Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called out a Biden administration judicial nominee about a 2017 article that criticized “bathroom bills.”
Hawley questioned Noel Wise during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for three women nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as federal judges. Hawley read from a 2017 article Wise wrote for Time magazine on the passage of H.B. 2, a North Carolina bill requiring people to use restrooms that align with their biological sex, in which she claimed that so-called “bathroom bills” placed an “impossible burden” on the judicial branch.
“What’s this comment at the end of your article about ‘judges are obligated to see the world through a secular lens… When legislators blur the lines of church and state and enact laws that permit or prohibit conduct based on biologic[al] gender as only male or female… they place an impossible burden on our judiciary,’ what’s that mean?” Hawley asked. “That distinctions between male and female are a violation of church and state?”
Hawley’s question left Wise silent for four seconds, according to a video posted by Hawley on X where he called her a “crazy judicial nominee.”
WATCH:
This crazy judicial nominee thinks saying women and men are different is a First Amendment violation! Insane pic.twitter.com/GycO579Yt7
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 10, 2024
“Judges have to be able to administer these laws,” Wise responded. “If the direction, and I have to tell you, I work really hard to get it right, to do exactly what Congress tells me to do and the legislature tells me to do, and as a result, if a doctor finds it difficult to identify at the moment of birth for certain children-,” causing Hawley to interject and ask, “Is a law that distinguishes between male and female a violation of church and state?”
“You say ‘When legislators blur the lines of church and state and enact laws that permit or prohibit conduct based on biologic[al] gender as only male or female… they place an impossible burden on the judiciary,” Hawley continued. “So this is a First Amendment violation?”
Wise tried to deflect Hawley’s inquiry.
“When you are telling judges that in order to-,” Wise said before Hawley cut in, saying, “I’m not telling you anything. I’m reading you your comments and asking you if you are still committed to them, and it sounds like you are.”
“I have to tell you, I think these positions are insane,” Hawley said. “I think that the idea laws based on the distinction between male and female are a violation of church and state is insane. Totally insane. I think the idea that laws that would say women’s locker rooms are protected from biological men, that those are impermissible, that’s insane, but that’s what you say in this article. You’re going to have to recuse yourself from a lot of cases, aren’t you?”
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/X/HawleyMO)
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