disclose his involvement with an article submitted to a Texas law review, which said people “cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male” and “cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children” — and that his name was actually removed from the paper right around when he was up for confirmation.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who voted to confirm Kacsmaryk, has expressed outrage over the concealed records, and suggested she was misled in order to secure her vote.
Kacsmaryk's order against mifepristone has been partially blocked by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court is currently weighing whether to block the entire ruling.
