Democratic senators grilled a federal judicial nominee, known as Texas’s witty “Tweeter Laureate,” on Wednesday over his past tweets about bacon and Alex Rodriguez. Seriously.
Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, who is Donald Trump’s nominee for a seat on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, sent what he described as a light-hearted tweet about marrying bacon the day after oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case that recognized the right to same-sex marriage. During his confirmation hearing Wednesday, Vermont senator Patrick Leahy said that Willett has “attacked Supreme Court decisions” and questioned whether he would follow Supreme Court precedent.
I could support recognizing a constitutional right to marry bacon. pic.twitter.com/HKPW6tE4H6
— Judge Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) April 30, 2015
“You equated that constitutional right to same-sex marriage with the constitutional right to marrying bacon,” said Leahy.
Willett said that his tweet was an “attempt to inject a bit of levity” after the issuing of the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, a “divisive time” when “the country was filled with rancor and polarization.”
“And you think that cut back the divisiveness with a comment like that?” Leahy said.
“Senator, I believe every American is entitled to equal worth and dignity,” Willett said. “I’ve never intended to disparage anyone and would never do so. That’s not where my heart is.”
Leahy also asked Willett about a 2014 tweet, in which he linked to an article about a transgender student making the girls’ softball team and wrote, “Go away, A-Rod.”
Go away, A-Rod. “@FoxNews: California’s transgender law allows male high schooler to make girls’ softball team http://t.co/hnTrWAaV8g“
— Judge Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) February 14, 2014
Willett explained that the tweet occurred shortly after New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez dropped his lawsuit against Major League Baseball and accepted a one year suspension. He repeatedly said the tweet was meant as a joke focused on A-Rod.
Minnesota senator Al Franken, formerly a comedian on Saturday Night Live, later picked up Leahy’s line of questioning on the A-Rod tweet.
“Do you think it demonstrates good judgment for a man in his late 40s, sitting Supreme Court justice, to publicly demean and humiliate a 17-year-old girl on Twitter?” Franken said. “I don’t get the joke.”
“What is the joke work accompanying that?” he asked. Franken once had to add a footnote to one of his books to explain a joke.
“It was a ham-handed attempt at levity, and at comedy,” Willett replied. “It was an A-Rod tweet. Not a transgender tweet.”
“I don’t get it,” Franken said. “But sometimes when you don’t get a joke, it’s because it wasn’t a joke.”
“This was intended as one,” Willett said. “That young woman is a gift. She deserves respect and acceptance.”
