Texas judge behind abortion pill ban accused of hiding information from Senate investigators

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15 April 2023

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Prior to his Senate hearings after Donald Trump nominated him to a lifetime appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, then-lawyer Matthew Kacsmaryk asked that his name be stripped off of a controversial law review article he reportedly wrote that could have led to his nomination being rejected.

According to a report from the Washington Post, Kacsmaryk, who was working for the far-right First Liberty Institute at the time, contacted an editor about the article that was eventually published in September of 2017 by the Texas Review of Law and Politics, and asked that his name be removed and two of his colleagues be given credit.

According to the report, that unusual request was met with a question of why, to which the attorney only offered a cryptic response of, "reasons I may discuss at a later date."

According to the Post, "The Obama administration, the draft article argued, had discounted religious physicians who '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.'"

"What Kacsmaryk did not say in the email was thathe had already been interviewed for a judgeship by his state’s two senators and was awaiting an interview at the White House," the Post is reporting, adding questions are now being raised about Kacsmaryk's actions because it appears he was hiding information from Senate investigators.

With supporters of the now-judge insisting he was just a "placeholder" for the two colleagues given credit for the article, the report says emails and continuing edits from Kacsmaryk appear to contradict their explanations.

"Even after [Justin] Butterfield and [Stephani] Taub were designated the authors, Kacsmaryk remained involved, the emails show, offering additional minor edits. The final version is almost identical to the one submitted under Kacsmaryk’s name," the Post is reporting.

According to Adam H. Charnes, formerly of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, Kacsmaryk's actions should raise eyebrows.

“I’m pretty sure the Senate would expect you to produce something like that,” Charnes said before adding the sequence of events appears “a little shady.”

You can read more details here.

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