May 9, 2024; Washington, DC; Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaking along side Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and other Republican Senators holding a press conference discussing a resolution that condemns any action by the Biden Administration to withhold or restrict weapons for Israel. Photo: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY
Republican senators used transphobic language during a Senate hearing Wednesday while questioning a New York state judge and former congressman, Judge Anthony Brindisi, who has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
At his confirmation hearing, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) obsessed with Brindisi’s past support of the Equality Act, using transphobic language to question him, and used tired Republican talking points to accuse him of supporting “men in women’s restrooms.”
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The Equality Act, which Brindisi co-sponsored when he was in Congress, is a bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal civil rights legislation.
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During the Judiciary hearing, Graham made false claims, including that the Equality Act would endanger women by allowing “biological males” to use women’s bathrooms.
“I thought it to be an unacceptable outcome to share locker rooms and bathrooms based on gender identity,” Graham said, pressing Brindisi on whether he still backed the bill’s provisions.
“Why did you sponsor and vote for legislation that would mandate that women be victimized?” Cruz further asked the nominee. Cruz called the Equality Act’s name “Orwellian.”
In the exchange, Cruz repeatedly interrupted Brindisi. “Why did you believe women and girls don’t have a right to be free from harassment, to be free from biological men disrobing in front of them?”
In response, Brindisi said that the bill merely prevented discrimination based on gender identity, adding that he believed all people have the right to feel safe.
Cruz also brought up the recent failed confirmation of nominee Sarah Netburn, who, as a magistrate judge, recommended that an incarcerated trans woman be moved to a women’s prison from a men’s prison. Cruz was irate about the decision,
“Do you think the women in women’s prisons have any rights? Do they have any right not to be incarcerated, particularly the right not to be incarcerated with a 6’2″ serial rapist?”
Carl Tobias, chair of the University of Richmond School of Law, called Cruz’s line of questioning “outrageous” and noted, “It’s hard to see [Republicans] as champions of women inmates. That’s ludicrous.”
“All of the nominees, even Brindisi, are well-qualified, mainstream nominees,” he told Courthouse News in an interview. “The gratuitous comments from Cruz are just off the mark.” He noted that Republican lawmakers decided that attacking LGBTQ+ rights is “good politics.”
“It’s always easy to do something that is negative vis a vis a minority, especially transgender people,” he said.
And despite the grilling he received from the Judiciary Committee’s GOP contingent, Tobias predicted that Brindisi would likely advance through the panel on a party-line vote — and that he would have enough votes to be confirmed by the full Senate.
Democrats have been on a fast track in recent months, pushing to surpass the 234 judicial confirmations made during the Trump administration, including a plethora of LGBTQ+ nominees. Wednesday’s hearing featured the final group of Biden administration nominees set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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